Rest to reset

Let's make taking time out to soothe the soul, release held stresses, and restore calm an everyday essential, writes Nahid de Belgeonne

- Nahid de Belgeonne

When I first started practising yoga, I'd always leave the class before that bit at the end where you do nothing but lie there. It's called Savasana, or 'corpse pose', but it just felt like dead time to me - time I could spend on getting things done.

Work is now so central to our idea of who we are that many people find it disorientating when they no longer have a job. When the pandemic came along and we had to collectively stop doing things in the way we used to, it was the first time we had faced who we are and what we do, without the concept of going out to work defining us.

For many people, the pandemic opened their eyes to how relentlessly exhausting their lives had been. Of course, there was a lot of fear and anxiety, because none of us knew how things would pan out. But it was a chance to imagine a different type of life, as we eventually moved on from it. When you are busy with commuting, working and life admin, you often don't have the mental space to consider who you really want to be.