Nap Ministry

What it is

A community practice and social movement founded in 2016 by Tricia Hersey that frames rest as a radical act against white supremacy, capitalism, and overwork culture. The Nap Ministry facilitates immersive nap sessions, performance art installations, and community gatherings where people rest together in sacred, protected space.

The work is rooted in Black liberation, womanism, somatics, and Afrofuturism. It is explicitly political: rest is named as a tool for dismantling systems of oppression, especially those that have demanded constant labor from Black communities.

Why it works

Grind culture treats rest as deviance. The Nap Ministry treats rest as ancestral, sacred, and essential. The practice creates "portals," in Hersey's language: spaces where people can temporarily escape the demands of capitalism and find themselves in a different relationship to their bodies and to each other.

For Black participants especially, the work names a specific inheritance: ancestors whose rest was stolen by enslavement, sharecropping, and labor exploitation. Communal rest becomes a form of repair and an act of generational care.

What you need

• Time: Nap sessions: 30 minutes to 2 hours. Immersive events: 4 to 8 hours. Trainings: 2 to 4 hours.
• People: Facilitators trained in somatic and healing practices, ideally from Black communities for Black-centered events. Community participants. Optional: musicians, artists, healers.
• Space: Sacred, comfortable spaces. Community centers, parks, galleries, churches. Soft surfaces (rugs, mats, blankets). Dim lighting. Sound management.
• Materials: Blankets, pillows, mats. Optional: music, visual art, sacred objects. The REST DECK (a deck of 50 cards with practices for resisting grind culture) is one of the practice's primary tools.
• Skills: Facilitation, somatic awareness, spiritual grounding, cultural competency, creating psychological safety.
• Energy level: Low physically. High spiritually. Restorative.

How to host it

This is a practice with a specific founder and tradition. Honor that lineage when you engage with it.

1. Engage with the source. Read Tricia Hersey's book *Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto*. Follow The Nap Ministry. Don't treat the practice as generic mindfulness; it has specific roots.
2. Be honest about who you are. If you are not Black and you want to bring this practice to your community, do so with explicit acknowledgment of the lineage and without claiming the parts of the practice that are specifically about Black ancestral healing. There are broader practices around communal rest that draw on this work and that other communities can practice in good faith.
3. For a Black-centered event. Find a Black facilitator with somatic, spiritual, or healing background. Hold the event in a culturally aligned space. Center Black participants. Use music and art rooted in Black cultural tradition.
4. Set up the space. Dim lighting. Soft surfaces. Quiet enough for actual rest. Comfortable temperature. Optionally: ambient music or guided audio (Tricia Hersey has produced many).
5. Open with framing. A few minutes naming what this is, why we are gathered, the lineage that holds it. Permission to rest fully.
6. Hold the rest. People settle in. Some sleep. Some drift. Some meditate. The facilitator holds space without interrupting.
7. Close gently. A return to sound, a brief reflection, an option to share a word or a feeling. No pressure to perform an experience.
8. Consider what continues. A single nap session is meaningful. A practice of rest sustained over time changes lives. Bring the practice home.

Variations

Workplace rest space. Some workplaces have created rest rooms or quiet rooms inspired by the practice. Adapt with care.

Family rest. A version for families, often with kids. Quiet time together, embracing rest as togetherness.

REST DECK practice. The deck of 50 practices is designed to be used solo or with a group. Pulling a card a day and committing to its practice is a way of building rest into daily life.

Communal sleep events. Some practitioners run all-night communal sleep gatherings. Higher commitment, deeper practice.

Stories from neighborhoods

Tricia Hersey founded The Nap Ministry in 2016 after experiencing exhaustion in graduate school and reconnecting with the rest her ancestors were denied. The work began as performance art and community gatherings; it has grown into a movement with hundreds of thousands of followers, a bestselling book, and adopted practices in churches, universities, organizations, and homes globally.

Communities and organizations have integrated Nap Ministry frameworks into wellness programming, racial justice work, and creative spaces. The work has been particularly impactful in organizing communities where burnout is endemic.

