When In Doubt, Do Less

It’s just a normal Saturday morning at Sanctuary.

As lots of bodies filter in for a Somatic Session, the energy in the room is palpable. We are ready to MOVE as one collective body, to let the build up from the week flow through us, to find more room in us for us.

But before any of this can happen, Sarah stands at the front of the room to explain what’s about to happen for the new people who have joined us. Inevitably she gets to the part where she talks about the two rules of a Somatic Session:

1.) You are in charge of your own body. Always and in every way.

2.) When in doubt, DO LESS.

The second rule always elicits a chuckle from the room, in part because the regulars know that the next 90 minutes will be very physical and sometimes it’s hard to hold back, but mostly because the invitation to DO LESS is so unfamiliar in this culture.

At every turn in our lives, we are constantly encouraged to do more, push harder, go further, and so to hear someone say “do less,” strikes us a bit funny.

But it is a rule at Sanctuary for a reason and that reason is simple:

Work requires rest. We need both to be in balance. And if there’s anything that every BODY deserves, it is a bit of balance.

It is with this same spirit that we announce our bi-annual two week studio shutdown beginning August 18th and ending when classes resume September 1st.

In the small-business world, a two-week shutdown is sort of unheard-of. It means a dramatic dip in revenue and requires that we risk the possibility of losing some of the captive audience we’ve worked so hard to gain. But in this case, we believe the risk to be worth the reward because we are not even a little interested in building a community that fails to value rest as much as it values work. And if we want to build that kind of community, then we have to be willing to put our money where our mouth is.

Thanks to our Outer Circle members, our teachers will be paid during this break, allowing them to actually REST during the closure instead of having to hustle to figure out how to replace the lost income. When we come back, we will be ready to move with you, to bring you fresh, new, creative offerings that continue to provide you a path back to your body and home to yourself.

So consider this time a personal invitation from us to you to do less in your own life and come back to us, rested and ready to continue creating the kind of community we all deserve.