In this episode, under the Taurus full moon and the deep waters of Scorpio season, I explore the sacred reclamation of rest—not as a reward, but as a birthright.

I open by sharing how this particular full moon is inviting us into grounding, slowness, and embodiment. With earth and water energies swirling, our nervous systems are craving stillness. I talk about how collective conditioning—capitalism, productivity culture, and generational patterns—has taught us that rest must be earned, and how deeply our bodies are asking us to unlearn that.

I share vulnerably about my own relationship to rest as a mother, a business owner, and someone who has carried the belief that I must always be “doing” in order to deserve downtime. I walk you through the emotional labor of asking for help, carving out time away from family, and the courage it took for me to claim three days completely to myself.

I also explore the deeper spiritual aspect of rest:

✨ the feminine cyclical nature of energy

✨ how rest mirrors the seasons and moon phases

✨ why pleasure lives in the rest-and-digest state

✨ how rest expands our capacity for intimacy, spirituality, and connection

We talk about rest as resistance, inspired by the teachings of The Nap Ministry, and how reclaiming rest is part of dismantling systems that profit from our exhaustion.

And then, I share some big news.

On this full moon, I announce the opening of Spiritual Guidance Sessions — one-hour, one-on-one sessions where I hold space as healer, priestess-in-training, and sacred disruptor. These are intuitive sessions rooted in somatic presence, grounded spiritual guidance, and deep listening. The investment is $111, and the link to book is below.

Schedule a Spiritual Guidance Session here!

I also share that there is one final spot open for The Shed Retreat — November 14–16 on Vashon Island — a sacred weekend for women in transition, ready to cross a threshold together.

If this episode touches something in you — a whisper that says “I need rest” or “I want support” — trust it.

Rest is not the pause before the real life begins.

Rest is the portal.

Connect with Kayla:

• Book a Spiritual Guidance Session — $111
• Join the final spot of The Shed Retreat
• Join my newsletter and get my FREE Sacred Body Workbook
• Support this podcast and leave me a tip!

Resources:

The Nap Ministry

Welcome to the Connected Pleasure Podcast. I'm Kayla Moore, sacred disruptor and sovereign guide, here to share liberation wisdom for sexual healing and feminine rising.

This is a space to return to your pleasure, your power and your body, while remembering your deep connection to the earth and to each other. Each week we explore what it means to lead with soft power and to weave a world rooted in embodiment, love and connection.

Together, we are holding the frequency of what we want this world to look and feel like as we collectively weave together a new paradigm shift called the Great Turning. Because pleasure is not frivolous, it is foundational. And it's time to come home. This podcast is for education and inspiration only.

If you're wanting to explore pleasure more fully for yourself, I invite you to go deeper with me through the offerings linked in the show notes or through the offerings of my guests.

If you're unsure whether one of these containers or a therapeutic approach would best support you, you're welcome to schedule a free 45 minute consultation with me. Together we can explore what path is in your best interest. And if I am not the right fit, I'll be glad to connect you with the resources you need.

Welcome, my loves, back to the Connect with Pleasure podcast. I'm Kayla, your host. I go by she, her, hers, pronouns and happy. Full moon in Taurus today.

We are in Scorpio season, but we have a full moon today in Taurus. And so in the spirit of Taurus, Taurus is an earth sign.

It is a sign of grounding kind of coming back to a little bit slower pace than some of the, like, faster signs like wind and air, earth and water tend to be. Or yeah, earth and water tend to be a little bit slower, a little bit more grounded. We are swirling in a lot of water signs right now.

We're in Scorpio season. And so there is this like earth water combination happening right now. And that means that there's a lot of emotions flying.

And I thought that today would be a really good day to talk about rest. I think this is a really important one for us all to grasp.

And I think one of the hardest traumatic lessons that our bodies are trying to tell us that we need to heal from in this time. So who here has ever felt like you can only rest if you deserve it, right?

That a lot of us, I think all of us have been taught that, you know, you, I think through our economy, through our working system, through what our parents, our grandparents, our ancestors have been taught, it's like you work all day and then you get to rest. And so many of us feel like rest is only earned. And I'm here to tell you that that is absolutely false, that we inherently need rest.

As human beings and as divine beings, we need rest to access the things that we need to access in our body. So not only does our body need rest for like biological reasons, we need rest to regulate our hormones to be able to detoxify our bodies.

There's a lot happening when you sleep at night that your body is going through detoxification. It is going through all these beautiful things that our bodies need to rejuvenate and heal and do all the things that they need to do.

And especially for women, being able to get the full amount of sleep that we need is really important for our hormone balance and our digestive systems and pretty much all, all the systems in our bodies. And I don't need to tell you that. I know we've been told that forever.

And I will also commiserate with you of how hard that is in our current way of living. I am a mom of a three year old. It is not often easy for me to get the rest that I need.

And even if I try to, you know, pass off intermittent night wakings when my child is not sleeping very well to my husband, my child just wants me. And it is a lot harder to get him to sleep if it's not me that's the one doing it. Trust me, we have tried lots of different things.

So I get it, I get that it's hard and a lot of us numb out. We scroll, we watch tv and I also take part in that.

I try not to scroll before bed, but I do watch TV before bed, which I know is, is a no no in the sleep community, but it's something that helps like regulate my nervous system. Maybe one day I will not do that, but I just want you to know that I'm talking from a place of. I get it. And I'm not perfect at this either.

But asking and making the boundaries for rest is a non negotiable. We have to make it a non negotiable. There are so many things that are pulling at our attention in this world and rest needs to be a priority.

