Stop and rest. Work can wait.
It really can, in most cases. It really must, in order for us to be well.
Mental health is at an all time low. The World Health Organisation has categorised burnout as an occupational phenomenon. Burnout starts with emotional exhaustion—and with Covid-19 driving us to depths of collective vulnerability not felt before, emotions are running rampant.
So what do we need? Compassion for our suffering. For others, yes, but most importantly, for ourselves. One way we can cultivate this is by pausing to re-presence ourselves to what is, now. This moment. This breath. This body, to hold us steady. This heart, to remember our worth.
You are worthy of time. You are worthy of wellbeing. If you’d like to take some, and experience a deeply restorative guided meditation—that’s backed by science—read on.
Yoga Nidra – a systematic meditation
Yoga Nidra means ‘psychic sleep’ ie. sleep with full awareness. The body sleeps but the mind remains awake listening to the guide. The brain is taken into the Theta wave state – the brain waves we experience during dreaming. World renowned expert Tracee Stanley says: “Yoga Nidra is a practice of dissolution and healing… withdrawing the senses from external to internal… so we can expand back into our origin and re-assimilate into our true nature.”
It is a remembrance: that we are human, that we hurt, yet we are whole, and we are worthy.
It is deeply restorative. 30 minutes of Yoga Nidra is considered equivalent to 3-4 hours of sleep.
How to prepare for and receive this practice:
First, please know that I’m an advanced yoga and meditation teacher, trained to create and guide these meditations.
- If you fall asleep, that’s your body telling you what you need today: allow your body to go there. If you stay awake, know that thoughts will spontaneously arise: go with them. The deepest parts of you know what you need to see, hear and do. Whatever your experience each time you listen, you will benefit.
- Be present and do not attach or grip onto what arises. Our mind does enough of this during our active waking hours. For the duration of this meditation, think of yourself as a vessel for energy to flow and healing to occur.
- Be comfortable, warm, and lying down with legs extended, not touching, ankles and feet naturally splaying out; arms by your side palms up, fingers naturally curled.
- Afterward, lie for a while longer to absorb it all. Consider journalling any message you heard or intention you made.
- Be open, and enjoy.
What they said…
Mindfulness as a Way of Being
“Kiwibank engaged Tui to help us ‘land’ the practice of mindfulness with our people. Tui went beyond this, reviewing our leadership programme and offering advice on how to naturally integrate mindfulness not as a ’thing to do’ but a way of being—making what had been effortful, effortless and accessible to all. She also custom designed a modular programme to help people adopt new behaviours after the programme for sustained change.I have long been a believer in the importance of integrating hard and soft skills to development, that scale across both work and non-work life – in my view Tui’s work 100% achieves that.
One of things that sets Tui’s work apart from others in this space is the broad mix of tools and formats (video, audio and worksheets) developed and tailored to the purpose.Previously I have needed to rely on more generic offerings to integrate into leadership development programmes – Tui’s work enabled this to feel fully integrated not an add on.
So many of us know or have the heard the value of mindful practices, yet it remains in my view misunderstood or appears out of reach to many people, Tui’s work changes that – easy to understand, easy to try and easy to adopt.Let’s face it as we navigate the pandemic, changes to how we work – simple practices that everyone can access will deliver so much benefit to our people and our organisations.
This is a gift for you. There’s no sell. But if you’d like to chat about your workplace need:
I’m here to discuss your custom authentic leadership and wellbeing programme, or just one-time support with practical resources to support your people.
Get in touch
