Therapeutic Laziness: Why Rest is the New Power Against Hustle Culture in 2025
arianadiaries
September is often framed as the month of seriousness. In many places, it signals the return to routine! Children in uniform, offices brimming with renewed intensity, and a cultural expectation to shake off the languor of summer.
In some African cities, September means traffic grows thicker, schools resume their bustling cadence, and social calendars speed up. For professionals in the diaspora, it is the sprint to year-end deliverables; for those shuttling between two or more homes, the reminder of competing obligations across continents and cultures.
But in September 2025, the narrative has shifted. A quiet, intentional rebellion is taking place. Across Lagos, Johannesburg, Nairobi, London, Toronto, and Atlanta, people are experimenting with what I call “therapeutic laziness”: a reframing of rest as an act of strength, resistance, and necessity.
This is not the laziness our parents warned us against. It is not the vice of avoidance. It is a new vocabulary for survival, well-being, and leadership in a time where hustle culture has collapsed under its own weight.
The Collapse of Hustle Culture
For decades, hustle was glamourized. To be busy was to be important. The African immigrant working two jobs in New York, the Nigerian tech founder surviving on energy drinks in Yaba, the consultant flying weekly between Johannesburg and London; all were celebrated as emblems of grit.
Yet research paints a starkly different picture. The World Health Organization has flagged Africa’s rising rates of stress-related illness and untreated burnout. A 2024 Harvard Business Review report found that Black professionals and first-generation immigrants in Western economies report disproportionately higher levels of exhaustion and anxiety compared to their peers. Hustle culture, it turns out, has extracted its cost not just in hours, but in health, creativity, and longevity.
The pandemic years cracked open a truth many already suspected: work without rest does not guarantee security or wealth- it guarantees depletion. We are now confronted with a paradox: the people who most need to lead and innovate: the entrepreneurs, policymakers, caregivers, and educators- are the very ones most at risk of burning out.
Rest Through African Eyes
What does rest mean in our contexts? In much of African tradition, rest was woven into life cycles. Farmers worked the land but honoured fallow seasons. Market days were followed by pauses of storytelling and community. Sundays were about worship and gathering, not inboxes.
Contrast this with the African diaspora, where rest is often squeezed out. The double-shift nurse in Chicago sends remittances home while sacrificing sleep. The young professional in London juggles identity, career, and family, with little room to breathe. And for Africans who straddle multiple geographies, the very act of traveling “home” can feel like work: navigating time zones, family expectations, and professional obligations without pause.
In 2025, therapeutic laziness invites us to reclaim the indigenous rhythms of pause, to admit that our traditions already understood balance before the language of “work-life integration” was invented.
The Science of Laziness
It may sound counterintuitive, but neuroscience now confirms what intuition always suggested: the brain needs idleness.
Based on expert advisory, leading boardrooms and organisations are designing structured rest into their work days. Exploring that whether short naps, daydreaming, or even allowing boredom may enhance cognitive flexibility . As science is pointing to flexibility as an essential for problem-solving, creativity, and emotional regulation. In plain terms: sometimes stepping away from the desk is often the smartest thing a leader can do.
Corporate leaders are catching on. Global firms have introduced nap pods, mindfulness retreats, and digital detox weeks not as perks but as performance strategies. The African corporate sector is beginning to test similar ideas: companies in Freetown, Lagos and Nairobi have piloted flexible schedules and mental health days with promising results.
Therapeutic laziness, then, is not indulgence. It is strategy.
Suggested Practices for September 2025 and Beyond
How do we translate therapeutic laziness into lived practice? It requires a shift in mindset: rest is not what we do when everything else is done. Rest is what makes everything else sustainable.
Schedule downtime with the same authority as deadlines. Protect it as fiercely as you do a board meeting.
Practice micro-laziness. Ten minutes of silence after lunch, a short walk without headphones, or a midweek nap can be transformative.
Recover communal rest. Host meals without agendas, storytelling nights, or prayer circles. Collective laziness is medicine for fragmented communities.
Reframe leadership. Encourage teams and employees to see rest as professional maturity, not weakness. Normalize talking about sleep, boundaries, and balance in the boardroom.
The Holistic Case for Laziness
From an executive coaching perspective, I frame rest in three layers:
Mind Rest: Detaching from digital noise, journaling, or simply embracing quiet.
Body Rest: Honouring signals of fatigue through sleep, gentle movement, and nutrition.
Soul Rest: Practices of grounding: whether through prayer, meditation, or simply stillness; that remind us of purpose beyond productivity.
For Africans and leaders everywhere, therapeutic laziness is also about justice. It is about refusing to let the demands of global capitalism strip us of joy, health, and cultural rhythms. It is about saying: we are more than our output.
A Wise Word: Choosing Longevity (May we be Empowered)
Therapeutic laziness is not an escape from responsibility: it is an investment in resilience. Leaders who rest lead better. Parents who rest nurture better. Communities that rest thrive longer.
In 2025, one of the most radical choices we can make is to pause. Not because the world slows down for us, but because we choose to slow down for ourselves.
If you are ready to explore how rest can become a leadership tool, I invite you to join our coaching solution, “Live and Lead Your Best Life.” Designed for Africans at home, the diaspora, and those moving between worlds, among other tried and tested personal development practices – it offers practical strategies for integrating therapeutic laziness into your personal and professional rhythm among other personal development and self- leadership tools.
Ariana Oluwole is an executive coach, holistic educator, and Multipotentialite Entrepreneur. Her flagship coaching program Live and Lead Your Best Life provides holistic strategies for Africans, the diaspora, and professionals navigating multiple cultures. Get in touch: info@arianadiaries.com
