It’s funny how and when those little moments of clarity and illumination come. Mine came early this morning as, still bleary-eyed with sleep, I wobbled my way through a yoga flow workout.

I had just moved from Downward Dog to a right sided Warrior One then Warrior Two (including several variations of both Warriors). As the instructor on the video lead back into Downward Dog, I fully expected to move back into Warrior One on the left side. Instead she gently lead into Child’s Pose and encouraged a short rest there, saying to use the time to notice the breath and to reset.

You may be unfamiliar with yoga terms. That’s okay. All you need to know is that Downward Dog puts a fair amount of weight on your wrists and the Warrior movements require your core to fully engage to keep balance. I am slowly restoring my fitness levels after a year of little time for anything outside of work and study. And given my age and stage of life, my wrists no longer respond well to weight. So this particular flow was challenging for me and I was not feeling ready to go into the left-sided Warrior sequence. Therefore, the slow easing into child’s pose came as a welcome surprise. I noticed my sense of relief as I rested my head on the floor and enjoyed the gentle stretch, remembering my rhythm of breath. And when the instructor said the time was for reset something small and true dropped into my heart.

This is the role of rest in everyday life. To help us reset. I don’t mean rest just in the form of sleep, as important as that is. I am referring to rest that refreshes our souls. Rest that is “time off” but is even more. Rest that is what the Christian tradition calls “sabbath” rest – a day to literally “cease” from work to simply delight in the goodness of life around us.

I have to be honest – I naturally lean towards Warrior mode in life. My husband and I were just discussing this week how we are both rather intense people who take life too seriously at times and often need to be reminded to play. Between my studies, both our jobs, and caring for our two young cats there has been little margin in our lives recently, every minute fully utilised. And we have some goals that are deeply important to us so we have both been taking on extra work to bring in the money needed to reach those goals. You can live like this for a while, in Warrior mode, as long you know it’s just for season. But you can’t become a way of life. Because you were designed for rest, for play, for space to stretch. After a while your wrists will give out on you, your breath will start coming in shallow gasps rather than rhythmical, deep breaths that keep you centred and balanced.

The Warrior pose looks strong, powerful. But that power and strength come from rest, from reset. It comes from and is restored by what looks like weakness, like surrender.

I had a day at work recently where by the end of the day I was forced to relinquish my Warrior hold and slip not so gracefully into Child pose. My dear husband held space for me to move into what felt like weakness but in reality was surrender to the truth that I am only human and in need of reset. My Child pose that evening looked like tears, questions gently processed aloud with my husband, a long candlelit bath, allowing my husband to make dinner instead of me, cuddling my cats, and an early bed, letting some things that needed doing wait until the next day. By bed time, I had remembered who I really am, felt centred again and ready to go back into Warrior the next day.

I have heard hurry and busyness described as violence as it wreaks violence on our souls, disconnecting us from… well, everything that truly matters. Author Wayne Muller says this:

“When we live without listening to the timing of things, when we live and work in twenty-four-hour shifts without rest – we are on war time, mobilised for battle. Yes, we are strong and capable people, we can work without stopping, faster and faster, electric lights making artificial day so the whole machine can labor without ceasing. But remember: No living thing lives like this. There are greater rhythms, seasons and hormonal cycles and sunsets and moonrises and great movements of seas and stars. We are part of the creation story, subject to all its laws and rhythms.“

If you feel you are in Warrior, well done. Yet don’t be afraid to allow it to be only for a season, moving with more grace than I did into that place that is spacious and restorative for our souls. Or if you are in Child pose, maybe it looks like weakness to you. But remember that it is where your strength will be restored. So embrace this time of reset with all the abandonment of a child.