The Grind Culture Detox

Heal from Capitalism, Reinvent Your Life

Heather Amunet Archer

• Publisher: Hierophant Publishing
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781950253265
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Self Improvement

Your Worth Is Not Measured by Your Production Grind culture refers to the false belief that to be considered valuable or worthy in our society, one must be productive. Lurking in the shadow of capitalism, grind culture is accepted as normal, even necessary, and most people aren't even aware of the harmful ways it impacts us. Now, in The Grind Culture Detox, author Heather Archer exposes grind culture in all its complexity. Beginning with the history of grind culture in the United States, Archer explains how the poisonous legacies of stolen labor (chattel slavery) and stolen land (manifest destiny) have led to the exhausting workforce culture we have today. While facing that history is an important first step, Archer goes further by offering a blueprint for how we can radically reorient our lives and fundamentally change our relationship with work and production forever. Utilizing nontraditional approaches such as somatics, sound healing, herbalism, and more, The Grind Culture Detox is an invitation to experience an inner revolution—one where you recognize yourself as a sacred being and acknowledge you are worth far more than what you produce.

Chapter 1

Grind Culture Explained

After centuries of technological advances, why do we find ourselves working just as much as ever? Why do most people on earth still live in a daily experience of scarcity? For centuries, futurists have predicted an imminent age of leisure. Why has it never happened? The reason is that, at every opportunity, we have chosen to produce more rather than to work less. We have been helpless to choose otherwise.

—Charles Eisenstein, Sacred Economics

In 2009, palliative caregiver Bronnie Ware wrote an article called “Regrets of the Dying,” where she explored her experiences caring for those at the end of their lives. The second regret from the top of the list, right behind wishing to live an authentic life, was, “I wish I hadn't worked so hard.”

When we think back over the years we've spent on earth, I'm certain many of us will wish that we hadn't worked so hard. And yet, as Charles Eisenstein points out above, despite our advancements in technology, life expectancy, and general quality of life, we haven't stopped working so hard. In fact, we're working harder than ever. We can't take a break; we can't take time off; we are restless and unhappy when we are still; we can't sit in silence for more than five minutes. We feel guilty, exhausted, overwrought, yet helpless to change it.

This is grind culture.

Grind culture refers to our collective agreement that in order to be considered a valuable human being, one must be economically productive. Grind culture trains us to believe that if we're not producing, then we're not worthy. This is the shadow side of capitalism, which creates a society conditioned to equate success with production and orders the importance of people based on how much they produce. Everything else—family, friendships, happiness, leisure, rest—becomes secondary by our actions. In other words, we may say that work is not a higher priority than these, but our actions show otherwise. Grind culture is insidious and vast; it is baked into so many different systems and ways of being in our culture that it's hard to even see it sometimes.

On a personal level, you have most certainly experienced some or all of the symptoms of grind culture:

• A fear of stillness
• Feeling guilty about resting
• Viewing exhaustion as productive
• Sacrificing the needs of your body to produce
• Overpacking your calendar
• Never feeling satisfied with what you have
• Thinking something is wrong with you when you are not productive
• Competing with others over who grinds the hardest
• Treating some people as though they are “more important” than others based on their profession

In fact, many of these symptoms are so common that they feel like our normal, everyday experience, but throughout this book we will examine how these personal symptoms correlate to systemic consequences. For instance, our fear of stillness and lack of satisfaction feed our addiction to social media, screens, and overconsumption of everything from alcohol to endless news cycles. Our guilt about resting and exhaustion lead to dangerous health consequences, from chronic diseases to car accidents. When we compete with others for status and resources, or when we deem some humans more important than others based on their job function (i.e., what they produce), we shut down our ability to cooperate, build community, and even find political and social common ground. In these ways and more, grind culture has negatively impacted our bodies, our minds, and the way we relate with one another.

Grind culture also objectifies Mother Earth and the plants, animals, and natural resources that are so vital to our own continued presence here. The environmental disasters we are currently facing are in large part the result of our grind culture, as we have put economic growth and productivity over the health and well-being of the planet. This devastation follows logically from grind culture thinking, because if we can't see ourselves as valuable without productivity, how can we see the true worth in a marsh, a mountain, or a flock of birds?

