Rest & Regulate is a 90-minute workshop designed to help you shift out of stress mode and into a steady, grounded state using pranayama (yogic breathwork) and guided meditation. You’ll learn simple practices that calm the body from the inside out — so you’re not just managing stress mentally, you’re training your system to feel safe again.

We’ll explore how breath influences the autonomic nervous system (your built-in stress response), supports vagal tone (your capacity to recover), and relates to patterns of tension and holding in the body — especially in the diaphragm, ribs, throat, jaw, belly, and pelvic floor. You’ll be guided to notice your felt sense moment-by-moment: warmth, ease, expansion, softening, steadiness — the body’s language of regulation.

This practice is gentle, progressive, and deeply regulating — designed to meet you where you are.

In this workshop, you’ll learn how to:

• Recognize what functional breathing feels like (and what it feels like when it’s not)

• Use breath to downshift overwhelm and come back into your body

• Improve diaphragm mobility and breath efficiency (more space, less gripping)

• Build a daily toolkit for resilience, focus, and emotional regulation

• Create a repeatable reset you can use before bed, during stress, or after long days

What to expect:

We’ll begin with gentle mobility to help the body open and receive the breath — releasing common “holding zones” like the ribs, shoulders, jaw, and belly. Then we’ll move through progressive pranayama with practical education woven in, so you understand why it works while you feel it working. We’ll close with a grounding meditation to integrate — helping your system settle, digest the shift, and land in a quieter internal baseline.

You’ll leave with practical tools you can use before bed, in high-stress moments, or anytime you need to rest and reset — plus a clearer sense of what regulation feels like in your body.

Led by Nicole McClendon (E-RYT 500, Certified Pelvic Floor Yoga™ Teacher, YACEP)

All levels welcome. No prior breathwork or meditation experience necessary.

**Mats and blankets are provided. Please bring any other items that will make you comfortable while resting on the floor.