Re.turning Home Sessions is a series of three Sunday two-part restorative yoga practices about returning home to ourselves and each other.

- Part one (+/- 20 minutes): Opening circle and related activity (depending on the week this will be a relational connection activity (such as a short game / collective movement) or journaling / creative activity.

- Part two (+/- 70 minutes): Restorative yoga practice and closing circle (depending on the week this will either be sharing or journaling/drawing).

Why? Much of life runs on inertia: we follow paths we did not always choose, and lose track of who we are along the way. Returning home is a way to symbolise us coming back to ourselves, allowing ourselves to rest in order to wake up to the truth of who we are and to slowly start perceiving life (again) to be more than an instrument and therefore something that cannot be optimized. As such, rest is a form of resistance…

« A simple refusal motivates my argument: refusal to believe that the present time and place, and the people who are here with us, are somehow not enough. » (Jenny Odell)

How? Slow, supported rest is a way to notice this and come home / return. Restorative yoga creates conditions in which the body and nervous system are invited to release effort entirely. Not top down, but bottom up: the practice unfolds through allowing rather than directing. In doing so, it activates the parasympathetic nervous system that allows rest and restore.

« I wish you rest today. I wish you a deep knowing that exhaustion is not a normal way of living. You are enough. You can rest. You must resist anything that doesn’t center your divinity as a human being. You are worthy of care. » (Tricia Hersey)

Side notes:

1. I understand yoga as a collective healing practice that sees the interconnectedness between (the healing of) all living beings and the earth. We practice with respect for the roots and origins of yoga.

2. The sessions draws on Tricia Hersey (Rest Is Resistance), Jenny Odell (How to Do Nothing), Gall Parker (Restorative Yoga for ethnic and race-based stress and trauma) and Stephanie Foo (What my bones know) and treats rest as a way of resisting a culture that measures our worth by productivity and strongly values the connection between the mind and the body.