Welcome to the Permission to Rest Immersion
[Week One] Learning to feel rested + introductions
Hello
Welcome to Week One of the Permission to Rest Immersion.
I am grateful you are here and I look forward to practicing with you for the next four weeks.
If you have been considering joining us, it’s not too late, you can upgrade your subscription today.
Some important notes before we get started—
Please save the date for our live group session on October 16th, 2024 @ 9-9:45am PST (Zoom link will be sent out in the coming weeks)
To listen to the immersion audio sessions and join our conversations from your phone, download the Substack app
To get the most out of this immersion I suggest setting aside 5-10 minutes to practice the sessions a few times a week
You will find all of the current and past immersion posts here. Feel free to bookmark this page so you can find it easily
Now, let’s begin….
Welcome
I am so glad you are here.
I know you’re busy. I know there is so much going on in our lives and in the world right now.
Thank you for showing up.
Acknowledging that we are exhausted, coupled with our desire to choose rest, are essential steps in this journey. It can be uncomfortable, disorienting, and at times painful to explore the ways we’ve been avoiding and denying ourselves this essential medicine.
Coming home to our own rhythms, to our dear Earth, to each other, and to the rest that we can’t thrive without, is a deep reckoning that can take time to unpack.
Please take all the time that you need.
If you have joined this immersion, you have already begun the process of reclaiming rest in your life. No matter where you are on the rest continuum, you are welcome here.
I’ve learned through fits and starts that rest isn’t just an activity you do occasionally when you’re exhausted. Rest is a practice, and practices require consistency, dedication, and a willingness to show up. Even when you’re too busy. Especially when you’re too busy.
Resting for a little while here and there isn’t enough to create meaningful, sustainable changes. Rest is a cumulative practice. This means that the benefits and transformation you experience from rest will grow and deepen over time.
We learn through repetition, through practices that are repeatable, and through our devotion to keep up with our practice when it’s tough to rest.
We will face difficult moments as we open ourselves up to rest. Furthermore, when we are willing to commit to a consistent rest practice, we begin to touch into the wisdom of rest that is already present within our own bodies no matter how far away it feels, how much our bodies have suffered, or how many times we have abandoned our bodies along the way.
When we rest, we move toward feeling more connected, present, and satisfied in our lives.
When we rest, we open ourselves up to align with seasons of renewal within ourselves, within each other, and within nature.
When we are more rested as individuals, we can transform our always-on culture of inequality, individualism, and frantic productivity into a more thoughtful, grounded culture of interdependence and well-being.
And, when we are more rested, we have the energy and capacity to work together to create a revolutionary future built on practices, ideas, and solutions that are in service of all forms of life.
Let us take a step together into the great unknown, a step into a rested life.
Rest Practice: I Feel Rested When…
No matter what the status of your relationship to rest is, there are moments in our lives where we organically slow down and touch into the regenerative powers of rest. There are also seasons where we will experience more stress, grief, pain, and depletion. Like the leaves of the mighty blue oaks, rest is a rhythm that ebbs and flows.
Sometimes we feel more spaciousness in our bodies and in our lives, while other times we feel more compressed and hectic. Regardless, invitations to rest will undoubtedly make themselves known, however quietly, however briefly. We must not ignore them. In those little moments we must choose to rest.
Each time we pause or notice the rhythm of our breath, we are reminded of the eternal teaching of impermanence, that things will shift.
When we see the way light streams through the sky, we can choose, for a micro moment, to surrender into presence, into openness, into rest.
When we notice that we are rushing because our anxiety tells us there isn’t enough time, which in many ways there isn’t ever enough time, we can place a hand over our heart and gently let the anxious parts of us know that there is no need to rush right now.
These moments of organic rest reveal themselves to me on a continual basis, and likely will for you too if you commit to the practices in this immersion. It’s incredible to me that there are real moments to rest woven into our lives that we can access if we are willing to notice them.
Because many of us are confused about rest and out of touch with how to slow down, it’s helpful in the beginning to become familiar with when we feel rested.
Our 10 minute guided practice session this week explores the places in our bodies where rest is already present.
How to Practice I Feel Rested When…
Listen to the recording seated or lying down
When finished, write your own list of when you feel rested now and add to it as you go through this immersion