A reflection on rest, rejuvenation and reset

Over the weekend I was invited to attend a virtual wellness retreat through one of my yogi friends, Faith. I was excited to meet the different hosts since it was my first time experiencing a virtual retreat. I was first introduced to the lovely, Rebeckah Price from "The Well Collective". The first question that pop into mind was, "I'm not sure how they will host a retreat virtually for a weekend"? Nevertheless, I was intrigued to find out. We had some interesting conversations relating to rest, rejuvenation and ways of reseting ourselves.

For me rest is a topic that I never knew I had more of a negative opinion towards. Recently, a close friend of mine came up with a way to have me rest by saying "take a rest Jen". I found such humour in that statement because I know sometimes that's not the case. Despite being an immigrant, I'm slowly learning to be more kind to myself yet it can be challenging especially since you represent the minority and taught from a young age to work very hard. Through this wellness experience I realized I was not alone and that the women I got to share space with had similar stories.

I felt pretty confident when saying I can start to make some time for myself, where I will create rest as a practice. I know what you think, it's easier said than done with everything happening around us. Thus, it is important to find your peace and balance, however, with that said we are allowed to feel angry, sad and tired too. Sometimes these feelings are easier to acknowledge through a collective setting. These meaningful conversations that I had gave me insight on the support of having rest as a community. Together, we shared our struggles of acceptance due to our race and ethnicity identities and as a community it allowed me not to feel the guilt of resting.

After going through some of the wellness material and practices this weekend, I end off by saying rest is a form of freedom. Whether we recharge through meditation, yoga, dancing, hiking or whatever ancestral practice you decide to do in order to reset you must hold space for it. Remember you deserve it!

Quotes from retreat:

"you are worth more than your productivity"

"you are allowed to let yourself feel"

"rest is support"

"stop, and pause"

"rest seems like a privilege, it scares us because we constantly live life like we need to prove ourselves"

"as a child of immigrants it is hard to change the mindset of teaching kids rest vs teaching them the hustle or how to hustle"

"you have to work twice as hard as a white person to get half the blessings"

Speak your truth, have a voice.