If
rest were about stopping, or quitting, or being passive, I would have left this post blank to demonstrate this. Instead, let’s entertain the idea that rest is
active. Rest is active because life has a fullness of presence within you no matter what you are
doing, or not doing.
Charise’s Turn:
Have
you heard of constructive rest? This is a technique I learned in the early
1980s as part of my education for a master’s degree in dance/movement therapy.
What we did is lie on the floor with our feet planted and knees bent and arms
crossed over each other at our chests, even allowing the knees to rest against
each other so that the least amount of effort was employed to support the body
(described further in Human Movement
Potential by Lulu Sweigard, PhD).
Our
instructor, Andre Bernard, led us through a visualization of being a suit of
clothes, allowing for more slackness of muscles and emptying of holding
patterns. This was a way of coming to neutral, of inhibiting habits of tension.
He told us that stress is necessary in life, that a stress free body is a dead
body, that eliminating stress is not a goal, that greater ease in the body and more efficiency of movement can be accomplished with constructive rest.
Get Fired Up:
Get
on the floor! Place the soles of
your feet onto the surface you are lying on so that your knees are bent, and
allow your arms to drape across your chest or at your sides. Close your eyes
and follow your breathing, rest.
Do it again another day. Get on the floor!
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