As a coach and an ardent learner, I have dedicated my life and profession in service of growth. It’s a beautiful thing to watch (or be) a person who has decided that the way they are navigating a situation (or the world) may not be aligned with their intention, so they create a vision and dedicate themselves to do the work to change. But in this ever-changing, overly demanding and hyper-achievement world, many of us seem to be on a perpetual growth train. Always striving to do the work and pushing ourselves to be better.
But nothing blooms in continuum.
In contrast, I’d like to share a lesson from the yoga mat. One of the first poses taught in yoga is called Savasana – the corpse or resting pose. Although it looks easy (it’s the one where you lie down and close your eyes at the end), it has been called the most difficult asana. It is the one where people sneak out at the end of class – perhaps too busy or too uncomfortable with the stillness required but often because the resting pose seems like a waste of time. The irony is that Savasana is actually considered the most important pose in the yoga practice. It is the pose of integration. After pushing and challenging our body and mind, it is the pause at the end of the class when our muscles and our nervous system digest the work we have done and let it land in our body. It’s where the growth happens.
So today, I want to remind us to rest. Not only because we are tired (and perhaps a little too hard on ourselves), but because pause is required for blooming. It is exactly when we stop pushing that practice and intention come together and growth happens.
Like everything in nature, we are designed for moments of rest.
