Why you’ll find me lying face down on the floor

Fatigue. Anxiety. They’re no joke, especially when you mix them together

I’m a freelancer – someone who has, as a friend glamorously describes, “a portfolio career”. While my friend sees it as glamorous, it really isn’t. It’s simply been a way of working since I left my last PAYE employment (via a happy redundancy) thirteen years ago. 

I’ve loved being able to jump between different types of work, and still do. However, I’ve noticed a change recently. My energy and energy levels are not the same as they were even this time last year. The act of moving between different work roles has begun to feel tiring – some days my mind wants to keep going, but my body doesn’t, while on other days my body is raring to go, yet my mind says, “Nope, not today sister!” (Not unlike Gemma Correll’s illustration on my mug, pictured above).

Coupled with this has been an increase in anxiety.

Could it be perimenopause? Post-pandemic stress? Racial weathering? The cost of living crisis? The state of the world? A combination of all of the above and more? 

Whatever the root causes, taking these cues from my body (and heeding the lessons of painful past experience), I know that I need to make some changes. But changing things overnight is rarely possible, for all sorts of reasons. So, while I assess and put things in place, I find that I’ve been leaning on my rest practices even more, with restorative yoga featuring highly.

I realised some years ago that I needed to learn different ways of taking care of myself, because the old ways did not work.

Sometimes what worked well for you in one season of your life does not work for the season you’re in now.

Does any of this resonate? If you’re in midlife too it might feel particularly pertinent. It can become clear that this is something you need to be intentional about; otherwise you’ll spend all of your energy fulfilling the needs of others with nothing left for your own. 

One of my favourite go-to’s for physical and mental fatigue is face down relaxation pose. (And yes, this restorative yoga pose is exactly as it sounds).

I go into this a bit more in my book. Also, in this month’s edition of The Reset, I guide you through a restorative yoga for anxiety class that includes the rest session for anxiety from Rest + Calm, with some other tips for nervous system regulation. 

(The Reset is a monthly offering for my closed Substack community along with A Peaceful Pause, so if you’d like to receive those too, you can upgrade to paid below.)

On Saturday 20^th May I’m offering The Rest Sessions in-person again at Yoga Point in Brixton. These are a culmination of my teaching and practice to date and began online in 2020 as a response to the pandemic. This is the last one I plan to do for a little while, so I’d really love you to join me. You can find full details and book your place here.

Over to you:

Back in March I considered this question. With that in mind…

In this season of your life, what does rest look like for you?

Let me know in the comments if you feel called to share.