I’m grateful for... 🧘 restorative yoga
Some thoughts & recommendations to start your weekend
I’m grateful to have some space to rest today, after a long and tiring week. I’m grateful for the kind response I got to my last two posts which were challenging to write, but important to share.
I’m grateful to
for her simple comment (“Whoa. Yeah, that would ruin my week, too!”) which I’ve been repeating to myself whenever I admonish myself for not being “over it already”1. I’m grateful for the solace I find in this community, connecting with people more deeply than I have in any other internet environment. I’m grateful to be collaborating with people who’s writing I love, and who’s work continues to make a difference in my life.I’m grateful to be taking a class in “Embodied Rest”, taught by one of the only trauma-informed yoga teachers I’ve been able to find in Ireland2. I’m grateful for how that 90 minute practice on Tuesday evening grounded my whole week, and gave me a firm foundation to return to. I’m grateful for the restorative postures we did and how, in the best way possible, I couldn’t pry myself out of them.
I’m grateful to have been raised to be a striver, someone who is always pushing to live and experience more. I’m also grateful to have taught myself to rest, because rest is the only way to keep going. I’m grateful for the small but steady morning yoga practice I’ve been able to build, and for how it lets me suss out how I really feel before starting my day’s work. I’m grateful to know that I need to rebalance myself, that after writing two heavy pieces about sexual violence in less than a week3, I need some respite.
I’m grateful for the irony that I am pushing myself right now, wanting to share this piece I’ve been working toward all week. I’m grateful to feel connected to you, before pulling the plug on the internet and living in the physical world for a while.
Three quick announcements
I’m excited to teach a generative writing workshop inspired by the Celtic Wheel tomorrow. Here’s some more information about the class. Reply to this email if you’d like to join us!
Sunday is St Patrick’s Day. Like most Irish people, I’ll be staying away from the city centre and avoiding the drunken, touristy chaos that always happens. If you’d like to read something to complicate your clichéd idea of Ireland, may I recommend this piece I published two years ago?
FYI that I’ll be traveling next Friday, so there won’t be an “I’m grateful that” post!
Recommendations
💃 Despite being eye-twitch level exhausted, I went to see WAKE last night. It’s an amazing creative showcase featuring music, dance, acrobatics and cabaret. I loved it!
🎧 I’m inspired by Anna Sale’s ability to create community through audio.
📚 Look forward to finishing Lucy Caldwell’s ‘Intimacies’ this weekend. It’s a collection of female-centric short stories from a Belfast-born writer. The first story, ‘Like This’, blew me away.
🧅 I made a disastrous French onion soup in the slow cooker this week. It was essentially boiled onions with wine and herbs! A reminder that even the most enthusiastic home cook is never too far from a completely inedible disaster.
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’s Substack is consistently good, but this post on her writing recommendations should be read by everyone who wants to write:
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✍️ Beyond Survival is written by me, Clare Egan, an award-winning writer and journalist. You can read more about me here, or look at some pretty pictures over here. 👋 Click reply to say hello anytime. Thank you for being here!
Whatever THAT means.
Thought I'm not sure they're based in Ireland!
Fellow striver and hopeful rester here. Restorative yoga has been such a balm for me lately too. And soup. And cuddles with fur babies. ❤️
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