The Art of Rest exists to help people reclaim their attention and restore their nervous systems — so creativity, connection, and meaningful living can be sustained without chronic depletion.
THIS WORK BEGAN AS A QUESTION
At 3 AM I hit a wall. The papers strewn around me like freshly fallen snow are covered in my own red-inked corrections and I'm not quite halfway done towards the deadline of my thesis proposal around my first independent research. The irony of my predicament is not lost on me. My proposed title is "How Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Relate to Objective and Subjective Sleep Health Factors Across The Week" and here I was, flogging myself with self-criticism, doubt, and stress in the middle of the night. I hadn't moved my body in hours, I probably hadn't eaten food since 6 PM that evening. "I'll sleep when I get this project done," I thought. I was too early in my graduate school career to realize that your projects are never really finished.
"I'll sleep when I get this project done."
Over the next several years of graduate school I was disillusioned by the grind. I was with brilliant minds researching biomedical markers of stress and most of my mentors were over-worked, under-resourced, and under-slept. It was rare that I saw a senior colleague of mine prioritize healthy social relationships, creativity, or play over long hours in the office staring at a screen. As someone specializing my studies in sleep health, I was often confused how tired everyone seemed to be. Many of them wore this fatigue like a badge of honor.
In my studies, I began to peel back the complex and interesting nuances of what sleep is, what it does, and how it interacts with the body's stress-response system as a whole. I became intimately aware that sleep impacts everything we do, and everything we do impacts sleep. In the research, we call this a "bi-directional relationship." The more time I spent learning about human stress, sleep, and how they intertwine with factors like mindfulness, self-compassion, creativity, social support, and nature—I realized that sleep was not "good" or "bad," but was often a telltale sign of how stressed or well-rested our bodies were. As someone who has struggled with sleep and slowing down long enough to rest most of my life, I started to ask a different question. "What is my sleep trying to tell me?"
As I started asking this question, everything changed.
I could no longer ignore the cultural norms built around toxic productivity, rather than what robust information we know about how our biological bodies, or unique systems, need to thrive. I became insatiably curious about why neuroplastic pursuits like creativity, play, awe, and social bonding were consistently overlooked as tools for building and protecting capacity.
"What is my sleep trying to tell me?"
Like a dream, The Art of Rest didn't come together all at once. It was a weaving of seemingly disparate threads held together by curiosity, care, and compassion. The longer I stayed with each, seemingly disparate piece, the more clarifying the entire tapestry became until a cohesive understanding formed.
In my graduate studies, I had learned that being in our "fight or flight" response was not bad, and being in our "rest and digest" response was not better.
I learned that we need to be able to access both, fluidly, at the appropriate times. I also learned that sometimes we get stuck and need a bit of help to create a new roadmap back to our own restful landscapes.
Similarly, as put this knowledge into action, I found that straightforward, "evidence-based" answers worked well for some people, while more meandering creative practices and mindfulness training worked for others. Nearly all of the people I worked with had major shifts with their sleep and stress systems when they used both. Importantly, I found that each person has their own unique nervous-system configuration, journey, and preferences.
We are each drawn to our own rhythms, as we should be. Our support systems should be curious about those preconditions, preferences, and desires and honor them as best they can.
The Art of Rest is built off of a culmination of my specialized training as a psychological researcher, my 16+ years as a backcountry whitewater guide, my 18+ years as a movement facilitator and artist, and my 18+ year background in non-profit, social justice, and community building work. As a lifelong teacher and learner—I'm obsessed and delighted by what I do.
The Art of Rest is a psychoeducational and creative practice that helps
people understand and work with their nervous systems so they can live full, vital lives without burn out being our baseline. It supports individuals and organizations doing complex, meaningful work who are seeking a more sustainable way to create, lead, and connect.
It bridges science and creativity, treating rest and action as an ongoing relationship rather than a destination. And as with most ongoing relationships, we believe that our relationship to rest can be done with creativity. care, and compassion.
When You Live Your Life Creatively—
The Art Takes Care of the Rest
OUR VALUES
Regeneration > Extraction
Reciprocity & Relationship
Embodied Understanding
Agency & Self-Trust
Clarity without Pretension
