Background

My research aims to explore women’s relationship with rest. It focusses on understanding the sociocultural and psychological barriers to rest, the impact being in a rest deficit has on women’s personal and collective wellbeing and how we can best support women in getting the rest we all need.

The method of this research is feminist and immersive. This means that rather than a formal interview, we will simply have a relaxed chat, exploring our experiences of rest and relaxation as women and see what meanings and insights unfold.

Some of the questions we might explore include:

• What does being a 'relaxed woman' mean to you? 
• What words/archetypes would you use to describe yourself and other women in your life? For example, the stressed woman, the busy woman, the exhausted woman, the superwoman. 
• What causes stress in your life? How do you cope with it?
• What does rest mean to you? How do you feel about resting? How do you rest?
• Growing up, how did you see the women (mothers, grandmothers) in your life rest and relax? 
• As women, what do you think drives our collective anxiety and guilt around relaxing?
• What are the psychological and socioeconomic barriers to you getting enough rest? This could range from gender inequality at work and at home to feeling like you should always be doing something productive.
• What price are we paying, personally and collectively, by not resting?
• As women, how can we participate in creating a world we feel safe enough to rest?

What the research involves 

I have tried to make being part of this research as easy, joyful and restful as possible. We can either begin exploring our relationship with rest via email, Zoom or, if you are local to Brighton (UK), we can meet face-to-face for coffee and a chat! I'll also be running Rest and Reflect sessions for women to come together in community which you might like to be part of too!