Welcome.
We slowed down.
Decided to move at the speed of trust.
Here we are. Here you are.
Our revamped certification path is an intentional, nonextractive, trauma-informed, and steady paced online and in person certification program for coaches and facilitators who want to cultivate their own rest leadership, share the brilliance of rest, and thread it into their most purposeful and sacred work.
Welcome Rest Leader
You are here and that means you are already a student of rest in your own and valid way. Perfection is not required, nor is it real. Practice is a requirement though. If you already have a rest practice, continue. If not, slow down. Rest here.
We live in a world where more and more people are waking up to the devastating impact of chronic exhaustion. As a dynamic, potent, compassionate, and skilled facilitator, you see it time and time again. Your clients want to make changes and they are also too tired or overwhelmed to follow through consistently.
You are the rest leader they are waiting for.
You’ve had the thought that I want to be able to hold more space for myself, my people, team, and clients to lean into the power of rest. Or let’s be real, you may have left yourself out of that statement.
This training is also a respite for you.
Have you ever been talking and teaching about the need for care, and rest, while simultaneously being exhausted yourself. Maybe you felt hypocritical and feared being ‘found out” because deep down you know you aren’t practicing what you preach?
It happens to the best of us.
What about this one? Have you ever been with a client, sensed how tired they were, and also felt less equipped than you want to be in order to support a rest intervention?
Have you led or ever attended a “rest retreat” that lacked the space and time for actual rest ?
Exhale. You are in the right place to infuse your life, coaching, leadership, and healing practices with the restorative power of rest. Pause, Rest, Lead® is the right place to deepen and advance your rest teaching and leadership.
Pause, Rest, Lead® Teacher Training —
You will experience and be trained to offer the most sacred rest practices we know: yoga nidra, restorative yoga, and meditation.
We help you gain the knowledge and wisdom, cultivate the courage and creative life force, build the vision and plan to thread sacred rest practices through your most sacred work. By the end of this training you will be equipped to design and deliver rest-centered experiences and retreats that expand your reach, impact, and income.
You will also rest deeply in order to really wake up your power as a rested leader.
After graduating you will be empowered to bring the transformation of rest to your highest level clients and team members who need rest and also want to leverage it as optimal fuel.
Delivery of training —
Online and In Person.
We are {rest} family.
This training is both online and in person so that you can take a portion of the training from the comfort of your home. We also want to see your eyes, hear your breath, and have a chance for you to literally be tucked in by Octavia Raheem and the other teachers in training in our rest family.
It’s also important for you to design and lead your own rest session during a real live rest retreat before you graduate. As a result of both resting together online and in person you will leave this training with a close knit rest family and relationships to last at least this lifetime.
Who is this training for?
Facilitators and coaches with at least three years of experience who identify with being one or more of the following leader archetypes:
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You see a way where others see an obstacle. Leaders confide in you and look to you for direction and courage through times of uncertainty. You know that rest is a path to possibility. You are here so that you can both draw a map for others to find their way to rest as well as be a trusted guide who embodies rest.
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Empowered change shows up everywhere you go. You are next level wise. You hold up the light so that others can see. You spark one thing and the flame expands to fuel many more. You know that rest unlocks an inner radiance. You are here to both expand your light and call others into their light through the power of rest.
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You are steady and reliable. Real. Not about that spiritual bypassing life. You are equally committed to your healing as you are to collective healing and it is evident in both your discipline and devotion. What frustrates others about being in process is the thing that anchors you. You know that none of this is actually linear. You know rest is a portal to healing. You are here to get the medicine you need and also to take it back to the people.
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You translate the unseen and an advocate for the imaginal. You know that we all have a dream and that it deserves to be made real. You protect your own dreams and tend to them with daily devotion. You are here to rest, dream a new world, and wake up to that reality. As a leader you courageously hold, keep, others and their dreams intact.
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You are poetically precise in how you see problems and arrive at solutions. Deliberate and focused, you see more than the singular moment. You connect dots, recognize patterns, integrate experiences, and information in a way that leads others to move in the direction of possibility and their most sacred calling. You are here to rest and walk , heart forward toward your truest north star and lead others to theirs.
If you don’t identify with any of the above, that’s okay. It just means we aren’t the trainers you’ll vibe with most. Reach out to us at hello@octaviaraheem.com. Tell us more about you. If we can, we’ll help you find what you are looking for in order to further your development.
The well rested
will lead the way.
Pause, Rest, Lead® Facilitator Certification Training
Training Details
Duration — You have two years from your first course to complete all of the requirements to become certified.
The Curriculum — Learn to lead a range of sacred restorative practices.
When you leave this experience you will be even more devoted to rest as a portal to awakening yourself and others to their most sacred work, call, and purpose.
