Cultivating an Inner Calm
You might hear us talk a lot about movement down here at Creekside — and with good reason: corrective exercises are often what we prescribe to our patients in order to restore their range of motion and to heal their injuries. With experts in kinesiology, physiotherapy, and manual therapy on our team, the topic of healthy movement is discussed daily!
But, that said, there’s an offering here at Creekside that doesn’t get as much airtime, but that’s equally important -- and it has less to do with movement, and everything to do with stillness and silence: iRest meditation. We feel lucky to have Kirsten and Ross Guest as a part of our team: this husband and wife duo are experts in and teachers of iRest®, or Integrative Restoration.
iRest is built on the foundation of yoga nidra, a type of meditation that translates to “yogic sleep” or “awakened sleep” -- but it modernizes, secularizes, and adjusts the practice to make iRest ideal for our contemporary, busy lives. The iRest technique was developed by the yogic scholar, teacher, and clinical psychologist Dr. Richard Miller (whom Ross and Kirsten have studied and worked with for over two decades) and has gained popularity across the globe, due to its efficacy in treating a wide range of ailments, such as chronic pain, depression, anxiety, sleep troubles and -- perhaps most notably -- PTSD.
The aim for iRest is to offer its practitioners a set of tools for life, that they always have access to in order to feel relieved of stress and pain, and in touch with a deep inner sense of peace and wellbeing. iRest is, by its nature, trauma-informed and focused on accessibility. It differs from yoga nidra in that iRest teachers offer invitations rather than instruction, and the practitioner takes the wheel in their own journey.
iRest also strays from its traditional roots in yoga by following a 10-step protocol that begins with the practitioner setting an intention and tuning into their desire. Practitioners then are invited to witness feelings and emotions that come up, then the thoughts and beliefs that arise -- and coming to all of them without judgement or attachment. This teaches us how to experience negative emotions without becoming attached to them or identifying with them, a practice integral in emotional and mental wellbeing.
A main focal point of iRest is touching in with what the program calls our inner resource, or the place we all have inside us that provides access to resilience and fortitude. iRest leaders invite their practitioners to truly sense and experience this inner resource as if it were a literal place. Then, practitioners are invited to explore their breath and the sensations in their body, again with a sense of non-attachment, while allowing an innate sense of joy to rise to the surface.
iRest gained considerable traction and made headlines in recent years thanks to numerous studies that showed its success in treating PTSD in U.S. army veterans -- and it’s now a standardized treatment for this. But its efficacy is available to all of us, and can be utilized in clearing even minor stress and bringing a greater sense of vibrancy and balance to our everyday lives.
After all, our mental health and physical health are inextricably linked. While you might hear those of us at Creekside talk a lot about joints, muscles, and range of motion, we also believe that a huge part of well-rounded, optimal health is taking care of our mental and emotional wellness and cultivating a sense of inner calm. It’s what the iRest Institute refers to as “coming home to our authentic and unshakeable foundation of wellbeing.” Doesn’t sound so bad, does it?
Ross and Kirsten offer iRest sessions both privately and in groups, and we’re more than happy to book you in with them when you get in touch with us. If you have questions about iRest and how it might benefit you, please don’t hesitate to give Creekside a call, or check out the iRest Institute’s website, at www.irest.org.