Today’s Movement Post Is About Rest
Sometimes, the most supportive movement practice is stillness
If you’ve been following along here the last couple months, you know that my Monday posts focus on movement and generally include a brief yoga practice. I have a confession, though: if I were coaching me, I’d insist that I take a day off.
Today, just getting out the front door was an accomplishment - although I did get in some nice fall walkies with the junior pup, a non-optional activity when you have a less-than-two-year-old lab/hound mix.
I just spent a magical fall weekend in our local mountains, in the company of beloved family, friends, and community members and surrounded by stunning fall scenery, celebrating a milestone wedding anniversary with my husband.
I’d do it over and over again – and, as a socially-oriented introvert (I learned recently that some are now calling us “otroverts”), I am both full to the brim with love for the amazing people around me, including the one I married ten years ago, and EXHAUSTED.
I’ve also noticed what appears to be yet another conspiracy among apparently unrelated people to alert me that I might want to slow down.
A friend during a recent yoga workshop asked about my personal practice, and when I replied “oh…usually a bunch of sun salutations”, told me that I “might want to knock that off” and then prescribed a really excellent posterior chain myofascial release sequence that almost immediately resolved some lingering hamstring issues (look for more on this soon!)
Another pulled a random tarot card for me, which just happened to be the Hermit, and gently suggested that I might want to explore pulling my energy inward. (It says something about my summer and fall that just the idea of being a hermit for a few weeks feels deeply appealing right now.)
And then, to cap it off,
published a piece on hustle culture masquerading as wellness (I Tried to Fix My Life With a Spreadsheet and Now I Just Cry into Colour-Coded Blocks) that was so on the nose it tempted me to burn my morning pages notebook (I haven’t, for the record - I do find that particular habit incredibly nourishing for the most part - but I’d strongly recommend giving this a read if your life seems to mysteriously resist your urges to simplify it.)TL;DR: It would be dishonest, today, for me to give you a high-energy flow. You’re welcome to check my movement archive if you’d like one of those, or explore one of the internet’s many amazing teachers (I love Jenni Rawlings and
for anatomy and science, Allison Rae Jeraci for badass handstands and demonstrating that a yoga body doesn’t have to look any particular way, and Bernie Clark’s weekly yin yoga offerings for gentler, more introspective work.)For me: today is all about doing less. If you must have an asana, let’s make it constructive rest, a great alternative to Savasana that places the feet mat-width apart and the knees together. It’s a fabulous way to passively release tightness in your psoas muscle - a deep core muscle connecting your spine to your leg. If you’ve had a highly-active weekend, too, this might just be the “movement practice” for you.
Below: audio version of this post.