Offerings
WEEKLY CLASS
WEEKLY CLASS
Sacred Rest Community Sessions
Join somatic facilitator Stacy Carleton as we disrupt hustle culture through collective rest.
We will check in with our bodies, minds, hearts, and spirits through somatic inquiry, engage in gentle movement to settle our energy, read and reflect on excerpts from Tricia Hersey’s Rest is Resistance, and embody radical community care with a closing guided rest practice. This class weaves together inspiration from meditation, yoga, qigong, mutual aid networks, and community organizing.
In a society that demands hyperproductivity and nonstop busyness, explore what happens when we reclaim our birthright of rest and make space for slowness, tenderness, and the inherent wisdom of our divine bodies.
Please bring (optional):
Yoga mat + pillow + blanket
Sliding scale donation of $10-30 for Zoom sessions
Somatic Book Club: An Experiential Workshop
Workshop at Atrium in the Breathe Building
2305 SE 50th Ave, Portland, OR 97215
March 1, 8, and 15
10:30 am PST
We are living in a time of incredible transformation, and incredible burnout. How can we keep showing up to do the work of creating the world we want, in a way that sustains us?
Join somatic facilitator Stacy Carleton as we explore these questions and disrupt grind culture in this three-week experiential workshop and book club. In each 90-minute session, we will check in with our bodies, minds, hearts, and spirits through somatic inquiry, engage in gentle movement to settle our energy, read and reflect on excerpts from Tricia Hersey’s Rest is Resistance, share our stories of rest and unrest, and embody radical community care with a closing guided rest practice. This workshop weaves together inspiration from meditation, yoga, qigong, mutual aid networks, and community organizing.
Each week features a different passage from Tricia Hersey’s book. This is a book club where no pre-reading is required and you are encouraged to relax while the facilitator Stacy reads to you. (If you would like to read ahead on your own and support Tricia Hersey’s work, please pick up a copy at your favorite local bookstore.) Following the reading, you are invited to reflect through writing, drawing, or quiet contemplation, with an opportunity to share your experiences with the group in a supportive container.
Cozy clothes are recommended to keep you warm and comfortable during our guided rest practice—I recommend wearing layers. Blankets will be provided, or feel free to bring your own, along with a pillow if you choose. Props are available for you to set up your own rest nest during our time together.
Explore what happens to your capacity for navigating and creating social change when you reclaim your birthright of rest and make space for slowness, tenderness, and the inherent wisdom of your divine body.
PART 1 SCHEDULE
Week 1 (March 1): ~p. 27-34 (The idea of rest as resistance and rest as reparations)
Week 2 (March 8): ~p. 61-67 (Why we are not resting)
Week 3 (March 15): ~p. 82-89 (Who is resting for)
Please bring (optional):
Yoga mat + pillow + blanket
A journal or notebook (paper and writing utensils will be provided)
Past Workshops: Community Resilience
This workshop will explore the ideas I shared in my blog post: You Choose How To Meet the Moment
We will engage with Deepa Iyer’s Social Change Ecosystem Map as a framework for anchoring our values and organizing our social change roles. Individually and together, we will explore ways to reset, rejuvenate, and renew our commitments with a different mindset in order to build more sustainable movements.
Wednesday, October 29
7:00-8:30 pm
Leaven Community Sanctuary
5431 NE 20th Ave, Portland, OR, 97211
Sacred Rest Gatherings & Retreats
When was the last time you let yourself rest? Really rest? I bet it’s been a while…
Sacred rest sessions feature somatic healing modalities, meditation, readings, discussion, intuitive movement, or any combination of these. Our primary objective is to ground in community, get cozy, reflect, and receive.
We meet for 60-120 minutes at a time to explore our rest stories and practice the power of resting as radical community care.
Participants are asked to bring their own blanket, pillow, yoga mat, and water if possible.
Sessions take place over Zoom or in person at various locations in Portland, OR.
Participants with the Leaven Community Fall Rest Retreat at Menucha Retreat Center on Kalapuya and Multnomah Lands (Columbia Gorge), November 2024
Sacred Rest is for people who are:
Burnt out, exhausted, and seeking to restore their innate resilience and vitality
Feeling deeply disillusioned by productivity culture and late-stage capitalism
Needing some help creating regular time and space for rest in their lives
Looking for accountability and structure in creating a rest practice
Desiring the solidarity and support of community as they explore their relationship to rest
Wanting to develop courage and self-compassion as they navigate the challenges of choosing rest in a rest-hostile culture
“Our liberation is deeply connected to the portal of healing we can tap into when we rest. Wherever our bodies are, we can find rest, ease, and liberation. Part of our decolonizing resides in deprogramming from our brainwashing about rest as our divine right. We are divine. Our bodies are divine and a site of liberation. Wherever our bodies are, we can find, snatch, and center rest.”