REST
and last chance for ALIGN
REST
I have chosen to share this one last, but really it is first, last, and all the ways in and around. There was a time (maybe still this is true?) where every dance class I would go to started with a fairly long period of constructive rest.
Constructive rest is an active recovery technique used to decompress the spine, release deep muscular tension, and reset your nervous system.
In these active or constructive rests, we would lay on our backs, knees bent, feet on the ground (sometimes with the knees leaning against each other), elbows bent and hands resting on the base of our ribcage.
And we would lay there, and breathe…and breathe, and lay there….
And eventually something would begin to happen.
The way I had moved through the day would begin to unwind, the place between my skull and spine would open, my hips fell towards the ground and my femurs dropped into the joints. My shoulder blades widened, my breathing changed, my nervous system shifted. The quiet parts could be heard, and the loud parts got to rest. A kind of neutrality was reached.
Later, when we would get up and “dance,” there would be more availability, less fighting with a body pattern I did not even realize was “wearing” me.
This kind of drop into a neutrality is where the renew and recalibrate can truly occur from. We are almost always walking with a pattern, the shoulder lifted from driving or a tense conversation, the hips held from sitting, or emotional struggle. A lot can “happen” with a little permission to not have anything “happen.”
TRY IT
Find a place to lie down. Knees bent, knocked together if it is more comfortable, feet on the ground. Elbows bent, hands on ribs, feel your breathing. If your neck is uncomfortable, place a book, an inch or two high, underneath it. Avoid a pillow or anything too soft.
Set a timer for longer than you think, 7 minutes maybe, or even 15.
Lay there and breathe. Unless you are extremely uncomfortable, resist the urge to fidget or adjust your position. Eventually gravity will do that for you. Try opening your eyes, what is that like? This is not sleeping, it is actually allowing your conscious awareness to become quite active, while the physicality of you is given permission to just be.
Notice when or if you get restless, do you judge the stillness of it?
Hang in this place until your timer goes off. Then get up and move around a little. How are you feeling now?
The fact is we need to rest, deserve rest, require deep resets right now because it is not a time in our lives and in the world to disassociate and dissconnect. Connect more deeply with yourself.
Let’s build a regular practice with rest and recalibrate so it is there we need it, there when it is GO time. Don’t walk forward already depleted, do what you can, now, to recharge. You will be glad you did.
Thank you for reading!! I wish you deep rest this weekend.
Tracy
SUMMER ALIGN it is not too late to join, but it will be soon! (Registration officially closes next Monday night.)
The signature series began July 14th and runs through September. THEMES are: Rest, recalibration, tending to our organs physcially and energetically, and then planting seeds of intention for the next 9 months. ALIGN is potent 30 minute practices two to three times per week, online- live or by recording.
If you would like to jump in SUMMER ALIGN, email me and I will get you all set up.