Rest + Reconnect: guided practices for relaxation and emotional wisdom ✌️

[Term 4 dates out now]

This class is a mini-retreat (and reset) for your body, mind, and spirit. You will leave feeling rested, reconnected and renewed. And you will take away inspiration to navigate life’s joy and full catastrophe with more ease and well-being.

This is what you can expect:

💛 Opening and closing rituals to shift gears and bring presence.

💛 Yoga Nidra meditation for embodied rest and inner connection.

💛 Self-compassion practices to deepen your relationship with yourself and build inner strengths.

💛 Simple practices to build emotional wisdom.

💛 Restorative posture with weighted blankets to help ground your energy and connect you with your body.`

💛 An intimate group where a slow pace and quiet allow us all to exhale.

💛 This class is nervous-system informed and is intentionally designed to help counteract our responses to stress by increasing our ventral vagal tone.

By regularly engaging in practices that promote rest, safety, calm and self-compassion, we can learn how to support ourselves through the joy and full catastrophe of life.` We become more stress resilient, feel more emotionally regulated and can access the natural well of compassion and joy already with us. We already have everything we need within us – this class helps you remember.

This class is at the beautiful Kingscliff Saltwater Studios, which is over the road from incredible Dreamtime Beach – perfect if you want a post-class swim.

Term 4 dates:

WEDNESDAYS @ 11am

11 October

8 November

22 November

6 December

FRIDAYS @ 1:30pm

20 October

1 December

If you book 4 classes for this season, it is $80 in total. Message hello@belindahaan.com to arrange.

About Belinda

In this class, Belinda specifically draws on her extensive education and practice in the following modalities:

• iRest (Integrative Restoration) Yoga Nidra
• Restorative postures to nourish our nervous systems (Stillness Through Movement)
• Self-Compassion
• and as an Ambassador of Compassion from Stanford University.

In addition to the above modalities, Belinda has a rich and varied background from senior leadership facilitation and executive coaching to running mindfulness classes and holding sacred space in circles with women. Her style is warm, and compassionate and she has a disarming self-honesty about what it is like to be human. For more information, visit her website. For more information not the practices in the class, scroll below.

Belinda will stay for 20 minutes at the close of class to answer questions or to chat 🌼.

More about the practices

Integrative Restoration (iRest) Yoga Nidra.

iRest is a simple and accessible form of meditation designed for modern day living. It can be particularly useful for people who have struggled to meditate in the past.

iRest provides you with tools to help you relax deeply, release stress, increase resiliency, improve your interpersonal relationships and provide you with greater mastery and control in your life.

People who practice iRest® report:

• Reduced depression, fear and anxiety
• Greater ability to relax and enjoy life
• Reduced insomnia and levels of stress
• Improved interpersonal relations
• Reduced chronic and acute pain
• Increased inner peace and well-being.

Self-Compassion Practices

Each week, Belinda will offer self-compassion practices based on her studies at Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE), Compassion-Focused Therapy training and through her Self-Compassion Core Skills training with Chris Germer and Kristin Neff.

Why does it matter?

Many of us have an underlying assessment that we are falling short in some way. We may have a sinking feeling that we are failing as a mother, or we say the ’wrong‘ thing and spend days looping through self-judgment. We may have high standards of ourselves, and assess ourselves harshly on how we are falling short. We may see others and think they are doing better than us, concluding we are the problem. We may be dedicated to breaking unwanted patterns and beliefs only to find ourselves perplexed by repeating the same loops.

The secret is – most of us have a lot of self-criticism – whether we are aware of it or not.

The question to assess our level of self-compassion is “how are we with ourselves?”. Are we a good time buddy – only ok with ourselves when we are happy and kicking goals? How are we in hard times? How are we with ourselves when things are going pear-shaped?

Self-criticism does not support learning, growth and psychological well-being; self-compassion does.

Self-compassion, along with mindfulness, may be two of the most important life skills we can build. And, like all things that matter, these skills require practice.

By practicing self-compassion in community, you will experience a sense of common humanity – you are not alone. We all have our moments, and we can practise being with ourselves more gently. And when we are, we can be more present and loving in our world. The positive ripple effect of self-compassion is enormous.