The Power of Rest
Testimonials & case studies of the impact of rest & relaxation for my clients.
Life affirming Yoga Therapy for Gina
Gina engaged me to build a greater sense of strength and vitality in her life. She was moving to a new state with her wife and they had become focused on starting fresh and maintaining and increasing their health and wellbeing. However in this time, Gina was diagnosed with osteoporosis in her spine. This was a shocking and unexpected diagnosis for my client.
During our sessions together, we collaboratively built at-home practices she could share with her wife, that worked for her schedule, and that created muscular strength and stability to protect against injury and help manage her diagnosis. We also built mindful practices that helped her to let go of the fear and worry her diagnosis had understandably created. We worked on her balance, strength and mindfulness, with a focus on creating and maintaining an uplifted, positive mindset. The results were deeply life-affirming, as Gina herself reported:
“Given my diagnosis was brand new, I really thought (at the start) that I was fragile and had missed my opportunity to feel healthy and strong again! I do not feel like this now though. Thank you.
The effect of this yoga therapy journey has been the wonderful feeling of building physical strength and mental/emotional softness side by side, instead of being diagnosed as "sick or frail.”
Gina has now moved with her wife where they continue to use the practices we crafted in-session for her. They both report feeling the positive ongoing effects and are enjoying their new lifestyle, feeling strong and confident in this new chapter of their shared lives.
Better sleep & more energy through James’ Rest Consultation
My client James is a business owner who had a schedule entirely geared to his work across multiple time-zones up until the minute he went to sleep. On average, he was getting 4-6 hours of low quality sleep, no “off-time” and was starting to feel the effects of early stage burn out.
In his rest consultation we identified 3 simple changes that significantly increased his ability to relax, rest and spend down-time with his family.
First, we tweaked what he did in the 30 minute window before going to sleep. This included no work-related activities, especially in the bed: for James that meant no work-related audiobooks or podcasts. Often James identified that while he found this interesting it meant he couldn’t sleep because of the many ideas it produced. He moved this time to the morning -while at the gym and drive to work - to great effect. He felt energised and inspired for the day ahead.
Second, we created a hard boundary around dinner time when at home. For James, this meant the work laptop and phone either stayed in the office or were turned off during this time. This permission to switch off from work and create boundaried time allowed him to engage with his family, and relax. This also flowed on to his (now) phone-free nightly walk with his wife.
Third, James started practicing taking deep reset breaths throughout the day. This simple grounding activity meant that James was able to reset himself and stay calm and focused during the busiest and most demanding parts of his day.
James reported in a brief follow-up that the simple changes we made to his pre-bed routine meant he was getting much better quality sleep and was feeling more energised in the day. He was also going to sleep a little earlier due to the lack of stimulating business content before bed!
His boundaries around his phone and laptop in the evenings also gave him a sense of relief from having to be “on” all the time - he even began to leave his laptop in the office to create a restful boundary around home time. He noted this also had a great flow-on effect to his feeling of connectedness to his wife and kids.
Lastly, using his regular deep breath re-set helped him handle stress and conflict in a calm way and helped him feel less ‘wired’ and frazzled.
The Restorative power of Restorative Yoga for Amber
Amber was recommended to me by her daughter. Amber suffered from complex trauma, fibromyalgia, restless leg syndrome, IBS and poor sleep. Her job was high pressure, very stressful, and as the pillar of her family, she didn’t feel she was able to focus on herself.
She joined me in the studio for several restorative sessions which we coupled with some gentle yoga therapy she could do at home. These sessions were entirely focused on creating a safe space for Amber to relax and let go of tension and pain in her body and her mind. All shapes were created to accomodate where Amber experienced pain in her body and what felt the most soothing to her.
Amber reported that her restorative yoga sessions were one of the only things that helped to alleviate her constant pain, and that she often enjoyed a warm tingly feeling all over as she allowed herself to relax properly.
In her sessions Amber was able to identify an absence of feeling safe to rest in her life and took steps to cultivate a greater sense of safety. As a result, Amber experienced better sleep and reduced pain.
Kind Words