Part 2: Reclaiming Our Right to Rest
Are you ready to prioritize yourself and reclaim your right to rest???
When we take time to Pause & Care for Your Body and Your Soul we begin again. Rest is one of the ways that the endless cycle of death and rebirth takes form in our world. Every time we rest, we are born anew.
Rest does not have to be lavish, or long or complicated or pretty. It can literally be 3 minutes in the car before popping into the store, 2 deep nourishing breaths before engaging in conversation, allowing someone else to cook dinner, waking early to watch the birds, taking a moment to stare at the trees, cuddling with your favorite being, slowly sipping your tea.
Rest comes in many forms, but its primary function is to replenish and resource us.
Rest brings us home.
Reclaim rest as you partner in life. Slow down. Unwind. And notice the magic that begin to show its self to you.
Rest, Our Bodies & Our Nervous System
Our bodies are infinitely wise, and fantastic creatures. There is so much that our bodies do without our conscious awareness from breathing to filtering out toxins, from growing to regenerating.
As someone who recently regrew skin after a pretty intense burn, I can say I don’t know how my body did it, but as I watched the process unfold I felt in awe and amazed by what my body is capable of, But i digress….
Our bodies are capable of so much more than we give them credit for and so much more than we can logically understand.
And one of the amazing things that our bodies can do is to transform physical matter in to nutrients, and filter out the rest. We call this digestion.
There is a reason that Our Parasympathetic Nervous System is sometimes called rest/digest.
Because when we are in a state of rest we can digest, not just physical nourishment, but energy emotions and situations can be digested and released as well.
This process is paused, blocked or diminished when we never down-regulate into this peaceful parasympathetic space.
When we never take time to digest, we get constipated (literally and energetically).
When we do not process and digest, those blockages, that excess weight stays in our system, holds us back and can cause discomfort-furthering our disconnect from and mistrust in our bodies.
Living On High Alert Burns Us Out
Many of us live with our nervous systems on high alert, always ready to fight or flee. Always ready but never rested.
I notice that many of my friends that are still living primarily in Sympathetic Nervous System Regulation (aka fight/flight) often do not eat. They skip meals, eat very little, or don’t feel hungry.
The heightened alert state becomes their normal. Their bodies are not given time to regulate and digest. This does not mean they are not hungry or their body is not is desperate need of food nourishment, it means they are on such high alert that their body does not think it is safe enough to replenish.
When these friends join me for meditation or receive reiki energy healing from me their stomachs almost immediately begin to growl or afterword they feel famished, saying things like “I didn’t realize I was hungry.”
This is what lack of rest does to us: we are not even conscious of what we need to survive, and completely disconnected from what we need to thrive.
Similarly folks stuck in the Freeze/Faun, may also struggle with appetite suppression, because in freeze everything shuts down, and the digestive system slows to a hault. And in Faun, our attention is so far outside ourselves that we are unaware of our bodily needs.
In the past, before I knew how to regulate my nervous system, I always felt hungry, like I had an insatiable appetite. I would binge eat or eat constently to unconsciously force myself into Parasympathetic.
But now I have tools and skills to down regulate, and clam my nervous system and bring myself into a restful state.
And I am here to tell you that you too can build your capacity to restore and recharge yourself.
You can reclaim your relationship with rest and learn to regulate your nervous system toward rest/digest.
You can build your capacity to navigate fear, uncertainty and burn out by learning how to befriend the pause, the breath, the space between.
Building A New World Requires Rest
Rest is here for you.
Change is not going anywhere. Uncertainty & Overwhelm are unlikely to go away.
So how to we manage?? How do we cope??
It’s not by urgently and frantically pushing forward, it’s by relearning how to rest, still. slow, relax and listen.
It’s by creating intentional space to pause, reset, and recharge.
When we do this we not only reclaim our power, but we actively rebel against a system that sees us as cogs in the machine of profit.
When we do this, we not only reclaim rest for ourselves but we reclaim rest for our loved ones, ancestors, and friends.
There is a reason that yawns are contagious.
It’s because our bodies co-regulate in community with each other. Meaning that when I down regulate my nervous system to rest/digest, bodies in my field will also be invited to down-regulate.
Hense, I yawn, you yawn. (Yawning is one of the natural ways our bodies down-regulate when activated. It’s not just a sign of being tired, but a sign of moving toward rest when we’ve been in Active/Action/Doing)
When we release the guilt and the shame that has been placed on us by external forces (read more about that here), we can find DEEP PLEASURE in rest and relaxation.
Let’s Remember the Deep Pleasure Rest Can Bring
We underestimate the power of our bodies, our energy, and our minds to create healing and rewrite the future.
But We are powerful creative beings and we have the power to create our reality.
When we give ourselves space to rest and reset there is no telling what we can do.
We Claim Our Right, Our Ability To Unwind.
After so many years and generations of no rest, or breaks, no space to pause or reset, little time to grieve or process, we reclaim our right to unwind & release: We slow down and land and give our nervous systems space to unwind and release (if only just a little).
We Claim Our Right, Our Ability To Release.
After so many years and generations of carrying it all, of pushing through, of protecting ourselves and each other by carrying it all, doing it all being it all: We give ourselves permission to release, to let go, to place our burdens down.
We Claim Our Inherent Interconnectedness.
After so many years and generations of disconnection, of being taught to distrust each other and our inner knowing, of being dependent on external authorities, on being severed from our sacred relationships: We consciously choose to reconnect with ourselves, the land and with primordial life force energies and to reclaim our inner power and inner truth.
Together we are reclaiming the ancient techniques to drop into our bodies, connect with our life force energy, and initiate deep healing through restful pauses. Because our ancient ones knew how to do this instinctively, just as our children know, just as our animal allies know, just as deep down we know.
Are you ready to prioritize yourself and sink deeper into relationship with your inner truth?
Then it is time to reclaim rest and learn techniques to:
- drop into and stay present in our bodies
- find peace and pleasure in stillness
- calm and unwind our nervous systems
- connect with our life force energy
Deep down inside your being you know how to rest.
Give yourself permission to remember.
Want Support to Reclaim Rest?
I’m here for you. I’ve been holding embodied, healing space for almost 10 years and conducting one on one healings for over 7 years. I am Taurus *sun & moon* (Capricorn rising), so I’m deeply rooted in earth energy and the energy of pleasure. I’m passionate about collective liberation, sustainability, and re-wilding the planet (and ourselves). (You can find our more about me here)
I believe we are all needed now, and I offer support to healers, witches, way-showers looking to reclaim their relationship with their body and the planet through regenerative rest-growth cycles, energy healing, grounding activations and more.
If you want support integrating rest practices into your daily life or just want to connect then, schedule a free call with me.
Or join me for a Virtual Moon Circle, held twice a month on/around the New and Full Moon.
I delight in supporting powerful souls to reclaim their right to rest, because I know that the more of us that are rested and resourced that the better, more healthy, more beautiful our world will be.
Rest well my love.
Then Rise and Reclaim your power to rewrite the stories.
in devotion,
-kristen
