Caribbean time- the unhurried life

I've been to my mother and father's land, Trinidad and Guyana, several times. But it wasn't until my most recent trip to Guyana in August that I actually understood something I'd only ever clocked as a vibe.

CEO & Founder Nzinga Knight during her visit to Trinidad and Tobago.

The slow, unhurried way women walk down the street with their umbrellas. The men riding half-asleep on the backs of mules. The construction sites that look half-worked because everyone's moving so slow. That's not just culture. That's heat.

Guyana sits on the equator, at the edge of the Amazon. Sometimes it is simply too hot to be hot and bothered. "Don't hurt yourself" is not a joke there. It's instruction.

But this isn't only true for Caribbean people. It's true for all of us, air conditioning or not.

Rushing signals threat. Threat raises stress hormones. Too much of that, for too long, becomes dis-ease. Read that literally.

Rest signals the opposite: that everything is okay, that the body can just function.

I'm not a doctor. But you already know this in your own body.

So here's the assignment, since you're clearly motivated, or clearly overworked: plan your next rest day.

Mine looks like this. A hardcover book. A slow-cooked meal I batched and froze on one of my more ambitious days. A facial. A glass of my own fancy drink.

I'm starting small, because the advice I'm giving you is the advice I'm taking. Allow rest. Schedule it. The work will wait.

Tell me if you try it, and how it went.

Alhamdulillah for the pause.

— Nzinga

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