An Invitation to Rest
Here in Colorado, winter is upon us. The mountains are painted with brushstrokes of snow, the light shines for less than half a day, and the air is crisp and cold. I am coming to love this season: how the snow brings a sense of quiet enchantment and the cold beckons me inside my house and my heart.
Even though the western culture may tell us otherwise, we are not meant to always be in bloom. The trees with their bare branches, the animals burrowed beneath the ground, the season of winter, all remind me of the necessity of rest.
I see rest as pulling the plug from the mindset of productivity and allowing the self to just be. Rest invites us into “being” in a world where “doing” is celebrated. I find that many of us have been conditioned to believe that what we do defines who we are. However, in deep stillness, I remember that nothing I do defines who I am at the base of my being and that there is a wellspring of worthiness flowing within my body that does not depend upon anything.
Rest can look like sleep but it can also look like many other things. Some of my favorite ways of resting are to listen to a Yoga Nidra, to take a warm bath with epsom salt and essential oils, or to sit quietly in nature.
When I honor my periods of rest, whether they be each month during my moon cycle, each snow season in Colorado or each time my body yearns to turn inward, I find that I touch places inside myself I never knew. I feel more, sense more, and see more. I fall deeper into knowing, deeper into love with my being. And then, when I am ready, I get to create, to emerge, to bloom from a place of nourishment.
MY INVITATION TO YOU
My invitation to you is to spend some time pondering your relationship to rest. Perhaps, spend a few moments each day sitting quietly with your body and feeling into your levels of energy and exhaustion. Just allow whatever sensations, feelings, and emotions arise to be seen and heard and then ask your body what it needs. As you listen to your body's wisdom, may you meet it all with a soft heart—remembering that all of you is welcome here.