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Just Rest

Rest is not a nice to have, it is a neurobiological imperative. It puts a deposit into your body budget and helps you stave off the negative effects of unmitigated stress while promoting positive neuroplasticity. Each time you engage in NSDR you are healing important circuitry in your brain–setting yourself up to operate in the world with more ease and proficiency.

Just Rest-River Forest-5
Just Rest-Ocean Waves-5
Just Rest-Song Birds-5
Just Rest-Sound Bath-5
Just Rest-Soft Rain-5
Just Rest-Gentle Beach-5

5 Minute Rest

Just Rest-River Forest-10
Just Rest-Ocean Waves -10
Just Rest-Song Birds-10
Just Rest-Sound Bath-10
Just Rest-Soft Rain-10
Just Rest-Gentle Beach-10

10 Minute Rest

20 Minute Rest

Just Rest-River Forest-20
Just Rest-Ocean Waves-20
Just Rest-Song Birds-20
Just Rest-Sound Bath-20
Just Rest-Soft Rain-20
Just Rest-Gentle Beach-20

The Details

HOW TO SET UP: 

  1. Connect with headphones. Computer or phone speakers won’t sound good and it won’t feel like an immersive experience. You’ll be able to get into a deep state of calm faster and more easily if you wear headphones.

  2. Recline in some way. Lie on the floor, couch, or bed. Recline into a comfy chair and rest your head back. If neither of those are possible, stack your forearms on the desk in front of you and rest your forehead on them.

  3. Soften your jaw, shoulders, and hips. Let all of your muscles disengage and sink into whatever is holding you up. 

  4. Close your eyes.

  5. Listen.


 

TIPS FOR AN OPTIMAL EXPERIENCE:

  1. Allow the sounds to do the work. You don’t have to DO anything. You get to just BE. This is NOT a meditation. Meditation requires focused attention, while NSDR allows you to rest. 

  2. Listen with your body just as much as your ears. Notice the physical sensations you have deep in your muscles, deep in your gut, deep in your chest, and head. The physical sensations that come along with this deep rest are pleasurable, so you want to enjoy them. This is part of the benefits of this being a waking experience. When you sleep at night you are unconscious and don’t get to enjoy how good it feels to be that relaxed. Non-sleep deep rest gives you the opportunity to fully experience and enjoy being deeply relaxed. A close example is how you may feel while receiving a massage. 

  3. Your thoughts will eventually quiet. Don’t worry if you notice you are still going through your to-do list in your head. Just notice and come back to listening and feeling the sensations in your body. You’ll eventually be released from active thinking. The more regularly you do non-sleep deep rest, the more quickly you will drop into that deep state of calm, and the thoughts will quiet more easily. You will get to experience yourself without all the noise in your head. You’ll start to get a peek at who you are when all of the busy is sloughed off. 

 

RECAP:

  • To get NSDR, we have to close our eyes, recline in some way, and listen to one of these guided tracks (or silence).

  • NSDR puts a deposit into your body budget so you are less likely to get overwhelmed, frayed, irritable, or start catastrophizing.

  • NSDR helps us retain information because it's during these rest periods that myelination happens in our brains.

  • The sounds of silence, nature, or singing bowls that accompany NSDR are an antidote to all the noise we encounter in our lives. 

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