Episode 15: The Importance Of Rest

In this episode I give a little bit of a personal update, and talk a bit about the importance of rest and stillness for integration. This is so important not only for the physical but for the mental and emotional bodies aswell. I talk about the  culture of "busy-ness" that we have in the UK and how in my career as a make up artist being exhausted was a toxic badge of honour. I hereby give you permission to be still and take rest my friends! Its vitally important for us to heal, grow, learn and move forward. I also share a few bits about whats coming in Season 2! See you there!

With love & light,

Helen x

If you have any comments, questions or anything you would like to hear about related to this podcast, I'd love to hear from you.

Please feel free to message me on Instagram or email me here: helen@feettoearthyoga.co.uk

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Or why not find out how we can work together with classes classes, courses and 1:1 coaching here: https://www.feettoearthyoga.co.uk/

With love and light,

Helen xxx

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

Welcome to Be Still and Notice, a yoga podcast. Join me, your host, yoga and meditation instructor Helen Taylor. to dive deeply into the vast ocean of wisdom that is yoga. Explore with me how these ancient practices can help heal and elevate us physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually in an ultra-modern world. Together we'll deepen our practice, explore our connection to divinity and our own inner landscapes with the help of special guests, guided meditations, how-to's and oh so much more. Yoga has the incredible power to change your life on every level and it all begins with stillness. Now let's begin. Hi everyone and welcome to the last episode of season one. This is episode 15 and it's just a little short one where I'm talking about The importance of rest and integration. A little bit of a personal update as well. And describing how it's so vitally important for all of us to go against this culture of busyness and tiredness as a badge of honour and to use rest to help us integrate healing, growth, learning... All of the Good Things I can't quite believe we've made it this far. It's exciting, exciting times and we're going to keep going, we're going to keep going. So I've realised that a few weeks have passed since I've recorded my last episode for a couple of different reasons. I went away for a week and saw my family in Dorset which was... Not as relaxing as I hoped it would be. Always so lovely to see my family and really important. Some of you might know that my dad died in January and my family has always felt really fractured. I think this is something I'm going to talk about on another episode more in depth but... When my dad died, it brought all of us much closer together. I am one of four kids. I'm the youngest of four. And there are many reasons why. There's one big reason why my family has felt fractured over the years. Since I was a child, really. Anyway, so it's so important to try and keep... those these connections alive my family is so important to me it's a good five hour drive so I don't get to see them very often so I had a lovely week um seeing my brother my sister my other sister lives in California so I don't get to see her much and spend some time with my mum and my stepdad and it's been busy life has been really busy I'm beavering away behind the scenes um I haven't been on social media a huge amount but there's quite a lot going on. I'm still building the new website which is exciting and I've got a couple of new classes and projects coming up. So all of which I will be telling you about and don't forget that you can... Subscribe to my newsletter by heading to the show notes and going to my website. Again, when the new one is up and running, I'll pop it in there. And just scroll down to the bottom of any page. And every week, I do a little update with a new YouTube video, podcast episode, and talk about the classes that I'm teaching that week and... Let's talk about what's relevant in the here and now, different themes, practices we can use, all sorts of yoga. So life has been quite busy. In my personal life there's been quite a lot going on as well, which we are seeking support with. And of course, I have my own therapist that now I see once a month. And so there's a lot of work, personal, private work going on behind the scenes. I'm still also learning my care term and there's a huge amount of growth going on. And this brings me to the theme of today's episode, which is all about rest and integration. So quite often, you know, people look to social media to see what people are up to. And I know that when I go quiet on there, it means that there is a huge amount going on. And I need that kind of space in quiet time internally to process things. And I think it's really wise to not assume that That if someone is quiet, that things are okay. Especially in my family, I've learnt that when certain members of my family go quiet, that actually means that there's something going on. Because not everyone is great at reaching out and asking for help or... asking for support and there can be so many different reasons why and it can be too easy to make assumptions and take things personally and go oh why didn't you come to me for help rather than trying to be really objective and put the other person first and think okay There might be something wrong here. That's my doggie barking in the background. Apologies. There might actually be something wrong here and how can I approach this differently? So from a personal perspective, when I have gone through a period or a I'm going through a difficult time or a period of growth. And that's how it feels at the moment for me personally, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually. And it's all really positive, but it's also really hard. It's hard work. And it's all for the better. for my own personal growth and transformation, but also for the people around me. And in order to process this, to really grasp what's going on, and more than grasp it, but to allow it to settle, to allow it to integrate, you do need that quiet space. That quiet time. It's a bit like, say a yoga class. When we have, in fact it's very much like, at the end of a yoga class we have shivasana, relaxation, yoga nidra. Some sort of relaxation period. And this is vital to our practice. And a lot of people in the beginning say, Kind of think, oh, I need to go. They want to skip ahead. They think, right, I've done my workout now. I don't need to lie here. I need to get on and get home and get my dinner. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But skipping that part is missing a vital part of the integration of our practice. Because when we're still and we're quiet... And we use our sense of self-awareness and we tune in. How am I feeling in my body? What sensations can I notice in my body? What's happening in my mind? How do I feel at my heart center, the emotional center of my being? What's happening? Without that, That sense of recognition, awareness, letting these things integrate into who you are. Ah, I feel this way. I feel this way. I've done my practice and now I feel like that. It's a really super important piece of the practice. Because if you just get up and carry on with the rest of the day, there's no awareness, there's no noticing. It's just carrying on. And there's also a really important part with what happens with your nervous system. So it's all about being still and noticing. Again, you'll hear me repeat myself so often in this podcast because this is really the crux of it. Being still and noticing. And that is when you can begin to learn and move forward. If you're not noticing, if you're not being still, if you're not... Someone said this to me the other day and I loved it and I've used it a couple of times since. I'm not sure, I can't remember exactly who it was. I think it might have been my therapist actually. Imagine you're being like a snow globe. Your whole being is like a snow globe. And when you're stressed or when there's a lot going on, the snow globe is getting all shaken up. Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake. At some point, you need to put the snow globe down and let everything settle. Everything settle down. All those lovely little twinkly snowflakes. Settle down, settle down and be still. And that's where the growth happens. That's where the integration of what you've learned and practiced, whether it's mentally, emotionally or physically happens. can happen it's the same as when you go to the gym and you're lifting weights in the gym that's not actually where the muscle is built of course it's a it's key because without doing that you're not going to build the muscle but your muscle actually builds gets built when you're in a period of rest, when the body is at rest. That's when the muscle fibers are repaired, stronger, thicker, bigger. So what I'm trying to say in this episode is take time for rest because it's not just rest, it's integration. It's growth. It's allowing everything to settle so that you can take some time also to be reflective and to listen to the voice within your inner self. If you don't take the time to be still, notice, listen. That inner voice can get drowned out by the constant busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busyness of everyday life. And something that I find really difficult in our culture here in the UK, and we're not alone in this, is that being tired and being on the go all the time is kind of like a badge of honour. In my previous career as a makeup artist, I worked in TV, did a tiny bit of film, but mainly TV for 12 years. As most people will know, the hours are killer. So, I was working in the news for six years and my shift started in London at 4.30am, which meant that I had to get up at quarter past three, and I had to go to bed at latest 8 o'clock in the evening. It had an incredibly negative impact on my body, which I'm still feeling now, years later. I developed food intolerances and all sorts of things. And within the culture of working in television, and it's... Particularly in makeup, but it really is the whole TV crew, you're not allowed to say that you're tired because everyone is knackered. So I learned that quite early on from another makeup artist. Don't say you're tired, she said. Everyone is tired. You just keep going. You fuel up on your coffee, you eat your good food, you take your Barocca, because that was really in at the time, you know, years ago, and you keep going. You do what you can, you keep going. And it was, and still is in some careers, it really is a badge of honour. Like, I'm fucking exhausted, how great is that? No. No, it's not. And it's funny how wrapped up in that you can get. And of course I was younger and... ambitious and I wanted to achieve, so I went with it, even when my body was screaming at me. And now I prioritize rest. You know, and sometimes I still have that kind of little voice in my head saying, can't say you're tired. You can't rest, it's lazy. And I have to really have a word with myself and say, no, you do. You need to rest. You need to rest. So there we are. It's so, so important to take your rest. Have an afternoon nap. I love an afternoon nap. I'm very lucky that I... can have a nap and then sleep again at night. I know I'm very lucky with that. But I was saying to a client the other day, even an after lunch meditation can be a really beautiful way to set you up for the rest of the day, to avoid that kind of sleepy after lunch energy slump. 20 minutes of mantra meditation, any kind of meditation that you like to practice, really allows you to just rest, Recharge your batteries, recharge your mind, have a bit of stillness and quiet. It allows you to integrate what's happened in the morning. Let the snow globe settle before you carry on with the rest of your day. That's why evening meditations are really beautiful as well, because it allows you to process your day in stillness and quiet. It allows the inner voice to come through. It allows you to get ready for sleep. It allows all those snowflakes to settle down. I also think it's really important and vital, in fact, for healing. Not just physically, but emotionally as well, mentally as well. We need to take more time in stillness and quiet and let ourselves get bored. Let the mind wander. To put away the phones. I'm talking to myself as well here with this. To put away the phones. Put away the tech. Turn off the radio. Turn off the TV. Be still. Be quiet. Be with your own mind. The voice of your own mind. The voice of your true self. Your inner self. Let your soul's voice speak to you. You can't hear it if you're constantly being stimulated by Instagram, the news, the TV, the this, the that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Because what we are, we are what we consume, not just our food. But the information around us, we are consuming so much information, more than we are ever physiologically, biologically designed to do. No wonder we're all exhausted. It's time to unplug, switch off, put away, open a book. Or just sit. Listen to the birds. And just sit. Close your eyes. Just be. Rest. Allow yourself to do that as much as possible. And yes, we have busy lives and kids and schedules and some of you might be saying to me right now, but yeah, that's easy for you because you have a simple life. I have actually designed my life this way. I am very lucky. I'm very lucky. But after 12 years in makeup with horrific hours, I am designing my life now the way I want it to be. I don't want to get up at quarter past three in the morning and go to bed at eight o'clock at night. And that has meant that I have made some sacrifices and some changes and some people haven't understood it. But your life is yours to lead and there is always a way To find time for the important things. It's just about prioritising them, recognising the need and choosing yourself. Wherever possible, choosing yourself and your needs and putting them first. So my friends... I'm very excited for season two. I already have a lovely guest booked in. I'm going to tell you more about that in the next episode. She is a shaman and she's going to be absolutely fascinating. She's a lovely friend of mine who I met through my partner and she's just going to be, it's going to be a really fascinating, powerful conversation. And so much more. We're going to have more guided meditations, some guided breath work, lots and lots more. We're going to be talking about books and scriptures, ancient yoga texts, what to choose if you're diving into yogic philosophy. We're going to be talking more about Ayurveda. So much is happening. to come so thank you so much for joining me and I look forward to seeing you in season two and please if you're on holiday amazing if you're not be sure to take a rest as much as you can and I will speak to you again very soon Thank you so much for listening to the Be Still and Notice podcast. I really hope you enjoyed this episode and perhaps it even added something to your life. If you know someone that might benefit, please share this episode with them. And of course, a review would be so much appreciated. Please find all the information relating to this episode, including relevant links in the show notes. And until next time, sending you so much love and light on your path to yoga.