In-Person and Online: Reclaiming Rest – Nourishing Practices to Renew and Restore Body, Mind, and Spirit
with Valerie Brown
Sunday, August 24th, 2025 | 10:00am – 1:00pm ET
In-Person Location: New York Insight at 115 West 29th Street, 12th Floor
Many of us believe that we have to earn rest and renewal and that overwork is the norm. Frazzled and stressed by the pull of too many demands of work, family, children, aging relatives, and our own needs, we succumb to individual pressures that foster a collective culture of burnout and toxic productivity.
Offering approaches from the Plum Village tradition and Zen master Thích Nhất Hạnh, and the Quaker activist and educator Parker Palmer, Buddhist teacher Valerie Brown will invite participants to explore the connection between radiant rest, peacemaking, and social justice. Together we’ll explore how we can ground ourselves, and live closer to alignment with our deepest values.
Over the course of this half-daylong retreat, you’ll
- Rediscover deep rest and renewal that is the basis for engaged social action
- Understand the connection between rest, renewal, and productivity
- Learn the science of stress and burnout
- Assess when productivity turns to toxic burnout
- Explore the connection between rest and peacemaking
- Examine connection between rest and social justice, social action
- Engage mindful rest, constructive rest, and yoga nidra
NOTE: This program has been canceled.
Teacher(s)
Valerie Brown
Valerie Brown is a Buddhist-Quaker Dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition, author, facilitator, and executive coach. She focuses on leadership development and mindfulness practices, emphasizing diversity, social equity, and inclusion. Formerly a lawyer and lobbyist with a twenty-year high-pressure career, Valerie now supports leaders and nonprofits in building trustworthy, authentic, compassionate, and connected work environments.