Please follow the link below to read about and contribute to our Community Rest Program Campaign! We appreciate you!
https://www.omprakash.org/global/the-embodied-leadership-project/crowdfund/community-rest-program
We are inspired to cultivate a community conversation on rest WHILE offering unique, engaging and interesting ways to access rest such as healing with horses, sound healing, rest theory and book clubs, and trauma-informed yoga. The work happens in-person, online and via video.
Here are several ways you can get involved with the project:
a) Follow @therestclinic on Instagram where you can learn more about the work and upcoming rest opportunities
b) Join the Email List to receive weekly free rest journey emails that explore equine-assisted healing and study the work of Tricia Hersey
c) We offer an abundance of free rest workshops and experiences to people of all ages, consider donating to our campaign in step 2 below
d) Schedule a 1:1 rest experience with Jamila in her rest residency at the Community Music School of Springfield. Please email: RestClinic413@gmail.com to schedule. 1 hour (Sliding scale $70-$125)
e) If your group, business or organization would like to schedule a workshop, talk, mindfulness moment or experience - please email Jamila at RestClinic413@gmail.com with your budget and
Rest Experience (30 min)
This is video features two horses. Horses are incredibly therapuetic animals who can support us not only when we are weith them, but also through video and imagination.
The energy and presence of horses has a striking impact on our imaginations which is why they are such a prominant symbol and archetype. Simply seeing their image and hearing their breath sounds can invoke a strong connection to their loving hearts and wise ways of moving through the world. They can move fast but they also move slow. They pause. They rest. People will often talk about "Horse Time" Which means that when you are working with horses - you will be slowed down to move at their pace.
I invite you to drop into Horse Time and spend some time gazing at the horses and then feeling them in your imagination through the video and guided rest practice below.
This 30 minute guided rest practice incorporates Equine-Assisted Learning and Trauma-Informed Yoga Nidra below.
You are invited to find a quiet space to watch this video and let the slow healing energy of horses help you rest.
The widespread inability to rest is a huge public health issue, leaving many of us perpetually exhausted and carrying unresolved trauma.
The Rest Clinic is The Embodied Leadership Project's creative response to this crisis. The clinic's purpsoe is to provide trauma-informed restorative spaces - both in-person and virtual - where individuals of all ages can reconnect with their bodies, release exhaustion, and learn about rest.
Through the calming sounds of the handpan drum, expressive arts & theory on rest, the power of our imaginations, and the peaceful presence of horses, we rest together - building community care and nourishment.
The Rest Clinic has partnered with Elias Brookings Elementary School in Springfield, MA and together we are bringing the peace of Horses to the students through the power of imagination and the handpan drum. When you donate to our campaign, your dollars go directly to supporting this free opportunity for youth. We appreciate your support!
HART (Healing Arts Reparations Team) is a circle of dedicated volunteer administrators offering one to two hours per week or month of administrative, consulting, or strategic guidance for the Clinic and its Fellowship - which aims to bring Rest to Black artists and community leaders.
The Rested Village Fellowship nurtures and provides rest to Black artists, creatives, and healers by providing administrative support, grant writing assistance, marketing resources and a rest retreat - engaging around a conversation around arts and health to be reported back out. Apply Here
The Clinic exists as a response to two foundational experiences:
As a community, across age, race, culture, class and gender, we are collectively grappling with trauma and exhaustion for many reasons.
As a community, the majority of us are interested in feeling better and we desire to create a better world.
The Clinic proposes 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.
The Clinic acknowledges 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—when we don’t practice rest or support others in doing so—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.
The Clinic invites the 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.
The Clinic offers gentle, engaging, creative, in-person and online rest-based programming that serves rest to people of all ages: both kids and adults.
Our framework is rooted in embodiment, trauma-informed somatics, therapuetic practice with horses, healing music, the teachings of key organizers, leaders, artists, and teachers of rest—including Tricia Hersey, Tracee Stanley, and nature herself.