Deep down, we all know this assessment of our worth is ludicrous. We are sacred beings, born sovereign, whole and complete. The simple fact that we exist is miraculous. The way the universe bring us onto this human plane is remarkable. Consider that during conception, millions of sperm are exposed to an egg, yet only one will be able to complete conception. You are literally one in a million. When you are born, you come into this world with a set of unique gifts that only you can express. Grind culture has trained us to forget our own inherent worthiness and trade it in for a standard that is contingent upon our production.

Not only are we sacred, but we also live on sacred land. The earth orchestrates itself to provide nourishment and sustenance to all living beings that reside on this planet. Native cultures from around the world taught that the earth is itself a living organism, interconnected and alive. Every plant that exists on this planet has some kind of healing capacity, and yet even plants are valued and devalued in our grind culture based on their usefulness to production. When we set aside the fear and scarcity that lead to grind culture, we see that the truth of the matter is that we are held and cared for by the earth.

As a result of grind culture mentality, most of the sacred beings on this beautifully abundant planet are under the spell of materialism, manipulation, control, and coercion. This unfortunate dynamic helps construct things such as racism, gender-based oppression, and ableism. Grind culture provides the fuel to keep these toxic systems running.

The Myth of Scarcity

One of grind culture's tools in perpetuating its grueling machine is the myth of scarcity. In contemporary society, we are inundated with messages that there is “not enough” of the things we think we need. Because of this, so many of us are taught to see life as a competition, and we need to work hard to make sure we get our fair share.

While this scarcity message starts with the basic necessities like food, water, and shelter, it quickly moves on to coveted material possessions such as fancy cars, big homes, designer handbags, and the like.

But the myth of scarcity doesn't stop there, as it inevitably gets extended to nonmaterial things too, such as love, friendship, and happiness. Societal messaging tells us that these too are in short supply. Finally, we are told that we ourselves aren't enough, and therefore our main tasks in life involve striving to prove ourselves worthy and grinding tooth and nail to acquire our needs and achieve our goals before someone else does.

But is any of that true? Of course not.

First, there is more than enough of the basic necessities for everyone. The planet is an abundant giver of what is needed to sustain us, care for us, and see to our basic needs, and that includes food, water, and shelter. It's our relentless pursuit of more than enough—out into grotesque levels of acquisition, wealth, and power—that has kept us from prioritizing providing basic necessities for everyone, which is completely within our power to do right now.

Likewise, and possibly even more profoundly for us as individuals, there is an abundant supply of love, worth, happiness, rest, satisfaction, fulfillment, etc., for everyone. Whenever we receive messages telling us otherwise, we know that is the voice of grind culture trying to assert control.

The Productivity Trap

Another tricky way that grind culture operates is by convincing us that we are doing something “good” even as we harm ourselves, others, and the planet. A great example of this is our understanding of productivity.

Society tells us that working for long hours without breaks boosts productivity, and the dominant narrative in the working world is that we must maximize production in every moment of our day. Endless books and systems and programs are marketed to harried workers who think there must be a magic way to accomplish more. We are taught to work “against the clock” and are applauded for sacrificing breaks, meals, and family time to get more work accomplished. The carrot on the end of the stick is the idea that all our productivity will earn us rest. Yet time and space for that rest never seem to materialize.

Grind culture tricks us into believing that it's noble to work from a place of overwhelm, spend long hours staring at the computer screen, and stay late at night and come in on weekends to boost our productivity. Grind culture fails to mention that these practices actually lead to deteriorating states of health and well-being. Working nonstop throughout the day creates stress, which can lead to lower energy and burnout in the long run. Excessive amounts of time sitting and staring at screens can take years off our lives.

Any institution operating under the system of grind culture will be rooted in inequity and oppression. Grind culture would prefer not to see humanity from a nuanced spectrum of diversity and expansive identities, but rather as units of consciousness that can provide cheap labor to keep capitalism churning. With diverse identities comes complexity: more categories to create, more opinions to listen to, less time for production.

