Sacred Rest
I offer Sacred Rest as a weekly anchor - a space in time to return to centre and remember who you are. The class is roughly 75% Yin yoga and 25% Shamanic ceremony. Let me explain.
The Sun
In August 2022, I found myself standing in front of the Aztec Sun stone in Mexico City. I had taken the longest walk from my hostel to the Museum of Anthropology, not realising that stone, which tracks days, seasons and cosmic cycles, would be here.
How had I been so distracted that I’d come all the way to Mexico and not realised this was here? The Aztecs had been a standout topic in primary school: gods, sacrifices and temples. As I stared into the face of Tonatiuh, the sun god in the centre of the stone, the hairs on my arms tingling, I was little Alice again in her school uniform - captivated.
This giant stone had drifted somewhere deep under the surface of my conscious mind, waiting patiently for me to find it two decades later and several thousand miles from home. It was more than memory, it was remembering. I connected deeply to the excitement I’d felt as a little girl, in the present standing with the stone whilst simultaneously back in school. Like a portal had opened up between now and then.
This feeling was described by 18th-century philosopher Immanuel Kant, who I learnt about during English A Level. He said the sublime (this sense of awe) happens when imagination fails to grasp the immensity of what we’re encountering. Think standing in front of a mountain range, sunsets on the beach or listening to emotive live music. In this case I was staring into the stone face of the Aztec sun.
These moments often contain paradox - a reminder of our smallness and our capacity for expansion. When these moments happen, it’s as if time stops, and in this space I feel like I’ve dropped into presence and joy to a deep level.
“Synchronicity is an ever-present reality for those who have eyes to see.” - Carl Jung
Do we have to wait for these moments in faraway places, or can we cultivate that same sense of presence closer to home? I want it to be easier to tap into that feeling of both something larger than myself, but also only mine. Pure joy that comes from remembering who we truly are beneath the noise of daily life.
But as awe can unlock joy, we know the body can bury grief and pain. As Bessel van Der Kolk writes in The Body Keeps the Score, trauma lives in the body. Jungian analyst Marion Woodman takes this further - she believed the body is the unconscious mind. Every sensation, every breath, has the potential to open a passage to memory, emotion or ancestral residue.
Yin asks us to pause and to sit with sensation. To soften into stillness and discomfort - not exactly words most of us would use to describe our daily lives. But if you breathe deeply and exhale slowly, the nervous system may soften. The slow speed of the practice is essential - move too quickly and you could miss important messages from within.
This is the heart of Sacred Rest: An offering of space for the body to speak and the mind to listen. When we connect to deep rest, merging yin yoga with third eye practices like shamanic journeying, we can enter the terrain of our inner world. In this space (just above sleep), time, identity, and form feel fluid, and the boundary between ‘me’ and space might dissolve. Memories may rise and intuition can lead to deep connection and visions from your inner teachers.
The Circle
Mexico is, of course, alive with culture and vibrance. Later on in my trip I travelled to the Oaxaca Mountains, experiencing shamanic magic amongst the clouds. From the mountains, I headed south and, after several weeks, found myself in Tulum.
Over 20 years after first learning about the Aztecs, I’m experiencing my first Temezcal - sat in circle, in a traditional Mexican sweat lodge ceremony. Somehow, I’d found myself tagging along with a mixed stag and hen group. In the intense heat of the lodge: thick with steam and the scent of copal, I listened, as the American bride and groom declared their love for each other over the volcanic stones.
Of course, when it was my turn, over the steady beat of shaman’s drum, I declared my appreciation for Americans, which got a good laugh from everyone in the dark stone womb of the lodge. Why I turn to humour in the face of authenticity? That’s a question another day.
I have been in many different circles since then (with less Americans). There is a feminine softness to the silence of ceremony. I like to feel held by the teacher. This feels a lot less jarring to me than simply sitting in meditation; there is profound magic in breathing and moving with other humans.
There is also something deeply powerful in a circle. With no head, everyone in a circle is equidistant from the middle. We sit within the cyclical nature of life - the moon, planets and seasons, the four directions of the medicine wheel, a mandala or the hero’s journey. A circle is both endless and nothing - an intimate collective consciousness between all within.
“Rituals give us a container to hold both the mystery and the mundane. They anchor us in the sacred, helping us remember what matters most.” - HeatherAsh Amara
Anchoring the centre of the circle is the altar. A physical sign of our intention - A bridge between the seen and unseen. We offer our favourite totems to honour the elements and our guides. Unbeknown to me, I’ve been creating altars since I was a little girl - shells, stones and leaves decorating shelves and corners - treasure or trash?
My belief is that every class can be a ceremony: A space to set a new intention or to release what feels heavy.
Both music and silence are essential to this process. Music offers a subtle narrative to our journey on the mat. Strings for the heart, a drumbeat to ground and the right words sung can resonate, guide or cradle. My Spotify algorithm has been nothing but music for classes these last four years. I curate a new playlist for almost every class I teach.
Homecoming
Soon after returning from Mexico, I began a year-long study of Sacred Alchemy and Hypnotherapy with hypnotherapist and shamanic badass Alexia Elliot. It was one of the most transformative courses I’ve done to date.
Like the sun stone in Mexico City, the course appeared, this time less poetically, on Instagram. This sign didn’t come from the past, this time it was that deep belly instinct, telling me: this is going to be useful one day - you’ll need this soon Alice.
My weeks with Alexia and the other students continued one weekend a month, and together we watched the seasons change in her home. I learnt for the first time how to navigate the swamplands of the soul - I met my shadow and made friends with her. It wasn’t just traditional Hypnosis, we explored the shamanic realms, storytelling and metaphor, reality tunnels, parts work, sacred ritual, NLP and the work of Carl Jung.
I soon started to weave these new teachings into my Yin yoga classes, particularly the Shamanic journey through the Axis Mundi (the tree of life). After 70 or so minutes of yin yoga, the mind is ready to drop down into the body, my students were perfect guinea pigs for me to practise these new teachings.
A shamanic journey now comes towards the end of every Sacred Rest class, just before savasana. I don’t want to reveal the rabbit in my hat, but you’ll be led on a journey, retraining your imagination and connecting deeply to your inner teachers.
We live in a world that tries to disconnect us from our deep belly knowing. But our ancient intuition lives in the body, she lingers in the sacral chakra ready to be integrated. Our energetic centre for creativity, emotion and flow. When in balance we feel connected to that inner compass. But this energy centre is often the first to become stagnant or overactive - for most, there is no time to process emotion in our busy lives.
“It's not the meaning of life we seek but our aliveness. Once we have that, the meaning of life is obvious.” - Anodea Judith
Sacred Rest offers a 90 minute pause. A space outside of time. During the class, a quiet kind of noticing happens. We notice our body, our thoughts, our breath. We notice ourselves noticing, and in doing so we disassociate just a little from the endless pull of distraction - we are simply alive.
Don’t worry, the goal is not to switch off our internal monologue but to hear it with compassion and begin to understand who is speaking to us and what do they need? If we listen carefully, we begin to reconnect with the deeper wisdom in our belly, we remember - our ancestors, inner teachers, Mother Earth and our inner child. And then as the practice ends, we carry a little more of that remembering back into the world.
I would love for you to join us soon.
Use code FIVEOFF for five pounds off your next single class pass booking. Please note that this code is valid for one-time use only.