If you’re interested in The Art of Rest’s upcoming workshops:
Ritual Dreaming — Friday December 19, 2025 - This is our monthly, community dream sharing container hosted at Ritual Yoga. We’re so excited to be partnering with them for the upcoming calendar year!
**NOW OPEN FOR REGISTRATION** Half-Day Winter Solstice Retreat — Sunday December 21, 2025 - Ritual Yoga —We’ll be exploring cycles of the year and celebrating skillful means of heading into the depths of winter.
**NOW OPEN FOR REGISTRATION** 16-Week Winter Experiential Book Club: Women Who Run With the Wolves — Runs every Sunday starting January 4, 2026 - April 19, 2026 - This is my favorite, and most popular offering of the year. Hope to see you there!
Happy Wednesday y’all.
A couple of weeks ago, we swirled in a beautiful, reflective art practiced of Place Poem, inspired by my dear friend Corinne. Today we’ll be moving into a slightly head-ier version of an end-of-the-year reflection, but one that might help us locate ourselves at the end of a big year so we can more thoughtfully step into 2026.
Personally, I am staring at my calendar today wondering where the hell this year went and feeling like some of it was so busy that it entirely slipped through my fingers. Parts of me wonder if I was even present in those moments or if it was so condensed that it felt more like a fever-dream.
Listen, I am so grateful for so much of what I have done, and been able to do, and amidst such a chaotic year for most people with a world that seems ungovernable at best—I am also finding myself battling a case of end-of-the-year burnout. I am taking a deep breath to remind myself that next year does not have to feel the same as this one. I’m combing through the experiences that have made up 2025—the good, the bad, the chaotic, the mundane—and summoning the awareness that in the amalgamation of the year’s experiences, there is just the right amount of wisdom to shift a tiny bit closer to where I’d like to go.
I am working to take solace that with all of the hard things in the world I can’t control, I do have autonomy over the tiny little space I occupy and I’m in charge of making sure I can create something good to balance it all that gets thrown my way.
I’m reminded that we never “arrive” at an easeful life, but that we can do our best to let our lived experiences inspire how we make changes a little bit at a time. How we don’t arrive at rest—we pursue the art of it.
Not Your Typical Reflection Time
Most people like to start New Year’s resolutions at well, the new year. At least the Gregorian new year1. And while I think this is generally really great, I also think many of us come to that last slide of the crazy holiday season and choose something sporadic and slightly arbitrary to hold onto for the coming season rather than really mulling over the evidence of what made our year feel good, versus what felt overwhelming.
Many of us don’t fully recognize where we were the key players in that chaotic cycles and how we might gently shift our intentions towards something new in the coming year.
Today’s article is helping us hone our tools, one swipe of the whet stone at a time.
When answering these questions, my greatest recommendation would be to make them fun in some way. Take a self-care day. Light some candles. Put on some groovy music in the background. Pull out those art supplies that you’re always waiting to use for “something special” (Spoilers: Your life is special. Get them out now).
In The Past Year…
Challenges
What were your top three most challenging moments of 2025?
For each of these challenging moments jot down:
What made these moments challenging?
How much of that challenge was in your control, versus how much was managing the discomfort of something you were not in control of?
Would you do anything differently if you could around any of them?
Have any or all of these challenges resolved? Why or why not?
If they’ve resolved:
Have you taken some time away from thinking about it, yet?
If not, how could you create a little bit more space around this event?
When might be a good time to come back around and revisit and reflect on the wisdom that came from this difficult moment?
If it has not yet resolved:
How do you want to manage this challenge moving forward?
How do you most want to feel while this challenge is still present?
What is one thing you can do to get closer to this feeling?
Ease
What were the three most easeful, restful, and restorative moments you can remember?
For each of these easeful moments, jot down:
How did these moments of ease come about?
Did you plan for them, or did they show up at your door?
How did you feel immediately before these moments of ease?
Did something almost stop you from these moments before you engaged in them?
How did you overcome the obstacles for creating easeful space?
How did you feel afterwards?
Was there gratitude and savoring? Was there guilt and self-criticism? Was there grief for not being able to participate longer? Was it a little bit of everything all at once?
How long did each of those feelings last?
Which ones do you prefer to focus on?
Did you do these easeful activities alone? Or with people you already knew and loved?
How did this choice bolster your sense of rest, ease, and safety?
What about this moment, event, or activity created a sense of ease in your 2025? Get as specific as you can.
What insights did you gain from these easeful, restful, or restorative moments?
How might you carry these insights forward into the coming year?
Now, Let Them Sit
Sometimes after reflecting on questions like this, we have the impulse to do something with them right away. If that feels genuine for you, by all means, go ahead and let the insights roll. However, for some of us, the best thing we can do after reflecting is put these questions totally down for a bit. See if they change as they roll around in your head in the background. Trust that by putting them down, they’ll show up back up when the time is right.
Winter months are for the slow lessons.
Let the colder temperatures work their magic.
Trust that you’ve gained the wisdom, whether you decide to do anything with it immediately or not.
As someone who is always tempted to implement right away, I’ll remind myself to do the same.
In the meantime, I hope you have a beautiful Wednesday and I look forward to hearing how you’re slowing down and thinking about how you’re shifting towards a more easeful 2026.
With some deep breaths, and trying not compulsively check my own email,
Dagny Rose
This sub-section of The Art of Rest, is all about—you guessed it—The Rest.
As a trained sleep scientist and mindfulness teacher & researcher, here we explore everything related to rest. Whether we are unpacking the newest evidence-based sleep health tips, exploring day-to-day tools for bolstering and protecting rest, or diving into a world of dreams, “The Rest” is going to regularly touch into what a restful life is, and how to move towards one5
Technically my Jewish ancestors started their new year at Rosh Hashanah, which was late September. This is probably actually my preferred time to start a new year, but the rest of the world doesn’t really work that way these days, haha.