Grind Culture's Impact on Marginalized People

Grind culture impacts anyone and everyone, regardless of your gender, race, or social class. However, it can impact you on a deeper level if you are a person of color, female, or disabled. Since we live in a capitalist society that is structured on racial and gender hierarchy, people who are not part of the politically dominant gender or race are made to feel less valuable in overt and covert ways that go beyond grinding. We get this messaging in our schooling, our job market, and our everyday interactions. Because we get these messages of not being enough, we try to produce more to be seen and valued in this society. On the flip side, if you are a person with disabilities, you can find yourself shut out of the capitalist system and seen as a liability and an obstruction to the flow of production.

Seeing grind culture through this wide-angle lens is essential because it opens up the many facets and functions of the harm it causes. It also reminds us of our sacred selves and challenges us to support our fellow beings in communities of connection and care. No matter how hard we work and grind, we are all equal, made out of the same flesh and bones, and these encapsulating our sacred divinity. Any box this society attempts to put us in using productivity as a metric will create a lesser, flatter picture of the masterpiece that each and every one of us is.

Many of us have been duped into believing that working harder makes us smarter, which is simply not true. If anything, we're losing our brain capacity as a collective with the increase of distractions from our attention economy, as well as less space for rest and reflection within the workweek. Continuous productivity keeps us in a system of grinding and moves us further away from thriving in our personal and professional lives. We need to remain vigilant to interrupt this programming and see and believe that another way of living and working isn't only possible, but also on the way.

A healthy commitment to productivity begins with understanding that your value is not defined by what you do and produce. Your value is inherent and equal among all human beings; it cannot be built up or taken away.

When we really believe this, we can be productive in ways that don't rely on or reinforce grind culture. If our job requires us to sit much of the day, we can commit to physical activity, including regularly stretching or even standing up, both of which greatly increase blood circulation and promote the flow of oxygen. We can reevaluate stressful deadlines, a demanding workload, and endless projects or meetings, which prevent us from concentrating on tasks at hand and making intelligent decisions. We can remember for ourselves and reinforce for our colleagues that true, healthy productivity requires sleep and rest, good nutrition, physical health, human connection, and downtime to dream, play, and create outside of work. It's time to rewrite the rules regarding productivity to accommodate the basic functioning of the human brain and body.

Many of us have received the message to grind at all costs from our employers, who can be insensitive to our human needs. Left unchecked, over time we begin to treat our own bodies, minds, and spirits with a lack of self-regard in the name of keeping up with the system of grind culture. Although this notion of toxic productivity has been a part of the programming we've received throughout our lives, the time has come to hold space for the idea that another way of living and working is needed for us to thrive in the years to come.

Grind Culture and Perfectionism

Perfectionism is a form of self-harm rooted in the need to appear perfect or attain perfection as a threshold for self-worth and value in society. Perfectionism dims our resilience, eats up time and energy, blocks our courage, and thwarts the mistakes we have to be able to make in order to learn and grow. Much like grind culture itself, it confines us to a hamster wheel of “never enough” where we run ourselves into exhaustion, avoiding the needs of our bodies and the calls of our spirit.

A study by Thomas Curran and Andrew P. Hill examined how perfectionism has increased among college students in the United States, Canada, and the UK from 1989 to 2016 and suggested that large structural forces such as corporate influence in the media and politics have led to increased exposure to advertising and social media comparisons. The aphorism “comparison is the thief of joy” describes perfectionism's reliance on our natural human tendency to judge and evaluate ourselves and others.

Perfectionism thrives in exposure to unattainable standards. In the United States, white supremacy, patr...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Grind Culture Explained
• Chapter 2: Grind Culture Past and Present
• Chapter 3: A Framework for Healing—Beginning the Detox Process
• Chapter 4: Reclaiming Rest
• Chapter 5: Self-Care Through Somatics and Sound
• Chapter 6: Boundaries-Trusting Your Yes and Your No
• Chapter 7: Allowing Nature to Nurture Us
• Chapter 8: The Sacred Workspace
• Chapter 9: A New Way to Work-Pleasure, Joy, and Liberation
• Afterword
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author