I’m gonna call myself out here. I often say ‘Never underestimate the power of a rest.’ I most often say this to my Occupational Therapy patients when they’ve gone for a walk maybe 25 feet, we’ve turned around and we’re 10 feet from their apartment door. They say “but we’re almost there!” But aren’t we always ‘almost there’? It’s the To-Do List – my beloved Sheila who is always going strong (blog: ‘Maycember’ posted 5/17/24) that is never done. Even when we’re almost there, we need to stop ourselves from our doing, our going. We need to stop for a breather and assess our capacity to go further. Otherwise we can fall. Or we can feel fatigue and exhaustion the next day instead of just good ole tired from a perfectly suitable workout. We need to stop and listen to bodies. We need to stop and listen to our own wisdom surfacing. And I don’t do it very often. Especially laying down on the floor flat. Sometimes it’s like I’m nervous that if I stop and lay down, I’ll never get back up. So I’m going to add Savasana to my routine. I’m going to lay down on the floor to ‘do’ nothing and trust that I will get back up. 🙂 

 

Because actually I am ‘doing’ something… I am relaxing my nervous system. I am activating the parasympathetic “rest and digest” nervous system instead of my sympathetic “fight or flight” one that rules Sheila. When we add pursed lip breathing, we can also lower our blood pressure and increase our oxygen saturation level. We are slowing down to be able to scan our minds and bodies to assess for excess. It’s actually “doing” a whole heckuva lot for our health and wellness. 

 

When I was younger going to my first yoga classes, I heard the yoga teacher say that Savasana was the hardest pose. At 25, I laughed this off, not understanding WHATSOEVER (!) what they meant. (I mean c’mon, it’s just laying still!) But now I do. It’s “hard” to lay still allowing your body, your muscles, your bones, your soft tissue, your mind and your guts settle and feel the support of the earth. But now, I really get it. It’s about exactly that – inviting the body to be in an awake state of pure rest. It’s that dynamic balance between our ‘do’ and our ‘rest’ that can keep us aligned with our best self. Refreshing and refueling for all the active fun ‘do’ parts of being human. So, join me on the ground, my friends, let’s ‘do’ rest.