Lately I've been feeling like I'm living on an island where I don't speak the language. Bright women leaders keep telling me, "I would love to nap -- sounds amazing." I get plenty of likes on Facebook when I post a quote that says:
"Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap." -- Barbara Jordan
As I've been launching my 40-day yoga nidra "nap" program over the past few weeks, I get emails appearing in my inbox every day from exhausted women suffering major burnout who say things like this:
"I don't remember sleeping well without the aid of medications. So this is a subject of great interest to me... Thank you for addressing such a serious issue for moms. Keep up the good work!"
There's lots of talk about napping. And lots of people on medication for lack of sleep and anxiety. People love the idea of napping and nap rooms... but few are taking action and doing it. Nap rooms are beginning to emerge in tiny pockets, but for the most part people can't get past the idea that napping is for lazy losers.
Napping is not considered a respectable solution to burnout.
Napping is for wimps. The weak. The "Type Z" people who are really do-nothings. You're not a player if you nap. Oprah clearly doesn't nap because she's saving the world. Hillary didn't nap until she fell on her head and got a concussion, forcing her to lie down and re-imagine saving the world from a more well-rested place. Primarily, though, the message is that busy people don't have time to nap.
This is a load of nonsense.
It's time to wake up and confront the reality that the crisis today isn't that people are burned out as much as it's that people don't know who they are anymore. We're too friggin' busy. Businesses and social movements operate in only one mode: ridiculously fast. Nonprofits are downsizing so now not only is a person paid pitifully working for good in the world, but they're also being asked to do the job of three people in a 24-hour time span.
People check their cell phones and answer work email at 3 a.m. while sleep-walking to the bathroom. What's up with that?
If you ask me, the whole world needs a nap. Maybe this will bring us back into rhythm in our body and mind.
Here's something workplaces don't fully get (and I'm even talking to you, entrepreneur because you too are a workplace): The more in rhythm workers are with their body/mind the better work they produce, and the better work they produce the more successful your work is, and if your business or nonprofit contributes to good in the world -- which I hope it does -- then the more good gets spread all over the planet.
Let's face it, when I talk to employees in offices who have taken a bold step to stet up nap rooms, most tell me that they rarely use them. Why? Because we don't yet have a culture of napping. The person who goes in and naps every day feels like a loser because everyone else is working until his or her head spins. How can there be time to nap when there's too much work to do?
The solution? A mandatory naptime. Think about it. We give toddlers quite time because we know it makes them calmer, more pleasant to be around, and they achieve more. What if we did the same for adults?
Imagine the words, "I can't talk to you now, we're all going down for a nap" in boardrooms around the world.
Now that's an island I could live on.
Karen Brody's 40-Day yoga nidra "nap" program begins Tuesday, April 9. For more information go here.
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