rest to digest

As with all things, it turns out that nature is our greatest teacher. When we lived in a busy, diverse, dynamic city, we were always full of inspiration of a different kind. Our dharmas (brief talks ahead of the yoga practice) normally involved someone we had seen, or an exhibition, show or piece of creative art formed by a talented mind. We’d soak up inspiration from theatre, concerts, bars, art installations and museums. Eating out was a joy as we met people and took time to get to know someone else’s perspective and there was so much ambition; artists, musicians and actor friends who never gave up. We loved being surrounded by this type of dynamic energy, because it made us believe in ourselves a little (lot) more. We thought this was the creative life; one filled to the brim with doing and socialising and spending.

But deep down we’d always known that nature was our biggest inspiration. There’d been so many days we’d driven to Hambleden to walk or cycle to Shiplake, that it felt like our back yard; we could tell you the route now. We’d travel miles to be near water; seas, rivers and lakes. There’s something so extraordinarily expansive about the quietness of a natural landscape. It doesn’t need to be filled with noise, people, or anything material to be inspiration. When you sit long enough, it’s like the edges of you somehow dissolve and become part of the surroundings. It’s almost like you can hear the trees speaking, or the language of ocean. Our talks from our new home became filled with stories and lessons from nature; edges of oceans, letting go during Fall and the expansion and contraction of it all.

As we both currently allow our bodies to rest and heal following contracting coronavirus, we realise the value of pause and restoration. Providing time and space for the body to process and digest everything is vital. Everything is energy; emotions, feelings, thoughts and (of course) food. All is nutrition for the physical, mental and energy body to process. Popping a probiotic and some digestive aids is simply not enough to support the body in the filtering, retaining or elimination of all this information sustainably. We require pause to provide space for the body to synthesise and process all our experiences.

Humans have a habit of encouraging multi-tasking, doing, going and generally being busy. Of course, life is precious and we should squeeze the juice out of every single second. But the body is multi-dimensional and complex in its layers, we therefore need to allow space and time to sift through the space that provides the sense of self.

Relaxation should be part of everyone’s self-care rituals. Downtime allows one to offload, download and to rejuvenate. Chilling out, quietness, alone time and deep sleep are crucial for health and wellbeing. Yogis are clever in incorporating savasana into every physical sequence. The most important pose, it allows us to drink up the effects of the practice, to re-weave the pieces that were unravelled. Rest allows the regathering, like the Japanese art of joining pieces back together with liquid gold. So, rather than our being scattered in pieces, never feeling whole. Rest allows a recentering, and sense of abundance.

We need to gift ourselves time to be and breathe. The art of doing no-thing can seem tricky at first. Simple acts like watching birds forage in garden, or listening to waves on the beach, or sitting on a park bench in a quiet corner. These rituals provide the body time to calibrate and digest all the information. Anything we do is everything we do. It’s like enjoying a good meal; rush and you’ll end up with indigestion and no time to savour the flavours, plus the body won’t assimilate all the information/nutrition. But chew slow, taking your time, really inviting every sense to enjoy the moment, and you will absorb energetic and physical goodness. Our health is the first wealth; without it, we are unable to enjoy anything. As soon as our bodies become poorly or imbalanced, there comes a time when rest is demanded; the body literally shuts down so we have to stop. In our experience, it’s better to gift ourselves regular moments of restitude and healing time, than to wear ourselves out.

Time can’t be stopped, but when we pause, it can seem as though minutes become hours. We’ve said it before, but slow is the best way to go. This world is hooked on intensity, speed and busy-ness. But if we allow rest, we can digest each moment, action and feeling. Practices of pranayama (breath), slow vinyasa (slow flow), restorative and yin yoga are invaluable for healing, reparation and balance.

Rest is one of our non-negotiable pillars of wellness. Sessions this month will incorporate effortless ways to spill into the space of emptinesss….which always leads to abundance and wellness.

We don’t have to fill voids of time to make them precious. In fact, the opposite is true.