You will practice rest. You will live a more rested life. You will anchor your leadership in the power of the pause, the spirit of rest, and redefine leadership to include essentials that have been lost like: embodiment, heart, soul, imagination, and creativity. You will do this with clarity, courage, and confidence. You will listen more deeply. You will tell the truth that you hear, even if no one is saying it. You will hold space for change without wearing yourself down and out. You will follow and flow with your clients’ system and also guide them forward with ease and grace when necessary. You are the rest leader we’ve been waiting for.
You will emerge with the wisdom, insight, skills, and capacity to Pause, Rest, Lead®. You will be able to seamlessly thread rest through your current offers as well as create new experiences and retreats focused on rest.
FAQs
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Part of the training takes place online and from the comfort of wherever you are located. The four day rest and certification retreat takes place at in or around Atlanta Georgia. More details about Capstone and Certification Retreat are provided for accepted applicants only.
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No. If you are on the certification path you must meet all online session attendance requirements and attend all four days of the capstone and certification retreat.
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Full participation with camera on is required for all online sessions. Replays will be available through for review and reference as you progress through your training experience.
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There is no training or equivalent to Pause, Rest, Lead® Facilitator and Teacher training. We are setting the standard for rest coaches, rest facilitators, and rest teachers. This training will provide you with 150-depth hours of training time, practice, hands on experience, sacred business coaching, a certificate of completion, and the knowledge needed to offer impactful rest based experiences in any environment. All of that to say, as leaders in the field we are certifying ourselves!
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This training is offered by application only to insure readiness and an appropriate match. In order to be considered, please complete the following application.
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Right now, all individual courses in the training as well as the certification path are limited to 12 in order to offer individualized support, quality of experience and delivery, and group development can move at the speed of trust without compromising essential training milestones along the way.
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Though scholarships are not available we offer generous payment plans.
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All online and in person training sessions, printed and digital training manual, all required texts (plus shipping and mailing) for training.
What’s not included: Travel to and from the retreat center. Travel insurance is required for the retreat. Accommodations for Capstone Retreat are not included.
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$1000 deposit is non-refundable.
Within three months or more of the training start date, receive a 75% refund.
Within 45 - 30 days before the training start date, receive a 50% refund.
Within 30 days or less of the training start date, receive 25% refund.
Once training starts, no refund is available even if you cancel.
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A background in yoga is helpful. More than simply yoga, you need to have consistent rest practice. For the purposes of this training we consider consistent at least three times a week for the 12 months in one or more of the following modalities: restorative yoga, Yoga Nidra, meditation.
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12 months regular rest practice, both silent and/or guided meditation experience is welcome. Regular rest practice assumes 3 - 5 days/week of practice.
At least three years as a coach, facilitator, or yoga teacher
You must be willing to commit to a daily rest & journaling practice to be part of this program.
Dear future Pause, Read, Lead® Teacher,
I am delighted you made it this far. It means that one or both of the following are present:
Curiosity and resonance.
At least one, curiosity or resonance need to be present because this is not simply a certification course. This is an initiation into a deeper awareness of the true power of rest , what it also means to do your sacred work, and hold others restoratively as they do theirs.
Fatigue and exhaustion is a spiritual crisis. Burnout is systemic and epidemic. We aren’t dealing with a regular old problem here. Here’s the thing. Rest teaching, facilitating, and coaching isn’t a remedy to burnout once it has occurred. It is an effective intervention personally and organizationally BEFORE burnout. Leaders get in front of the thing.
I also want to be clear that rest is gentle and it is also a disruptive force. You will be positively changed here and offering rest to your clients will also disrupt their regularly scheduled inner program.
Before you apply, pause. Rest. Then answer this question: What is not yours to do? What is yours to do? How do you know? Really do this, the hand written response is part of the application process and you’ll be asked to upload it if you decide to apply.
From there, let your response lead to and reveal your next step. Let your way forward be informed by your rest. Apply here.
Thirteen years ago I was forced to remember a sacred instruction. The force came as a painful yet purposeful punch in the gut, a burnout episode that left me hospitalized. The sacred instruction was this: focus on rest because this is where the deepest imbalance existed within me AND the collective. I didn’t rush into trying to give others what I clearly didn’t have for myself because this is a practice and we have our whole lives to practice. I practiced rest for myself, first. Then slowly, intentionally, deliberate. I began to study and train to share it with others. Slowly, intentionally, deliberate. You have arrived here.
That sacred instruction also held another thread that I trusted I’d know when it was time to weave forward and through: Guide people to wake up to what is their sacred work. Sacred work is not a career path, business, role, product, or job though it may be expressed through those vehicles.
In my own rest practice I have seen for this for the first cohort of Pause, Rest, Lead®:
Patterns of exhaustion broken. Weapons of exhaustion defeated. Potential unlocked in the pause. Joyful and sacred rest that serves as a portal to dreaming and memory. Clear sign posts of where to place your efforts to access the most ease.
The group forming is a bold light leading the way through dark times.
This training is an expression of divine purpose and is a sacred assignment for me.
If you feel that way too, apply.
Stay rested and shine bright,
