A Cure For Exhaustion | Karen Brody | Episode 47

Parents are tired and looking for a cure for exhaustion. It’s ironic because we thought we were done being tired once our children weren’t babies. The truth is that the teen and college years can challenge us just as much as the newborn days did. More, the exhaustion we feel now goes beyond a physical tired, reaching deeper inside. Rest expert, Karen Brody, has an eye-opening discussion with Mighty Parenting podcast hosts Judy Davis and Sandy Fowler. They look at the various aspects of exhaustion and a fresh approach to feeling truly rested.

BONUS: Karen Brody shares the story of how her sons came to use Yoga Nidra and the effect it had on their lives. https://www.patreon.com/mightyparenting

A Favorite Quote from the Show:

It is critical that we have a way to address physical exhaustion, to power our bodies down. We need to calm and release stress.

High Points of the Discussion About A Cure For Exhaustion:

Exhaustion encompasses more than being physically tired.

We have layers of exhaustion that include physical exhaustion, emotional exhaustion, and life-purpose exhaustion.

Even with a good night’s sleep, we can be affected by the other layers.

In yoga nidra meditation, we don’t have to be able identify where the exhaustion is coming from. We can nap our way to a more whole, complete way of feeling in our bodies, our minds, and our spirits.

Yoga nidra meditation leads you to a place where your thoughts go down to zero, a stress-free place.

Have you been angry for a really long time? Do you get angry in general? Is your fuse short? Have you experienced a loss of a loved one and not necessarily moved to a better place in the grief process? You may be suffering from emotional exhaustion.

Messages get imprinted on us: Not feeling worthy. Feeling shame around rest. Maybe you were told you it was lazy to rest. Yoga Nidra helps you release these imprints.

Parents believe we need to protect our kids’ rights. We need to protect our kids’ lights—their passions, what lights them up.

A radical change happened in my parenting when I decided I could be a good enough parent.

Our kids need to learn resilience and tools to help them through.

There are tools to help us. We have to try various tools to figure out what works for us. We need to make time to use these tools.

Yoga nidra is a sleep-based meditation. You do it lying down (or sitting). Most meditation keeps you in a waking state but this meditation takes you from the waking state to the dreaming state to the deep sleep state to a fourth state of consciousness that can’t be gotten in traditional sleep. It’s this zero-stress zone where all your thoughts recede and the pure essence of you comes forward.

This state allows your entire body to fully relax and rejuvenate. We can get this in deep sleep but most of us don’t get deep sleep any more.

Yoga nidra meditation teaches the body how to sleep.

It is critical that we have a way to address physical exhaustion, to power our bodies down. We need to calm and release stress.

Yoga nidra is a guided mediation. It takes you on a very specific journey to sleep.

You can use props, ie. a pillow beneath your knees to relieve pressure on your low back or a blanket to stay warm.

You don’t have to wait until you feel tired to do this. It’s like exercising a muscle, we do it regularly to build it and stay strong.

It’s a great way to refresh when you hit that afternoon slump.

Naps help you check out. Yoga nidra helps you check in.

What a great tool for our kids to use to disconnect from those limiting beliefs and get real rest.

Our Guest:

Karen Brody is an activist, mother, speaker and founder of Daring to Rest.com, an online community helping women (and brave men) take back rest. She is the author of the book, DARING TO REST: Reclaim Your Power with Yoga Nidra Rest Meditation. Karen has written for many publications including Yoga Journal, MindBodyGreen, Best Self Magazine, and hosts the Daring to Rest podcast to help women of the world sleep, dream and awaken.

Her book, DARING TO REST, has been called a “masterpiece,” “simply brilliant,” and a 40-day program that “makes yoga nidra relevant and accessible to 21st-century women, who may need this practice more than any previous generation.”

At DaringtoRest.com, Karen has created an online Academy for women to live and share rest around the world, training women on virtually every continent in yoga nidra “sleep” meditation and her beloved Daring to Rest self-discovery sleep program.

A community organizer for a decade, Karen is also the founder of BOLD, and playwright of Birth, a theater-for-social-change movement that has been seen in over seventy-five cities around the world, and raised over one million dollars to improve maternity care.

She is the mother of two teenage boys, 19 and 17 years old, one who has had significant learning challenges since the age of three. She met her husband in the Peace Corps in her twenties and resides in Washington, DC, but considers the world home.

To learn more or connect with our guest visit http://daringtorest.com/