Finding HopeAn Object At Rest (Video)
Posted on June 13, 2026
During a recent Poetry Orchard writing workshop, my gorgeous friend, Blossom – one of the three lovely facilitators – shared this video as one of the discussion pieces, which I thought was very fitting for the theme of ‘rest is rebellion.’ I was so taken by it and I’ve sent it to so many people that I thought I should share it here as well. I love the animation style and the score is beautiful; it’s such a lovely, meaningful piece…
It’s funny how emotionally invested you can become in a fictional piece of rock in such a short space of time, isn’t it?
I think this short film says so much about how hard it is to find rest – real, active rest – when the world around you is in constant motion; even when you try to stand still, there are always external factors trying to force you into motion. And that’s why it’s so easy to not rest properly, to not rest in a way that actually recharges you. I’m finding more and more that I have to build rest time into my days – whether or not I actually take that time is still up in the air but I am working on it. Our bodies, our brains, our nervous systems… rest is so vital and I think that that’s (somewhat weirdly) really easy to forget. But we live in a really busy and emotionally taxing world and if we don’t choose to rest, our bodies will choose for us and that can be really hard to recover from.
What do you think? Did you like the short film? Have you sat with your body recently and checked in with how tired you feel? Thought about how you might build in more time for rest? What’s keeping you from resting? How could you change that and how might you benefit?
Another Anna Akana Video I’m Grateful For
Posted on November 17, 2018
In the middle of my recent bout of depression – the worst one I’ve had – at my lowest point, an Anna Akana video appeared in my YouTube subscriptions. It was called ‘the voice’ and it was about her new short film that was being released the next day.
She talks about how, while 2017 was the best year of her life, her depression was also at its worst. There was a voice – that felt like it was in the room with her – telling her to kill herself. And it got to the point where she had a plan for how she was going to go through with it, which is a major red flag.
“I was just so in pain and I just felt like I had nothing and like I was nobody and I wasn’t worth anything at all and I literally… I have this big whiteboard on my wall and I wrote out DO NOT KILL YOURSELF, like all across it. I put it on post it notes and I put it on my bathroom mirror and like… everyday when the voice came and I would be like ‘SHUT THE FUCK UP!’”
While she still struggles with depression, she says she’s out the other side of that particular battle and she credits getting through to all the mental health education that’s out there and all the things you have to do everyday, hoping that they add up. She also made this new short film, pouring everything into it because she needed something to remind herself of why she’s here. It’s about the moments she wanted to die and all the things she had to live for. I would include it in the post but I just really want to focus on this introduction video (but you can find the short film here). Maybe I’ll write a full post about it when I’ve sorted out all my feelings about it.
I am so grateful for this video. Talking about this stuff is so hard and so to have this raw and uncut video where she talks about this experience but also how she got through it was and is so important to me. It’s helped me in this incredibly hard period and so I wanted to share it here.
“Please don’t kill yourself if you’re also suicidal… just don’t do it. There’s a lot… there’s a lot of great things to live for.”
Finding Hope 