This Is a Talk for Tired People
Summary
This pandemic was a season of healing for me,” was something Luz Bractcher never thought she’d say. Yet despite the devastation caused by shared global trauma, Luz discovered that the very life changes she faced as a result of lockdowns and physical distancing also allowed her an opportunity to address her mental, emotional, and creative health needs. In this session, Luz shares her personal story of entering the pandemic in a state of burnout and how the season of isolation redefined the way she invited herself and her community into restful creativity. As the risks of COVID diminish, and we tentatively reintegrate into the real world, this presentation focuses on 3 things to explore moving forward: Prioritizing rest as a way to resist hustle culture and toxic capitalism How our definition of “enough” directly impacts our approach to mental and emotional health in the workforce How to encourage creative play into your work as a way to cultivate connection.
Key Insights
-
•
Rest is a human right and essential for creativity, problem-solving, and well-being.
-
•
The cultural lies we live by—lack of time to rest, self-worth tied to busyness, and perpetual scarcity—harm creatives deeply.
-
•
Intentional rituals and grounding can protect energy and create sustainable work rhythms.
-
•
Taking a nap improves creativity, problem-solving ability, and presence, yet is rarely normalized in work culture.
-
•
Busyness is often glorified as a sign of worth, which dehumanizes workers and disconnects them from their being.
-
•
Enoughness, or recognizing when you have sufficient resources (time, energy, money), fosters gratitude, abundance, and sustainable creativity.
-
•
Workplaces that allow rest and slower rhythms can actually increase productivity and creativity, as evidenced by companies like the weighted blanket company that limits work hours.
-
•
The relentless push for more—more features, more output, more hustle—is a scarcity mindset that leads to burnout and loss of inner peace.
-
•
Creating space for rest in teams includes blocking meeting time, encouraging camera-off moments, and normalizing breaks and naps.
-
•
Advocating for rest and enoughness requires first honoring your own limits and then modeling restful behaviors for others.
Notable Quotes
"If you get anything from this talk, please let it be take a nap."
"More is not the same as growth and more is not the same as enough."
"Rest is a human right and not a privilege."
"Busyness dehumanizes us when we tie our worth only to what we produce."
"The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work of peace and destroys the root of inner wisdom."
"I am what I do is a muscle memory that is really hard to undo."
"What if your value is measured by your being and not by your output?"
"There’s no map or measure of what is good enough in hustle culture."
"Creating time to do nothing is creating runway to tackle the next thing."
"Invite people to rest by creating space that says you don’t have to do anything to be known and loved."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Companies are no longer dependent on where people are located to work."
Lavy Kumar Kat Temple Shan Sebastian Tara Jensen Jenn ChouFuture of Work
June 9, 2021
"We used virtual sketching where users could move components into spaces representing their actual workflows on the platform."
Andreas Huebner Amy Takata Craig BrookesWhat Is It Like To Be Part of The UX Team at Compass?
March 11, 2021
"Cluster analysis will definitely replace personas, the fictional personas of course."
Ricardo MartinsUnlocking the power of advanced quantitative methods
March 12, 2025
"Everybody involved in product making should have empathy for each other, not just for the customer."
Monty HammontreeThe Future of UX Research
December 3, 2020
"We need to share the importance of design ops visibly so everyone understands their role in enabling design success."
Benjamin RealShowing the Value of DesignOps by Not Having a DesignOps Team
October 21, 2020
"Research ops is like the most punk thing you can do in the experience design space."
Kate TowseyAsk Me Anything (AMA) with Kate Towsey
April 2, 2025
"Both tribes really believe in doing awesome for customers, that’s our common ground."
Steve Portigal Chris Chapo Kelly Goto Christian RohrerDiscussion
May 13, 2015
"The more payment providers you offer, the higher the chance everyone can pick what works best for them."
Sam ProulxOnline Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
March 28, 2023
"Hover is very difficult for users who use switch systems or head mice because they can only click or not click and have trouble holding steady to hover."
Sam ProulxPrototype Reviews, People With Disabilities, and You
October 1, 2021
