EP 148: Stillness Practices for Courage in Times of Change with Octavia Raheem

Sex Birth Trauma with Kimberly Ann Johnson

In this episode, Kimberly and Octavia discuss Octavia’s upcoming book “Pause, Rest, Be: Stillness Practices for Courage During Times of Change.” Octavia describes her relationship to rest, stillness, and restoration, and the circumstances in her life that led her to honoring the importance of rest. They discuss how many of us assume fast-paced lives and are often confronted with our own challenges around rest during early postpartum. They also discuss how meaningful rest is deeply restorative and invites us to understand our most authentic selves.

Bio

Octavia Raheem is an author, yoga teacher, and proud mother and wife. She has received national attention for her work training yoga teachers and diversifying the yoga industry and has been featured in Yoga Journal, Mantra Magazine, and more. She is the author of “Gather” and her upcoming book “Pause Rest Be: Stillness Practices for Courage During Times of Change.” She is committed to being well-rested and free.

What She Shares:

–Importance of modeling rest for family

–What meaningful rest is

–How Octavia developed relationship to rest

–How upcoming book discusses prioritizing rest during pandemic

What You’ll Hear:

–Being mothers, authors, running businesses

–Describes modeling rest practices for son and family

–Rest is fuel

–Restorative practices

–Living with the pause

–Learned importance of taking better care of self through motherhood

–Finding rest during the never-ending “to do” list

–Former public school teacher, Cross-Fitter, power yoga practitioner, yoga teacher

–Describes experiencing condition and hospitalization from overworking, dehydration, and overworking muscles

–Describes worrying in hospital over working and responsibilities

–Nurse introduced her to rest, stillness, and pausing

–Devotion to rest was conceived in the hospital

–How postpartum experience forces us to slow down and question our relationship to rest

–Rest as a lover

–Discovering authentic self in a place asking nothing from me

–Simple rest practice: sit for one minute, notice, and feel

–Book describes rest situated during pandemic

–Reading of excerpt from upcoming book

–An invitation into the pause

–Power of transmission through words to rest and pause

–Accessing rest in a plethora of ways

–Describes beginning book about “endings,” writing in June 2020

–Endings always before beginnings and becoming

–Collective and communal honorings of endings

Resources

Website: https://octaviaraheem.com/

IG: @octaviaraheem