Meet Sam Saldivar | Sacred Rest Advocate & Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sam Saldivar and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sam, do you have any habits that you feel contribute to your effectiveness?
Creating consistent rituals and routines in my daily life. Most importantly, beginning and ending my days softly and intentionally. Every morning I start my day with a cup of tea, meditation, and prayers to my ancestors. Every night I go up to bed around 8:30pm and finish my day with affirmations, reading, and watching my fav comfort show in bed (The Simpsons).

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I started my career in the yoga industry with a passion for helping people connect with themselves and find ease on their mats. After a decade of working with individuals struggling with chronic fatigue and stress, I was inspired to take my work off the mat and into the world. While I still share the healing benefits of rest through classes, workshops, trainings, and retreats throughout Southern California, my work has expanded to a more holistic and personalized approach to rest. We are living in exhausting times and the world needs rest now more than ever.

My moment of divine inspiration which spurred on my shift from Yoga to Rest was last April at a Smithsonian Museum in DC. I was in the middle of a bustling city, fatigued from travel, and walked into a room with a beautiful art installation that changed colors on the ceiling. Although the hall outside was bustling with noise, this room had a soft hush over it, and people laying or sitting and watching the movement of the light. As I joined the onlookers, laying on the floor softly staring at the ceiling, I felt a deep sense of peace, calm, and knowing wash over me. After that I dove deep into exploring rest as a community art experience, social justice movement, anti-capitalist practice, spiritual practice, and most fundamentally, a lifestyle change which will shape your life for the better.

If we wait for permission to rest or our to do-list to be finished, we will never slow down. I am not advocating to do nothing all the time. We need balance in life, work & rest, summer & winter, ebbs & flows. However, we live in a society which shuns the rest side of this equation and expects constant output and energy. This is not sustainable and leads to burnout in many people. When we do finally allow yourselves to slow down and rest, we can begin to tap into our inner duality: strength & softness, yin & yang, light & dark. By actively creating more pockets for the 7 categories of rest in our lives – physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, sensory, social, creative – we can begin to step into the best version of ourselves (read “Sacred Rest” by Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith for more info on this).

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If my best friend was visiting for the week my itinerary would include lots of time for relaxation and fun! Here are my top ideas! -Spa day at Wi Spa
-Melrose Trading Post on Sundays
-Coffee from Blue Bottle and a visit to the Playa Vista dog park
-Relaxing beach day picnic (Dana Point or Malibu)
-Dinner at Osteria Mozza
-Lunch at SugarFish

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Shoutout to Tricia Hersey of the Nap Ministry and her book “Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto”! Tricia’s work and passion has been a continued source of inspiration in my journey to share the magic & power of sacred rest with others.

Website: https://www.radiaterest.com/

Instagram: @radiaterest