Rewriting the Motherline: Choosing Rest for Myself and my Children - with Ali Schmitt
Release Date: 05/08/2025
How to Rest When You Don’t Know How: A Conversation with Ximena Vengoechea
The Daring to Rest Podcast
What does it really take to feel rested in a world that rewards burnout? In this powerful conversation, Karen Brody talks with Ximena Vengoechea—author of Rest Easy and The Life Audit—about cultivating a rest ethic, the barriers that keep us from true rest, and the liberating power of both active and passive rest. Together, they explore how rest can be deeply personal, radically political, and profoundly healing. Resources for this episode can be found here:
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What If Slowing Down Makes Us Better Humans?
The Daring to Rest Podcast
In this episode, Karen explores how urgency erodes compassion—drawing on the Good Samaritan Study, neuroscience, and a personal story that still sits with her. A woman-centered reflection on rest, guilt, and reclaiming our humanity through pause. Show notes:
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Yoga Nidra for Inner Mothering: A Gift of Rest for You
The Daring to Rest Podcast
In the closing episode of The Rested Mother Series, Karen offers a gift of deep rest: a guided Yoga Nidra meditation centered on inner mothering—a powerful rest practice for anyone longing to feel more held, rooted, and resilient. Before the meditation, Karen reflects on why connecting with our inner mother is essential on the path to becoming a rested woman. Whether you were well mothered or not, inner mothering allows you to offer yourself the unconditional love, care, and compassion you may have missed—and to rest from a place of wholeness. This practice is for all women—mothers and...
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From Toxic Productivity to Radical Rest - with Jennifer Allen
The Daring to Rest Podcast
In this powerful episode of The Rested Mother Series, Jennifer Allen shares her deeply personal journey from decades of toxic productivity and motherhood exhaustion to a life anchored in rest and self-trust. For years, Jen overrode the wisdom of her body and the whispers of her soul—until her nervous system and spirit could no longer sustain the push. Contracting Long Covid was the final push to make rest nonnegotiable. Through yoga nidra and reconnecting with the rhythms of nature, she began to lay down her armor, pick up her pillow and blanket, and reimagine what it means to live, parent,...
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Held By Rest: Special Needs Motherhood and Rising Through Heartbreak - with Chrissy McGuire
The Daring to Rest Podcast
In this moving episode of The Rested Mother Series, Chrissy McGuire shares her journey as a single mother raising two children with special needs—and how rest became her anchor through childbirth trauma, caregiving, and profound heartbreak. From a high-achieving childhood shaped by hustle culture to the moment her first child was born unresponsive, Chrissy takes us through the raw, real moments that led her to reclaim rest as a sacred practice. Through yoga nidra, she found the courage to slow down, to feel, and to fill the cracks in her heart with gold. Her story is a radiant reminder for...
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The Sacred Return: Resting My Way Back to Myself - with Isabelle Griffith
The Daring to Rest Podcast
In this deeply reflective episode of The Rested Mother Series, Isabelle Griffith shares how rest became her lifeline after her sense of self collapsed under the weight of perfectionism, burnout, and self-doubt. What began as moments of peace on the yoga mat eventually led her to the transformational practice of yoga nidra—and a profound reconnection with her inner world. Through rest, Isabelle not only began to heal the parts of her she once rejected, but also reclaimed her voice, her radiance, and her capacity to live rooted and whole. Her story is a powerful invitation for working mothers...
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How Rest Helped Me Mother Myself and My Daughter - with Jenny Weston
The Daring to Rest Podcast
In this honest and soul-stirring episode of The Rested Mother Series, Jenny Weston shares her journey from chronic overachievement and deep exhaustion to a life anchored in rest. Raised to equate love with doing, and later navigating motherhood, separation, and financial challenge, Jenny reached a breaking point that led her to the healing power of yoga nidra. What began as a tool for survival became a practice of self-mothering, helping her rebuild her nervous system, reconnect with her inner child, and model a rested life for her daughter. Her story is a beautiful testament to the quiet...
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Rewriting the Motherline: Choosing Rest for Myself and my Children - with Ali Schmitt
The Daring to Rest Podcast
In this tender episode of The Rested Mother Series, Ali Schmitt shares how the exhaustion she witnessed in her own mother—and later experienced herself as a mother of three—led her to seek a new way of being. Through yoga nidra, Ali began to break the generational cycle of depletion, reconnecting with her intuition and discovering how rest could nourish her from the inside out. Her story is a powerful testament to what becomes possible when a mother chooses rest, not only for herself, but for the legacy she leaves her children. The Rested Mother Series shares 5 powerful short rest...
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Rest Pep Talk: The Cliff, Thelma & Louise, and The Call to Rest
The Daring to Rest Podcast
When life pushes you to the edge, you don’t have to carry it all — you get to rest. In this short Rest Pep Talk, Karen Brody shares a personal story of choosing rest during a cliff’s edge moment, and inspiration from the film Thelma & Louise. Resources for this episode:
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Rest Pep Talk: When You Rest, the World Doesn't Crumble
The Daring to Rest Podcast
In this tender rest pep talk, Karen shares a deeply personal reflection on grief, caregiving, and the radical power of rest. If you’ve been carrying too much, doing too much, or doubting your worth because you’re not “doing enough”… this episode is for you. Resources for this episode:
info_outlineIn this tender episode of The Rested Mother Series, Ali Schmitt shares how the exhaustion she witnessed in her own mother—and later experienced herself as a mother of three—led her to seek a new way of being. Through yoga nidra, Ali began to break the generational cycle of depletion, reconnecting with her intuition and discovering how rest could nourish her from the inside out. Her story is a powerful testament to what becomes possible when a mother chooses rest, not only for herself, but for the legacy she leaves her children.
The Rested Mother Series shares 5 powerful short rest stories from Daring to Rest Facilitators who chose rest in the midst of motherhood, grief, burnout, and healing. These mothers dared to pause, listen, and reclaim themselves through yoga nidra and deep rest. You are invited to hear what happens when a mother rests—and rises rooted.
To listen to the entire Rested Mother series and learn more about Ali go here:
https://daringtorest.com/podcast/restedmother