Stillness of the body is not the same as stillness of the soul. Here's what a cabin in West Virginia, a 2-minute breath practice, and a year of arguing with rest taught me.
Boy do I feel this. "The inspiration didn’t come during the stillness. It came afterward." This is true with my meditation practice. I can't judge a meditation by any single meditation but what comes afterward.
Absolutely beautiful and exactly what I needed to hear this morning. I know it deep inside me - that I need stillness and I get it in small doses usually sitting by the sea wrapped in layers watching the waves roll in and out but then I go weeks without it until I'm frazzled and burnout and have travel back to the seaside to find the permission to be still again! I love your writing and soul 💙 thank you for sharing 🙏
Brilliantly articulated piece on reclaiming rest without the guilt tax. The distinction between 'being still' and 'allowing stillnes' without justification gets at something deeper about how hustle culture programs the nervous system itself. I remmeber my therapist calling this 'somatic permission' a few years back, basically teaching the body it's safe to downregulate. What really lands here is recognizing stillness as the space where coherence rebuilds, not productivity disappears.
You put your finger right on the quiet hinge of it all. Hustle culture does not just colonize calendars and to do lists. It trains the nervous system to mistrust stillness, to interpret pause as danger or failure instead of repair.
I love the phrase somatic permission. That is exactly what this is pointing to. Not a mindset shift. Not a reframing exercise. A bodily relearning. Teaching the system that nothing bad happens when we stop pushing. That coherence actually returns when we stop justifying our right to rest.
And yes, that distinction matters. Being still can still be performative. Allowing stillness is different. It has no audience, no output, no moral cover story. It is not rest in service of future productivity. It is rest because the body knows it is time.
That is the reclamation piece. Not permission granted by culture, productivity, or worthiness. Permission reclaimed at the level where breath, safety, and clarity come back online.
Your reflection extends the piece beautifully. It names what many feel but cannot yet articulate. That is how nervous systems find each other and settle.
Boy do I feel this. "The inspiration didn’t come during the stillness. It came afterward." This is true with my meditation practice. I can't judge a meditation by any single meditation but what comes afterward.
Absolutely beautiful and exactly what I needed to hear this morning. I know it deep inside me - that I need stillness and I get it in small doses usually sitting by the sea wrapped in layers watching the waves roll in and out but then I go weeks without it until I'm frazzled and burnout and have travel back to the seaside to find the permission to be still again! I love your writing and soul 💙 thank you for sharing 🙏
Oh, this… it’s so good and do simple. Just breathe. Thank you!
So right. Thank you for reminding me.
Brilliantly articulated piece on reclaiming rest without the guilt tax. The distinction between 'being still' and 'allowing stillnes' without justification gets at something deeper about how hustle culture programs the nervous system itself. I remmeber my therapist calling this 'somatic permission' a few years back, basically teaching the body it's safe to downregulate. What really lands here is recognizing stillness as the space where coherence rebuilds, not productivity disappears.
Thank you. That means a great deal, truly.
You put your finger right on the quiet hinge of it all. Hustle culture does not just colonize calendars and to do lists. It trains the nervous system to mistrust stillness, to interpret pause as danger or failure instead of repair.
I love the phrase somatic permission. That is exactly what this is pointing to. Not a mindset shift. Not a reframing exercise. A bodily relearning. Teaching the system that nothing bad happens when we stop pushing. That coherence actually returns when we stop justifying our right to rest.
And yes, that distinction matters. Being still can still be performative. Allowing stillness is different. It has no audience, no output, no moral cover story. It is not rest in service of future productivity. It is rest because the body knows it is time.
That is the reclamation piece. Not permission granted by culture, productivity, or worthiness. Permission reclaimed at the level where breath, safety, and clarity come back online.
Your reflection extends the piece beautifully. It names what many feel but cannot yet articulate. That is how nervous systems find each other and settle.