It's Finally Here

My newest book, Permission to Rest

I wrote another book and I am really excited to share the news with you today.

Why I Wrote Permission to Rest

Permission to Rest has been years in the making both in teaching myself to rest and writing this book. I wrote Permission to Rest as a companion to How to Breathe and because I wanted to offer a pathway to rest, a pathway that I desperately needed in my life. I know I am not alone in struggling to rest. I know I am not alone in feeling depleted from the extractive culture we are rushing in, ever striving for more yet increasingly isolated, disconnected, and unsatisfied.

I craved a book about the healing powers of rest that invited me to explore the beliefs that make it impossible to value slowing down. I was thirsty for guidance that was grounded in the latest research and heart-centered in its approach to viewing rest as a spiritual form of nour­ishment as well as resistance to the hustle culture that infiltrates our lives and keeps us from resting. I longed for an accessible and pragmatic toolkit of rest practices to help me explore the ways that rest has the power to repair and restore our communities and our Earth.

Permission to Rest is that book. My sincere hope is that it will encourage and inspire you to make resting part of your life.

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Grandma Benny and I napping, Atlanta, GA

In the Gratitude section in the back of the book there is a credit line to my grandma Benny and our naps on the green velvet couch. Above is the only photo I have that captures one of our naps just after I woke up and I am so glad that I have it. When I look at this image my shoulders drop, my breath deepens, and my belly slowly begins to soften. When I see us there, cuddled up, resting together it shows me that even though rest has felt elusive most of my adult life there is some part of my body that knows how to drop down into the state of rest. As I type this, I feel myself dropping deeper now, settling, exhaling, landing.

I’ve been feeling somewhat anxious about writing this first official announcement of my second book. I have parts of myself that are showing up saying things like who are you to write a book about rest? Deep breath. Exhale. Full disclaimer I am not perfect at resting. It’s not even possible or my intention. What I am claiming right here, right now, is that the practice of rest is an integral part of my life and that I have done a great deal of healing to get to a place where I prioritize rest for myself and for my family. What I am claiming is that my rest practice is continuing to deepen as I uncover more about the places in me that want to keep pushing, that still feel like they aren’t enough, and that strive for excellence. The more that I turn toward rest, the more I have the capacity to tend to these parts of myself that are deeply exhausted from the pushing, striving, and trance of unworthiness. In rest I am learning to tend to myself with more compassion and care. For me, this is some of the most potent medicine rest offers.

So here I am, announcing my newest book about rest in my humanness and not enough rested-ness with two sick children at home. Even though I am not sleeping as much as I would like, I can access moments of rest when I choose to. Looking at this image of my grandmother and I. Watching a butterfly out of my window. Slowly sipping my water, feeling the cool glass under my hands. Giving myself the space to take a few slow inhales and exhales.

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Help Spread the Message of Rest

The official release date of Permission to Rest is September 19, 2023. If you would like to support this book and help spread the message of rest, pre-ordering a copy at one of the links below would be amazing (or maybe a few copies if you would like to share them!). Pre-orders are essential to the success of a book. The more pre-orders a book receives, the higher likelihood it will be picked up by a wide range of bookstores. Also, the number of pre-orders determines a book makes it onto a bestseller list. This means that all of the books that are ordered between now and September 19^th count for the first week of book sales.

Amazon

Barnes and Nobel

Bookshop (independent booksellers)

Penguin Random House

Powell’s (independent bookstore)

Target

Would I love for Permission to Rest to become a bestseller? Yes, because it would mean more people resting and I can’t think of anything better for all of us and the future of our planet. Bestseller list dreams aside, my deepest prayer for this book is that it reaches as many people as possible and that rest ripples out into our communities. Take a moment right now and imagine what might be possible for you if you prioritized rest? Now consider how that might ripple out into your relationships, communities, our Earth?

My hope is that this book will help you see that rest is more than a reset and more than an antidote to burnout culture. Rest is a profound restorative practice that we can lean on and turn toward to access our innate compassion, wisdom, and healing.

It takes a village to bring a book into the world and I am deeply appreciative for your support at this stage.

With care and gratitude,
Ashley