I so appreciate this Q and challenge! Very timely for me. I don’t know if attending a certain leadership wellness retreat would be considered restful, so my other plan is to have more focused rest this coming Sunday, Sept. 21. For the past few months, my intention has been to make at least one of my weekend days a day to rest and recharge and not scheduled with activities unless they feel supportive with resting and recharging. So far it’s been really helpful to be more aware of how I’m using my time and making sure I have rest time. My latest challenge is to apply this to my daily life and schedule rest time every day. I’m slowly building the habit to wake up earlier (ideally 5am or 5:30am) than usual and do the various embodied practices that Anna introduced in the 5-day energy boost challenge, which I’ve continued to do sporadically. I want to do these more consistently in the mornings to help start my day without feeling rushed. I’ve been waking up around 5:30am, but then my sweet cat sleeps by my head so it’s been hard to get out of bed when she’s all snuggly.

I appreciate the somatic aspect of qigong that supports the mind:body connection a lot more for me than mindfulness practice, which I still appreciate but feel there are already a lot of resources available for that compared to qigong, which might also be because I’m new to it.

@Marleen Westerhof Same, I started writing in my journal but then stopped when I realized I'd have to write everything since I was challenging myself to smile as much as possible for 24hrs. Since doing this, i've also noticed that I'm smiling a lot more and that the activity also raised my awareness about making unpleasant activities less difficult, and even neutral or pleasurable.

@Anna Choi thank you so much for your response and clarifying the purpose of this practice. I appreciate your explanation and examples. 🙂🙏🏽

@Christina Daniels @Anna Choi That's so amazing that you had this spiritual energy experience! I know these moments can sometimes feel really personal, but I'd love to hear whatever you're willing to share about your experience. I also had a similar experience a few days ago during and after a cold plunge at the beach near where I live, which has a view of Mt. Tahoma/Rainier and trees. I did the body shaking, tapping, and DJ drumming to help warm me up before entering the water, then practiced NOW when feeling the sensations of discomfort and even tried drumming my DJ while using the self-affirming phrases as I faced the soothing warm sun while in the water. After I left the water and was drying myself down, feeling super refreshed and grateful to connect with my ancestors in the salt water, a large osprey suddenly flew down over my head and dove straight into the water close to me and emerged with a large fish in its talons! It caught me by surprise but was so amazing and special to witness! I immediately clapped for its successful hunt as it flew away over the water and into the trees. In some cultures, birds can be considered visitors or messengers of ancestors, so I took it as an affirmation that I was on the right path, to trust this healing journey and process, and that I, and we, were all going to be okay--whatever that looks like, including not being okay--and ARE ultimately okay, especially when we realize how much more aligned and connected we all are to one another. <3

@Lucy Oldham Agreed, I also better understood the value of this type of meditation practice and kept remembering @Anna Choi saying that each time we return to the breath, we are helping to train and rewire the brain, which also helped turn down my self-critical and judgmental thinking/feeling to celebration for coming back to feeling my nostrils as I breathed in and out.

@Simona M I've also been tapping periodically when feeling tension in various parts of my body and find it really helpful to do throughout the day. I'm glad you were also able to release some tensions in those areas, the relief is absolutely energizing!

@Hope Austin I also find tapping my body and drumming my DJ to feel calming, comforting, and grounding. So simple yet so effective and powerful!