Why is rest so hard for Black women to claim—and what does it cost us when we don’t?

In this episode, Jewelle explores the spiritual, ancestral, and energetic necessity of rest for Black women, naming it not as a luxury, but as a practice of resistance, remembrance, and restoration. Drawing from scripture, epigenetics, Afrofuturism, and the teachings of Tricia Hersey (The Nap Ministry) and Cole Arthur Riley (Black Liturgies), this conversation traces how rest was denied, criminalized, and extracted from Black women’s bodies—and why reclaiming it now is essential to our liberation, pleasure, and holistic wellbeing.

Through stories of lineage, Sabbath theology, dreamspace, and the life of Jesus Himself, Jewelle invites listeners to see rest as our divine birthright—one that returns us to God, reconnects us to our bodies, and helps us imagine and build liberated futures.

This is a call to stop performing, stop proving, and start resting—not just for ourselves, but for those who came before us and the Black women coming after us.

🔑 Key Message

Rest is not optional for Black women—it is a sacred practice that honors our ancestors, restores our dignity, and reconnects us to God and our inherent divinity.

✨ What You’ll Walk Away With

• A deeper understanding of why rest feels so foreign to Black women and how historical, generational, and spiritual forces shaped that reality.
• Encouragement to release guilt, performance, and urgency, and to see rest as obedience, trust, and divine inheritance.
• Practical tools for embodying rest as resistance, remembrance, intimacy, dignity, and Sabbath—without needing to earn it.

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🧠 By the end of this episode, you’ll see how:

• Rest disrupts systems of extraction and refuses productivity as the measure of worth.

• • Choosing rest honors ancestors who were denied it and rewrites what we pass down.
  • God uses rest, stillness, and dreamspace to heal, guide, and reveal liberated futures.

  
  

  🌿 Meant for your reflection:

  As you listen, consider:

  1. When was the last time you rested without guilt or justification?

  2. What beliefs about rest did you inherit—and which ones are you ready to release?

  3. How might your rest today shape the world Black women inherit tomorrow?

  📲Enjoying the show? Connect with Jewelle

  Follow on Instagram: @jewelletbrown @eveninthesmallthings

  Listen on Youtube: @jewelletbrown

  Subscribe to the newsletter: ⁠eveninthesmallthings.substack.com⁠

  
  

  🔗 Resources Mentioned

  Tricia Hersey’s Song “Rest Life”

  Tricia Hersey’s Dreamscape Playlist
  

As a companion to Episode 8, this minisode features a body-scan meditation to ground you into the ease, safety, and security of the present moment—especially when you’re feeling angst or anxiety about what the future holds. This meditation helps you connect to your breath, your body, and the sensations around you. A beautiful two-part mantra supports you in accessing the present moment and settling into the presence of God.

If you are driving or doing any activity that requires you to be alert, you can certainly listen along, but please revisit this minisode when you can safely close your eyes and fully partake in the meditation.

What if the very pursuit of your purpose is what's keeping you from it? In this episode, Jewelle explores how presence—not pursuit—becomes the pathway to fulfilling your divine design. Through the lens of Pixar's Soul, Jesus's unhurried ministry, and the wisdom of Florence Scovel Shinn, she reveals why 91% of people experience "purpose anxiety" and how practicing presence offers a different way forward. Learn the P.A.U.S.E. Practice—a 2-minute embodiment tool to ground you into the present moment where God's voice, intuition, and discernment become crystal clear. If you've been chasing your purpose instead of inhabiting it, this episode will shift everything.

🔑 Key Message

The more present we are, the more our purpose is revealed—because presence creates the conditions for hearing God, accessing intuition, and taking aligned action that moves us into the Divine Design for our lives.

✨ What You’ll Walk Away With

• A reframe on purpose: It's not something you chase, but something that unfolds through presence

• Three ways the pursuit of purpose becomes a trap (making it an idol, perfectionism, disconnection from now)

• Jesus's model for unhurried, interruptible, withdrawal-centered ministry

• The P.A.U.S.E. Practice—a practical tool to ground into the present moment anytime, anywhere

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By the end of this episode, you’ll see how:

• Presence activates spiritual discernment, intuition, and the ability to hear God's still, small voice

• Your body holds wisdom and intelligence that your analytical mind can't access on its own

• • Living in the present moment isn't passive—it's practicing availability to God and God's plan for your life

  
  

  Meant for your reflection:

  As you listen, consider:

  1. Where have I been chasing my purpose instead of allowing it to unfold?

  2. What would change if I believed that being present is more important than being productive?

  3. How can I practice the P.A.U.S.E. framework this week when I notice myself future-tripping or striving?

• Enjoying the show? Connect with Jewelle

  Follow on Instagram: @jewelletbrown @eveninthesmallthings

  Listen on Youtube: @jewelletbrown

  Subscribe to the newsletter: ⁠eveninthesmallthings.substack.com⁠

  Please rate and review the show! Your support on Spotify (ratings) and Apple Podcasts (reviews) helps other women discover this sacred space for faith, mindfulness, and becoming.

