Being tender and restful
Dear friends,
Today I write to you from a well-rested wellspring. The last month, I have been quiet. I was simply resting, honoring and tending to myself. No doubt that it started without much choice. I was put on stay-home notice after supporting at a Forest Therapy Guide training in Australia. Immediately after the stay-home notice, Singapore went into its current circuit breaker measures. What was supposed to be an intensive month of training and corporate walks and workshops quickly became a month of intense rest.
The earth, too, is resting. Forcing us to fully experience, encounter, embrace rest. If you have been following me, you know that I have been harping on this for quite some time. It is core to what I offer in my sessions. If you have came on any rest experiences with me - whether a guided forest bathing, an intensive yoga nidra coaching or a once-off yoga nidra class, you experience and know it in your own bones what restfulness feels like. So I am honestly surprised and humbled that earth is showing and teaching me that there is much more to encounter and experience in rest. That tenderness to self is a non-stop process.
“...need some unusual measures to support these unusal times. Perhaps, what’s unusual is to be tender to yourself.”
I feel that the importance of rest has been sorely missing in our narratives on staying home and managing this Covid-19 crisis. Besides the work as usual (as much as it is possible), try as usual, work out as usual, we probably need some unusual measures to support these unusual times. Perhaps, what’s unusual is to be tender to yourself.
And so, my invitation to you is to start resting and tending to you and your inner well-spring. A wellspring is one that continues to give from deep within. Tend to it tenderly and earnestly, so that it can continue to be a wellspring; or be in the process of becoming a giving wellspring again.
As some of you may know, I like to focus on experiencing as a form of learning, rather than didactic teaching. To me, that’s what rest is - something that cannot be truly known just by words or techniques; but something that must be felt, embodied, experienced.
“Rest - ... something that must be felt, embodied, experienced. ”
Online Rest Hour is a series of short classes to give you an idea of what the different types of rest are and to experience different rest practices. Offered in the mid-day, to encourage you to practice tenderness to yourself - put down that document, say no to that last minute virtual meeting, leave that unfinished email, but say yes to your self-care. Each class is thematic, with:
Class 1 - Physical rest + Mental rest (27 April, Mon)
Class 2 - Sensory rest + Creative rest (29 April, Wed)
Class 3 - Emotional rest + Spiritual rest (4 May, Mon)
SPECIAL Class 4 - Social rest + 1 more rest! (6 May, Wed)
Rest may also be something personal to you or something sacred to you. I will be happy to support you 1-on-1, in a private online setting as you embark on your journey of rest. My Resting and Thriving coaching programme is something dear to my heart - it’s an honoring of each unique individual’s journey towards a life well-rested and thriving. It is an honoring and witnessing of each individual’s rising and reclaiming of their lives, an honoring of reclaiming the wisdom of their bodies and intuitive capacity. Because it is a 1-1 coaching, the programme is tailored and customised to what you need, the type of rest you need, the type of practices that may suit you. I am offering a 50% discount on coaching fees now to make the progamme more accessible to more people (10% of proceeds also go to support The Vulnerable Women’s Fund and Feed The City).
“When you take care of yourself, you take care of all around you.”
Yes, my pure forest bathers, I hear you! When can we head out together and connect in a sensory rest experience again? Honestly, not any time soon I think (don’t you think we always look like we are loitering or behaving too leisurely? Haha). It can never replace the actual experience of going out there and connecting, but virtual walks can definitely still guide you to awaken your senses and connect with the nature that is right by you but perhaps not as obvious. I’ve personally tried it - it works! :) Yes, from your room too. :) So stay tuned to the schedule of virtual walks!
I am still honoring my own rest work, honoring mothers earth’s call for us to rest - I’ll be tenderly nourishing these few projects and will not be burning myself out by doing and hosting too many classes! When I take care of myself, I take care of you. :) And when you take care of yourself, you take care of all around you.
#ThrivingFromRest
Love with deepest gratitude, Youmin
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