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Are you always putting other's needs before your own then finding you have little energy left to nurture yourself?
Do you crawl into bed at night wishing you had the next day off to catch up on rest and get relief from pain in your body?
Tending to another human's physical, mental and emotional needs on a regular basis can take a tremendous toll on the caregiver's own wellbeing...and even more so during a pandemic.
If you feel this truth in your body right now, inhale..........and exhale.
I see you.
This is my story, too...
While growing up, I had the privilege of witnessing my mother's work as a Hospice Nurse in rural Alabama. I absorbed the understanding that tending to illness and death is a both a sacred and fatigue inducing matter.
My mother and her co-workers showed families and their loved ones at the end of their earthly life a depth of grace, compassion, selflessness and tenderness that is as close to holy as I can define. I also saw the physical, mental and emotional exhaustion that accompanies this role.
In my twenties, I became a caregiver for people with special needs and learned how common short-term and chronic burn-out is.
Here's what I learned...
Then I found a practice that transformed my relationship to stress and burnout...
In 2018, at the start of my yoga teacher training, I found myself on a floor doing Restorative Yoga for the first time with about 40 people {we looked a lot like this image below taken in 2020 before the pandemic began} and at the end of the session, I felt something I did not recall experiencing before.
For the first time, I was awake and conscious to my nervous system slowly switching over from what I then described as "active & busy" to "fluidly resting". My joints were supported by soft props, gentle weights hugged my limbs and a cozy blanket warmed my core. My mind began to think very clearly and my heart felt unusually open. I thought.....what is THIS?
I began to wonder how different the world would be if more people who gave themselves in service to the world could feel this level of mental clarity, inner integrity & stability and tender safeness in their own bodies more often.
Would the quality of their service or care change? And how?
Would their relationships to themselves and others change?
"Deep rest and awareness of the health of our soul and body is something that is often overlooked in busy and stressful lives. I recently attended a session of Restorative Yoga after experiencing the death of a loved one. Lydia's calm and gentle guidance helped me return to my body and re-focus attention on myself after a season of caregiving."
-Jen Manning, Special Events Coordinator at Alzheimer's Association®
Care giving is already stressful.
Then 2020 happened and care givers took an even more demanding front seat in society.
Who is the Restorative Sanctuary for?
Healthcare workers of all kinds worked a gazillion hours to bring solutions and ease and still we lost so many souls too soon.
Families forced to stayed at home began caregiving on a different level.
Adults caring for aging parents or loved ones with special needs family members at home or in care centers took on the heartbreaking task of navigating social distance care giving.
Midwives, doulas, death doulas, and others birth workers soothed anxious parents and delivered babies during a pandemic.
The heaviness of loss, stress and grief is still in our collective body and even more so in marginalized BIPOC communities.
What is Restorative Yoga?
Restorative Yoga, also known as the “Rest and Digest”, practice originated from the teachings of B.K.S. Iyengar. One of Iyengar’s senior teachers, Judith Lasater who popularized Restorative Yoga in the U.S. calls it “an active relaxation.”
Through long-held, prop supported postures, this practice teaches that even though a pose appears to be still, there is a subtler action going on that involves a symphony of breath and body that brings the entire being into a state of deep repose and release. With support, energy is received, tension is released, circulation is improved without the need to expend great energy.
What is Somatics?
Soma means “the living body” and somatics refers to practices of being in dialogue with the living body.
The first way we experience the world is through sensing our whole body. It’s the most primal form of inner communication that directs all thought, feeling, and action. We explore these practices as a means to embody. To embody, means to manifest – to make visible, tangible, and real. The word ‘soma’ originated from Thomas Hanna, founder of Hanna Somatics, which he defined as experiencing the body from within, and the study of the body through a personal experiential perspective. The mind and the body are not separated but experienced together, wholly. It is the absence of effort.
The difference between restoration and somatics is sensing through stillness verses sensing through gentle movement. During these sessions, we will integrate the two into a somatic-restorative sequence.
Lydia Atkins
Lydia is a 200hr yoga instructor through Here Now Yoga taught by Kimberly Drye and Rebecca Impello with additional training in somatic-restorative yoga taught by Mellissa Smith-Wilkinson at Pranava Yoga Studio.
Lydia is especially inspired by Melissa’s work leading the Retreat for Caregivers of Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
Lydia’s passion, during this unprecedented time on earth, is to guide others in discovering ease, wonder and connection with their bodies and to remind them of their birthright to joy and comfort, especially through personal and collective crisis.
Her vision is to support caregivers in moving through the stress cycles and emotional exhaustion experienced in their personal and professional ways of giving to others.
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