  
  

As a companion to Episode 7, this minisode features a fun and gentle thoughtwork practice designed to help you shift your emotional and energetic state with intention. Using the Focus Wheel Process—a tool created by Abraham Hicks—Jewelle guides you in real time through a simple but powerful exercise that helps you move from emotional disruption back into grounded alignment with your Highest Self.

Through small, believable shifts in thought, this practice helps you draw near to God, acknowledge what you’re feeling, soften your resistance, and gradually attune yourself back to your energetic homebase. It’s another form of spiritual and emotional hygiene—cleaning up the inside of your cup by choosing thoughts that reflect who you truly are and how you desire to feel.

In this episode, Jewelle reframes the familiar phrase “cleanliness is next to Godliness,” revealing its true spiritual meaning: tending to the inside of your cup. Through Christ-centered insight and honest self-reflection, she explores what it really means to keep your heart, mind, emotions, and energy clean so you can stay close to God—and close to your Highest Self.

This is a grounded, liberating conversation about spiritual and emotional hygiene: the daily, devotional work of becoming aware of what you carry, discerning what’s yours, releasing what isn’t, and attuning back to the Divine presence within you. It’s an invitation to recognize that your inner cleanliness is not about perfection—it’s about connection, stewardship, and cultivating the kind of inner world that allows God to move through you freely and fully.

🔑 Key Message

Inner cleanliness is the real path to Godliness—because the state of your heart, mind, and spirit shapes everything you do and everyone you touch.

✨ What You’ll Walk Away With

1. A deeper understanding of the true, spiritual meaning behind “cleanliness is next to Godliness”
   
2. Encouragement for tending to your heart, mind, and energy with gentleness and honesty
   
3. Jewelle’s 4A’s Check-In ™ : a practical tool to bring you back to God, back to yourself, and back to your energetic homebase
   

By the end of this episode, you’ll see how

• Spiritual and emotional hygiene keeps you aligned with your Highest, God-like Self.

• Guarding your heart is both a spiritual command and a practical form of energetic stewardship.

• Your personal healing becomes communal—shaping the health, safety, and intimacy of your relationships.

Meant for your reflection:

As you listen, consider

1. How do I know when my energy has shifted away from my homebase?

2. Where am I projecting unhealed emotions onto others, and what might change if I tended to those places with compassion first?

3. Where do I need to implement boundaries to help better steward my spirit, my emotions, and my energy?

Enjoying the show? Connect with Jewelle

Follow on Instagram: @jewelletbrown @eveninthesmallthings

Listen on Youtube: @jewelletbrown

Subscribe to the newsletter: ⁠eveninthesmallthings.substack.com⁠

As a companion to Episode 6, this minisode takes us back to our roots, the first thing many of us were taught to do as a way to connect with God: prayer. Following the impulse to authentically share some of the challenges of her season of surrender, Jewelle reads three prayers from one of her favorite spiritual books: Prayers of Manifestation. These prayers, Fulfillment, Happiness, and Vocation instantly connect us to the powerful combination of words, a pure heart, and an earnest connection to God.

Ever find yourself asking God for guidance, only to turn around and try to “help” Him carry it out? In this raw and revealing episode, Jewelle returns to the mic with an impromptu word straight from the wilderness of ego, obedience, and spiritual misalignment. Through tender storytelling and biblical reflection, she invites us into the sacred space of surrender once again —reminding us that God doesn’t need our help, our strategy, or our Plan B energy. He’s sovereign. He’s steady. And He’s not about to fight you for control.

If you’ve ever said you trust God, but still catch yourself sweeping up behind Him, rearranging the steps, and doubting His divine timing—press play. This episode is for anyone who’s ever let their ego edge God out, and knows the costly mistake of treating God’s plan like a back-up.

🔑 Key Message

God’s will is not a contingency plan. It’s the plan. Your job is not to figure out the how—it’s to follow with faith, obedience, and consistent trust.

✨ What You’ll Walk Away With

By the end of this episode, you’ll see how:

• 1. Trusting God means taking your hands off the thing He’s already working on.
  2. Your ego—even the well-meaning kind—can quietly pull you out of alignment.
  3. Surrender isn’t passive—it’s active, spiritual and practical obedience that positions you for miracles.

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  ✍🏾 Meant for your reflection:

  As you listen, consider:

  1. Where am I still trying to clean up behind God?

  2. What’s one thing I can take my hands off of this week?

  3. If I believed God had already solved it, how would I move differently?

  
  

  Enjoying the show? Connect with Jewelle

  Follow on Instagram: @jewelletbrown @eveninthesmallthings

  Listen on Youtube: @jewelletbrown

  Subscribe to the newsletter: ⁠eveninthesmallthings.substack.com⁠

  
  

Even in the Small Things family, can you believe we've been going strong for 10 weeks straight?! With 5 soul-stirring episodes and 5 supporting minisodes, we've gone from nothing to something in such a short time. We're halfway through season 1 and want to take the time to make sure that this podcast remains on mission and in service to you.

New episodes drop in October. In the meanwhile, relisten to and share your fave episodes! Tune into the minisodes too!

We'll be back! Until then, be well and remember, God is in the details.