FREE Rest Resources

*To learn more about scheduling Jamila to speak or lead a rest session, please click here

Interesting and alluring ways to turn toward rest and "practice the pause"...

Lack of sleep, burnout, chronic stress and exhaustion have become a public health issue. We are seeking to intervene by providing interesting and effective ways to access rest! 

Each Monday, you will receive an email with a 90 second video of Jamila playing the soothing sounds of the Handpan drum, guiding a moment of pause, and providing a gentle reminder and invitation to remember rest as we begin the work week. The 90 second video is a reminder that rest doesn't have to be long to be effective. You can feel free to return to the video as many times as you like during the week. 

We are currently providing Rest School: A Supplemental SEL Curriculum for Elementary Students and those who care for them. 

Please enjoy these video-based resources from our curriculum that you can use to "practice the pause" experience rest, and take a moment to relax. These mini-movies feature different horses from the herd and offer the opportunity to practice 12-minute, 5-minute, and 3-minute rest sessions. 

Rest with Angus (12-Minutes) 

Rest with Belle (5-Minutes) 

Rest with Dean (3-Minutes) 

Integrated into our work is an ongoing community-based participatory research initiative studying the impact of our work. Through The Rest Clinic, we invite adults and organizations who intervene on behalf of Springfield youth to experience seasonal rest workshops and fill out our rest reflection worksheet, building community and gathering data on the impact of this work. Please email Jamila at embodiedleadershipproject@gmail.com for more information. 

A rest and prayer group that builds community, supports the expansion of peace and supports Springfield, MA youth and emerging adults involved in the justice system. Please email Jamila at embodiedleadershipproject@gmail.com for more information. 

This work exists as a response to two foundational experiences:

1. As a community, across age, race, culture, class and gender, we are collectively grappling with trauma and exhaustion for many reasons.

2. As a community, the majority of us are interested in feeling better and we desire to create a better world. 

We propose that rest is a powerful pathway toward healing trauma, restoring our energy and health, and creating the world we want to live in. Rest replenishes the biological and psychological systems of the body/mind. Rest is key in the process of healing trauma. Rest is a vital aspect of the creative process that can be seen in nature’s rhythms, as well as human’s process of creativity. 

We acknowledge that trauma, chronic stress, and the demands of the world can make accessing rest nearly impossible. Even if we do find the time to rest, our nervous systems may struggle to enter a truly restful state. We are rarely taught about rest or encouraged to prioritize it. When we do not know how to, or are not given permission to, create periods of rest, we miss the opportunity to access the full potential of our creative process individually and collectively. The creative process is foundational to how ideas are developed and implemented across all fields, whether in the arts, humanities, STEM, public service, business, entrepreneurship, or beyond.

We invite the youth, families, leaders, artists, teachers, learners and healers of our community to:

• Gently learn about rest and its complexities on an individual, communal, national, global and historical level. 

• Acknowledge the ways in which we struggle to rest

• Explore different ways to practice rest throughout the day and week

• Consider the implications that our inability to rest is having not just on our own health and stability, but on our creative process, our families, our organizations creative potential, and ultimately those that we serve and love.

We offer gentle, engaging, creative, in-person and online rest-based programming that serves rest to people of all ages: both kids and adults.