About Rooted Respite
Respite from Burnout Rooted in Liberation.
Envisioning a world where you can create systemic social change at a pace that works with your nervous system.
The Power is in the People
The system is failing, but one thing is for sure: people can change the world.
And people change the world daily, through relentless commitment and hard work, but that work is often underfunded, unacknowledged, and deprioritized, leaving the people doing the work feeling exhausted, resentful, and undervalued.
If you’re an activist, DEI professional, faith-based changemaker, or otherwise committed to systemic social change, you have a vision for a liberated world.
Rooted Respite is founded in the idea you get to live in the liberated world you work so hard to realize.
You already see it; now it’s time to live it.
My Story. Our Story.
Hi, I'm Taj, and that picture to the right is of a me circa 2015, burned out and sleeping in a hallway before class.
I founded Rooted Respite out of a deep desire to know the liberation I've spent my life working toward. I started my first business at age 9, washing cars in my neighborhood, and I've been working ever since.
Growing up in a low-income household, I grew up thinking that money is the key to freedom, and I believed that for a long time. So I worked— hard. But my body said, "No!" loud enough for me to hear in 2009 when I burned out and dropped out of college in my last quarter before graduation.
I ultimately did finish undergrad and grad school, but I noticed a recurring pattern in my student life that would show up in my professional life too. I'd burn out, step away to recover, then come back and burn out again. It didn't matter what the role was or how rejuvenating my time away had been. Burnout was always waiting for me.
I started investigating this in 2019 and found systemic issues and my own outdated beliefs about success at the root. So, I started experimenting
Rooted Respite was born in 2023 to help those struggling with burnout and compassion fatigue in social change uproot the cause and firmly plant yourself in the world you envision: rested, resourced, resilient, and free.
Rooted Respite follows a lineage of Black artists, scholars, and futurists who resist the status quo in their writing and thinking. Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, bell hooks, James Baldwin, Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, Tricia Hersey, and adrienne maree brown are a few names that come to mind, but the list is longer than that.
Burnout is a byproduct of the systemic and collective trauma capitalism inflicts on our bodies, minds, and spirits.
Interdependence > Individualism
Every living thing relies on something else to survive in a delicate balance. The future of life on this planet hangs on humanity recognizing, appreciating, and nurturing this balance.
Every being has intrinsic worth.
All life on this planet exists for itself; not as a consumable resource. By reconnecting to the intrinsic worth of all living beings, humanity can reconnect to the vital role we play in creating a sustainable future for all living beings.
The small scale repeats at the large scale.
The patterns we see in our social systems repeat inside each individual person and vice versa. With awareness of our harmful patterns and their disruption, we create small-scale changes that reverberate through our culture.
Spirituality facilitates the healing of trauma.
Spirituality helps regulate the nervous system, creating space for our bodies and minds to process traumatic events and reconnect to the core of who are. When we know who we are, we are more aware of what we need to thrive.