Friday, May 12th 7-8:30pm
Roots and Wings
317 N. Main St, Natick, MA 01760
$50* registration (fee includes a donation and a Coregeous ball to take home)
Bring your yoga mat, other props will be provided.
*Proceeds from this class will go to the Voices Against Violence organization, whose mission is to end sexual and domestic violence.
Join me to kick off mother’s day weekend with some serious soul care. This class is designed to help your system unwind and find a state of deep relaxation.
What is Unwind?
Unwind is a class I’ve developed based on my own explorations in recent years combined with inspiration from Jill Miller’s new book Body By Breath.
In the first hour we will use the coregeous ball to attend to our vagus nerve and help our nervous system reset. The final 30 minutes will be spent in Non Sleep Deep Rest.
Translation: First, we’re going to lie on the floor and breathe. Then we’ll lie on the floor, with a squishy ball under places like your ribs and side belly and breathe. Then we’ll just lie on the floor with a blanket over us and breathe.
No one will whine at you. No one will ask you for a snack. No one will ask you to cut a box top or bake cookies. There are no butts to wipe, dishes to clean, nor laundry to fold here.
This is 90 minutes just for you – the best mother’s day gift you could ever give yourself.
The back story:
In the last three years I have found myself consistently overwhelmed by parenting through the pandemic. There have been so many moments of feeling as through there is no break, no chance to catch my breath, let alone attend to my own needs. My sleep also took a big hit: I would wake up multiple times a night, sometimes I could go back to sleep, but plenty of days I was up for the day at 3am. In time I realized it was all driven by stress. Ugh.
Every time I hit a breaking point – and oh, there were many – I knew there had to be some way to re-find equilibrium. I started diving deeper into the movement practices that have served me so well over the last 20+ years. They were pretty helpful, but sometimes they weren’t enough.
As I stayed with it (I am nothing if not dogged and stubborn), I got better at identifying when I was dysregulated. For me it shows up as a clench in my gut, jittery feeling in my arms and an elevated heart rate.
I also got better at honing in on practices that worked to regulate my system. I kept coming back to two things: Non Sleep Deep Rest for at least 30 minutes (no joke, at lunchtime many days you’ll find me under a weighted blanket listening to a recording walking me into this state). And, using outside props in the form of various balls to tell my body I was safe.
The first few times I did this work I would feel pretty good for a few hours after and often I’d sleep a little better. As I continued with it, I found I got better at noticing when I was off kilter, I could re-regulate faster and the effects lasted longer. I also found I woke less at night, even when the day before was stressful.
I’ll be honest and say it has felt like nothing short of a miracle, and now I want to share this with you! I thought mother’s day weekend was a chance to offer something that every parent needs and also an opportunity to give back to an organization that is helping to make the lives of so many families better.
I hope you will join me on your mat for an evening of deep rest for your soul.