Where to learn more

• The source: The Nap Ministry
• The book: Tricia Hersey, *Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto* (Little Brown, 2022)
• Newsletter: tricia.substack.com
• Adjacent recipes: [Trauma-Informed Community Building](./trauma-informed.md), [Community Acupuncture](./community-acupuncture.md), [Death Cafe](../02-small-groups-for-support/death-cafe.md)

Details

• steps: **Engage with the source.** Read **Tricia Hersey's** book *Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto*. Follow [The Nap Ministry](https://thenapministry.com/). Don't treat the practice as generic mindfulness; it has specific roots., **Be honest about who you are.** If you are not Black and you want to bring this practice to your community, do so with explicit acknowledgment of the lineage and without claiming the parts of the practice that are specifically about Black ancestral healing. There are broader practices around communal rest that draw on this work and that other communities can practice in good faith., **For a Black-centered event.** Find a Black facilitator with somatic, spiritual, or healing background. Hold the event in a culturally aligned space. Center Black participants. Use music and art rooted in Black cultural tradition., **Set up the space.** Dim lighting. Soft surfaces. Quiet enough for actual rest. Comfortable temperature. Optionally: ambient music or guided audio (Tricia Hersey has produced many)., **Open with framing.** A few minutes naming what this is, why we are gathered, the lineage that holds it. Permission to rest fully., **Hold the rest.** People settle in. Some sleep. Some drift. Some meditate. The facilitator holds space without interrupting., **Close gently.** A return to sound, a brief reflection, an option to share a word or a feeling. No pressure to perform an experience., **Consider what continues.** A single nap session is meaningful. A practice of rest sustained over time changes lives. Bring the practice home.
• file path: recipes/08-healing-and-conflict/nap-ministry.md
• variations: **Workplace rest space.** Some workplaces have created rest rooms or quiet rooms inspired by the practice. Adapt with care. **Family rest.** A version for families, often with kids. Quiet time together, embracing rest as togetherness. **REST DECK practice.** The deck of 50 practices is designed to be used solo or with a group. Pulling a card a day and committing to its practice is a way of building rest into daily life. **Communal sleep events.** Some practitioners run all-night communal sleep gatherings. Higher commitment, deeper practice.
• ingredients: {"time":"Nap sessions: 30 minutes to 2 hours. Immersive events: 4 to 8 hours. Trainings: 2 to 4 hours.","space":"Sacred, comfortable spaces. Community centers, parks, galleries, churches. Soft surfaces (rugs, mats, blankets). Dim lighting. Sound management.","people":"Facilitators trained in somatic and healing practices, ideally from Black communities for Black-centered events. Community participants. Optional: musicians, artists, healers.","skills":"Facilitation, somatic awareness, spiritual grounding, cultural competency, creating psychological safety.","materials":"Blankets, pillows, mats. Optional: music, visual art, sacred objects. The **REST DECK** (a deck of 50 cards with practices for resisting grind culture) is one of the practice's primary tools.","energy_level":"Low physically. High spiritually. Restorative."}
• where to learn more: - The source: [The Nap Ministry](https://thenapministry.com/) - The book: Tricia Hersey, *Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto* (Little Brown, 2022) - Newsletter: [tricia.substack.com](https://tricia.substack.com/) - Adjacent recipes: [Trauma-Informed Community Building](./trauma-informed.md), [Community Acupuncture](./community-acupuncture.md), [Death Cafe](../02-small-groups-for-support/death-cafe.md)
• stories from neighborhoods: **Tricia Hersey** founded The Nap Ministry in 2016 after experiencing exhaustion in graduate school and reconnecting with the rest her ancestors were denied. The work began as performance art and community gatherings; it has grown into a movement with hundreds of thousands of followers, a bestselling book, and adopted practices in churches, universities, organizations, and homes globally. **Communities and organizations** have integrated Nap Ministry frameworks into wellness programming, racial justice work, and creative spaces. The work has been particularly impactful in organizing communities where burnout is endemic.