Rest Is Uncomfortable Before It Is Restorative
Field Notes № 01 · What 66 educators told us about coming home to themselves
"I thought it was a shock to know that we signed up for this PD not to formally work on topics — but rather to work on ourselves and take a pause."
An educator wrote that after the first day of Rest & Return, a two-day restorative workshop I facilitated with Nathan Houston of I Am Impact for After-School All-Stars in Los Angeles. Sixty-six educators across two cohorts — thirty in November, thirty-six in April. Twelve hours of facilitation. Yin and restorative yoga, yoga nidra, breathwork, nervous system education, and time to reflect on what was true for them, not what we were teaching.
They arrived expecting traditional professional development. What they got was a pause. And the shock in that sentence — the surprise of being given rest inside a workday — is the finding I keep returning to.
What the data showed
Twenty-two participants completed written reflections, a 33% response rate. Twenty of the twenty-two were wholly positive in tone. When asked what mattered most, half named the built-in rest itself — the yin, the restorative practice, the yoga nidra — above every content component we delivered. The Science of Burnout & Belonging mini-workshop came second, at 27%.
Sit with that for a moment. The most valuable thing we offered these educators was not information. It was permission.
Four themes surfaced across both cohorts:
Permission to rest. Participants named rest as a stigma to dismantle, not a reward to earn. One wrote that the experience "broke the stigma of working = lazy." That equation — rest equals laziness — did not originate with them. It was taught, culturally and structurally, and they carried it into the room.
Reconnection with the body. Coordinators described tension they had been carrying for weeks, sometimes months. "It informed me that I need to listen to myself when I know I am burnt out — not just put it to the side."
A pause they did not know they were owed. Not a pause they hadn't earned. One they were owed — and had stopped expecting.
Initial discomfort, then arrival. A small number found the format unfamiliar. "It was different," one wrote, and that discomfort is data too — maybe the most important data we collected.
Why the resistance matters
It is difficult to rest. The notion of productivity is cultural, gendered, and tied to our worth — sometimes resting can even feel unsafe. When a room full of people who spend their days pouring into young people finds a three-hour restorative session uncomfortable, that is not a problem with the people. It is a reading on the system they work inside.
This is why I don't frame burnout as individual failure, and why the work cannot be a one-off. A single workshop opens a door; it cannot hold it open. The discomfort we met tells us rest is not yet a culture in most organizations — it is still a permission slip, issued once and expired by Monday.
So our recommendations to After-School All-Stars were structural, not personal: quarterly Rest & Return cohorts so rest becomes a rhythm rather than an event. A separate restorative container for site directors — the people who hold the holders. Internal champions equipped with grounding micro-practices for weekly team meetings. Burnout and belonging education built into onboarding, so new staff learn the science of rest in their first month, not their fifth year.
A well-rested team is what produces retention, workplace well-being, and the kind of presence young people deserve. Performance is the byproduct, not the goal.
The last word belongs to the room
After the April cohort closed, one participant asked a question that is its own finding:
"Can we do another session?"
That is what happens on the other side of the discomfort. Not a habit formed or a skill acquired — an appetite remembered. The body recalling something it always knew.
The full Rest & Return Field Report — methods, outcomes, and all six recommendations — is available below. Field Notes is where Working With Delia documents what real engagements show and connects it to the research. If your team is carrying more than it can hold, start the conversation. Sliding scale is always available for grassroots organizations.
