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
In-Person Registration:
Please register below. If you are able, registering at the “Supporter” level enables others to attend at the “Subsidized” level. Thank you for your generosity! (Please note that the registration price includes a base level of teacher support, and you will have the opportunity to donate more after the program.)
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Online Registration:
If you are registering via a mobile device such as a phone or tablet, you can scroll right and left and up and down within the below form if it is partially obscured or cut off.
CLICK HERE to open the registration form in a new browser window.
Volunteering
All of our programs rely on volunteers to support our teachers and staff with various tasks and responsibilities. Volunteering allows you to participate in our programs at no cost. To inquire about volunteering opportunities, please fill out our inquiry form, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
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.