The Art of Rest After Major Stress

Thanks for all the private messages & reactions to the previoius post.

The day after the incident, I rolled out more stress skills (shout out to @intrinsic_way & @shift_adapt for these). I felt super lucky to literally have powerful resilience tools at my fingertips – this time in the form of Yoga Nidra.

If you’re not familiar with it, yoga nidra is also known as ‘yoga sleep,’ a form of Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR). Basically it’s 20 to 30 min in passive rest while you are guided through a sensory awareness practice. It calms the nervous system & helps the brain create restoration without actually sleeping (although it can set you up for sleep). It supports transition from heightened, agitated, tense states to calm, rested & ready states.

Following last week’s incident, I used this practice of restoration 4 times over the next 3 days, including at 4am when I woke & couldn’t get back to sleep due to residual anger & energy. The shift nidra creates is unparalleled for me – taking me from feeling reactive & ungrounded to consolidated and focused.

Because I had practiced nidra & breathwork regularly, my brain & body knew these practices would create calm. I didn’t wait until there was an emergency to use them – instead months & years of practice had already created a receptiveness in my nervous system for transitioning from anxiety & tension to calm & centred.

I’m not saying it’s easy – it’s a challenge to allow a transition from overstimulation to calm – I bumped up against resistance suggesting I could ‘just keep going’ or was doing ‘good enough’ but I knew my nervous system would pay for this later and I would crash. So instead I did the WORK OF RESTING.

The rewards were big. Nothing was perfect, but I surprised myself with my own resilience in the days to follow.

#trauma #crossfit #mentalhealth #stress #breath #yoga #yoganidra

@intrinsic_way
@hhpfoundation
@shift_adapt