Community Events for August 2024

Hi community,

I wish I were writing to you in better days, but here we are: 300 days into the most live-streamed genocide in history with the looming threat of a larger-scale imperialistic war.

Never in my 33 years have I lived through something like this before.

Never in my 33 years has it felt more urgent to build resilient community care webs where we practice caring materially, emotionally, and spiritually for / about each other right here, right now, as the world as we've known crumbles.

There's a lot that I don't know.

But what I am confident about, what I DO know, is that when we're given every reason to dissociate from our bodies, panic, and run towards (re)action, there is a bigger political agenda at play. There is a someone (or a group of people) who stands to benefit from keeping the masses down, distracted, disempowered, and demoralized.

As counterintuitive as it may seem, it's imperative in those situations that we do the opposite: slow down, check in, assess the situation or information we're given, be discerning, listen for what's not being said, and feel our feelings (because they're a potent source of information from bodies).

So this month's offerings are tailored towards helping you cultivate a conscious relationship with some of the most uncomfortable aspects of being human or alive: facing the unknown, making sense of crisis, moving with disruptive change, and healing shame.

We'll explore these themes through our practice of liberatory rest.

My hope is you walk away not only feeling rested, but also more resourced and skillful at navigating the topsy turvy, messy reality of the world we live in with clear eyes, an open heart, and a stronger connection to your own humanity.

Your Restie Bestie,

Cassandra Lam /?Lam Thùy Dung

Founder of Collective Rest

Community Rest Sessions

INTO THE VOID

This month’s Community Rest Session invites you to establish a conscious, humble, and reverent relationship with the unknown.?

We’ll journey into the void not in search of ways to feed our addiction to knowing, but with a willingness to get quiet, listen deeply, and remember that we are eternally wrapped in the unknown’s embrace.?

Perhaps by welcoming, rather than demanding answers or explanations from, the void, we can learn to navigate the unknown facing us as a collective with clear eyes and an open heart.

?? I'm in! ??

Live Workshop on 8/8

REST IN CRISIS & CHANGE

After hosting an earlier iteration of this workshop in February and testing out an in-person version with some clients,?I'm excited to bring an improved and longer version of this workshop to the community!

In this free live 2-hour virtual workshop, we will:

• Unpack the hidden creative potential in the etymology of “crisis”
• Destabilize Western notions of “peace” that limit our understanding of rest while perpetuating violence on people and the planet
• Orient towards liberatory rest to address personal & political unrest
• Learn a practical somatic exercise to decolonize how you relate to your mind, body, heart, and soul

?? I'm in! ??

Community Storytelling Event on 8/14

Collective?(Un)rest:?Unshaming Our Stories of Survival

Join me for a special community storytelling event centering our collective unrest!?Come with your video on or off, willing to share or just to listen, anonymous or as yourself!

Many people begin their rest journey in earnest during a difficult period in their lives. Something startling happens – maybe a health scare or injury, a mental health or spiritual crisis, loss of a loved one or a job – and the magnitude of disruption overwhelms their ability to deny the truth any longer.

Worn down, they can no longer maintain the exhausting performance of success that exchanged their long-term wellbeing for a very short-lived sense of security. Nor can they downplay the costs of operating in boom-and-bust cycles of burnout. It is at this vulnerable and sacred juncture that they finally surrender to something they’ve known deep down inside: they cannot go on living like this. Even so, starting the rest journey is not easy. In the beginning, the temptation to “just go back to how things were” is strongest. We might feel like all we have are unrest stories. Meanwhile, we’re suffering in silence without access to people who understand or to be in the struggle with. So let us?gather to share stories of how we overcame, endured, and survived. We will unburden ourselves of shame, blame, and guilt towards our relationship to rest (or lack thereof).?We will honor, listen to, and compost our unrest stories, recognizing the seeds of a new rest story lies within.

?? I'm in! ??

If you value these free community offerings, will you help me sustain this space?

I am committed to offering virtual rest-affirming spaces?free of charge as long as it's sustainable to do so because it's important to acknowledge how systems of oppression — namely racism, capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy, and ableism — inequitably distribute the conditions and resources to feel safe enough to take rest.?

At the same time, it's important that I preserve my ability to do this work long-term.

This is where community comes in. It's up to US to protect the spaces we value, especially spaces that are publicly countercultural and liberation-focused!

Support Collective Rest by:

1. Inviting a friend to a future Community Rest Session OR
2. Forwarding my newsletter to someone who could use it OR
3. Referring your employer or team to book Collective Rest @ Work OR
4. Signing up for a 1:1 Rest Mentorship session with me OR
5. Becoming a member of the Collective Rest Patreon where you can access audio-only practices?OR
6. [For Asian & Pacific Islander women & femmes] Enrolling in the Fall 2024 cohort of Rewriting Our Rest Stories , my rest program for us to break intergenerational cycles of burnout in community through rest

Thank you for your support!

P.S. If you'd like to share anything (feedback, questions, ideas, anecdotes), please don't hesitate to hit reply. ??

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