Happy Autumnal Equinox!
A time when day and night are in balance.
This week I want to remind all of us to take rest.
For us to mirror what we see happening in nature during this time of balance between darkness and light, as the season shifts toward the introspection of winter.
Rest is so important. Even in this very challenging and difficult time. Especially in this time. I know we are reeling from the loss of RBG and fearful of what is coming while trying to remain hopeful about the future.
So many of us feel like we can’t do enough and time is of the essence and the last thing we should do is rest.
That is a sign you need to rest.
15 minutes? 20 minutes?
You can spare that.
Just to sit on the couch with a cozy blanket or sit outside on the steps and look at the trees.
Leave your phone charging in the other room, get a cup of tea and let yourself daydream about the world you’re fighting for. Let yourself imagine the world we could have.
Sometimes just being present in your body taking breath and feeling what you feel in this busy crazy world can feel like such a blessing.
I’ve got lists a mile long, too. I’ve got articles to read and stress about, a book to read for book group, children to help with online school, people to text, dinner to cook, choices to keep making about the best ways to help with the election, and stuff to prep for winter.
But. I’m going to try and just rest for 20 minutes today. With no agenda except to rest and relax my body. If you want to take it one step farther you can use this marvelous surprisingly powerful technique of Intentional Rest. Here is an excerpt from an article by Martha Beck about the technique:
“Here’s your first intentional resting exercise:
Step One: Scan your body and find an area where you’re holding pain, discomfort or tension. For a few seconds stop reading this and imagine all your attention flowing into this stressed out part of your body. Allow the sensation of discomfort to grow until it fills your awareness. Then come back.
Step Two: Repeat step one, but this time, silently give your stressed out location the suggestion, “relax.” Then meet me back here.
Step Three: Note any changes that occurred in your stressed out area in response to the command to relax. Now, return your attention to that spot and this time mentally give it the invitation “rest.” Continue to invite the area to rest for at least 30 seconds, then return back here.
Step Four: Notice any changes, brief or lasting, that accompany the invitation to rest. Common experiences may include a sense of softening, or melting, diffusion of energy, lessening of stress symptoms, or nothing at all. No right or wrong answer – just observe.
Step Five: Send your attention into your stressed out area once more. This time, slowly switch back and forth between the words relax and restNotice any differences.
This is the basic format to achieve resting as opposed to relaxing. The two are not identical. If you felt a positive response to the word rest, try scanning your entire body while slowly and gently stating “I am resting for my feet now; I am resting for my legs now; I am resting for my heart now;” and so on. Put special attention on areas that are in pain or in distress.
Then you can begin applying rest to non-physical aspects of yourself. Try stating “I am resting for my fear now; I am resting for my perfectionism now; I am resting for my troubled past now; I am resting for my future now.”
Then choose one thing you are trying to manifest into your material experience — good health, a relationship, more money, friends, whatever. Spend 30 seconds resting for these things: “I am resting for the friends I am about to meet now; I am resting for my bank account now; I am resting for my good luck now.”
As simple as this exercise obviously is, I have been flabbergasted by how powerful its effects can be. Not only have I been able to reverse minor infections in my own body, but the people and things for which I rest have been responding in ways that are simply too improbable to be coincidence.
Whatever it is you hope to attract, add a little extra twist by resting rather than forcing the result. The worst that can happen is a wonderful feeling.
read more at:https://marthabeck.com/2010/03/give-it-a-rest/
It’s more of a prescribed practice than just daydreaming, and it is deeply calming.
Life is meant to be a breath in and then out.
In our culture that values hustle and grind over everything else the resting or pausing can seem superfluous, unnecessary and irrelevant.
But we actually need that rest.
So, see if you can do some resting this week, let yourself feel and honor the grief and overwhelm.
And then move forward with renewed strength.
Much love to you.
An amazing resource about the revolutionary power of rest and napping is the nap ministry https://the.napministry.wordpress.com/
I follow the nap minister Tricia Hersey on instagram https://www.instagram.com/thenapministry/?hl=en and it is mind opening and beautiful how she resets the sacredness and resistance of rest.
And here is a living document with ideas about how to help in the election (for when you are done with your rest. xo)
https://docs.google.com/document/noregrets