And that is one of the biggest revolutions that I think we need to make in this world is making rest a priority and something that again is non negotiable. And let's just like dream into what that could look like for a second.

What if your work like encouraged you to rest or let's take it one step Further, actually, because there are still a lot of unknowns with AI, but let's take it one step further and let's just say, what if we didn't need to work anymore? What if, like, resting and creating and doing things just for fun was actually your quote unquote, work?

How does that feel in your body to think about rest being the work? Like, a lot of us can't even fathom it, right? So I'll tell you one more thing about my life. I am working consistently on this.

I have been in the mystery of school. I've been in the mystery school of trying to make rest something that my body feels, you know, safe with.

Feels like this is something that I want more than productivity. It's not an easy thing to do, especially as a entrepreneur and business owner that creates my own work.

But being an entrepreneur and a mom is a lot, to say the least. And both are so fulfilling. Both our joys beyond belief and are very draining on my emotional system, my nervous system, all the systems, and.

And, you know, I. I need breaks. I am a human being. I need breaks.

So I mustered all the courage that I could to ask my family to take three days for myself, and I'm doing it next week. I will still be doing a little bit of work, but I will be away from my child, away from family needs, and really trying to, like, reset myself.

I am also an introverted person. I grew up as an only child, really being on my own quite a lot.

I've been on my own for most of my life in terms of, like, spending the majority of my time alone unless I was, like, at work or at school. I had a lot of free time where I just got to, like, be in my own head, be in my own little world and do kind of whatever I wanted to do.

And being a mom, then working from home, living with, you know, my husband, my child, and my mother. I tend not to really ever be alone very often. And it. It weighs on me. It really does. I have to work time alone into my schedule a lot.

And for the longest time, I have felt so guilty. I have felt so guilty to say, like, I'm gonna take a walk in the middle of my day, or I'm going to, like, eat lunch and, you know, do nothing.

Usually watch a show while I'm eating lunch. And that's a privilege.

That's a huge privilege that I have where, you know, I don't have a boss breathing down my neck or in a workspace environment where that's not something that you Know is easy for me to do, but it's taken me a long time to not feel like if I'm not actually like engaged with something that I'm actually focusing on and working on in that moment, that I should be in mom mode doing something for my child. And I really had to take a pause and tell myself and this was like years of working on this.

I still don't have this completely dialed in 100% but I feel less guilty now. Taking time for myself in the middle of my day.

I take time before or during the time that my kiddos in school at least two days a week, sometimes three depending on what my Wednesday has in store for me to go walk in the woods that is right next to his school. It's really nice to instead of coming all the way home, I like eat breakfast in my car and then go take a walk in the woods while he's in school.

And that's been really helpful for my mental health, my physical health to get some time for myself. So this coming weekend my husband and I are going away for our anniversary.

We had our seven year anniversary this week and I decided to ask, you know, can I stay? We're going to my mom's house that is in eastern Washington. It's just a easy getaway.

And I asked my husband and then once he said the okay, then asked my mom if I could have like three more days to myself to just stay there by myself. And you know, part of me doesn't love that idea. I mean I'm bed on my own and like I'm okay to be by myself.

But my husband and I get so little time together at this point in our life or this season in our lives that I would much rather spend time with him. But he has to come back for his work and I have a little bit more flexibility. I can kind of work from anywhere as long as I have Internet connection.

So I'm going to take some time for me. And again that feels scary.

It feels really hard to ask for, to put that ask on somebody else to take care of my son in that way when we tend to really like share that time that is needed to take care of him. But it's only for a week. And you know my mom, my mom helps us a lot but she gets to go.

She was just got back from like a three week vacation and you know, if there are weekends that she wants to take off, she goes and goes to her house or you know, spends time with her friends and stuff. And I tend to not I tend to be the one that people fall back on to also take care of my son when they need to leave.

And so I, I'm taking that for myself and going to give myself the rest and the rejuvenation that I need and to really go inward with myself. So again, as a mom, I think like I can understand more than most how hard it is to really take rest. It is so hard.

And there's all this narrative around mothers also being martyrs and that we don't get to rest until we're like almost dead in the ground.

And you know, there's so many mothers that decide to stay home with her children either because of financial reasons or because that's really what they wanted to do. And I think that's absolutely amazing.

I personally feel like I, I, my mental, emotional, physical health would not do very well if I was a stay at home mom all the time. I need some like, creative outlets and ways to like do other things that I'm interested in. And I still spend a huge amount of time with my child.

I take care of him two out of the five days of the work week. And then, you know, my husband and I mostly share the duties of taking care of him over the weekend too, so.

And I'm like very involved with bedtime every night. And I'm also working from home, so I'm around him during the day too, even if I'm technically working.

So like I spend a lot of time with my child and you know, I take him to school every day that he has school. I pick him up two of the three days that he goes to school. So like I'm in it a lot.

And so I, I just want to like give the permission to anyone that feels like they need to hear permission, but you also don't need to hear permission that taking time away from your children is also important.

Even if you are a stay at home mom, I would say probably like exponentially more or you know, a stay at home parent doesn't have to be a mom, be a stay at home dad, stay at home grandparent, stay at home caregiver in whatever capacity you are a caregiver taking care of another human being, especially a three year old child or you know, children under five or six is a lot, is a lot even if you're a caregiver for an elderly parent. My mom went through taking care of my grandfather the last couple years before he passed away.

And it's just, I mean, someone that needs your constant attention that cannot really do much for themselves on their own is a lot. And we especially need to take time for ourselves. And carving out that time can be so hard. It can be so hard.

And I legitimately have been, like, praying. I'm just like, I just need a week. I just need a week away. I just need a week away out of my house.

And then I kind of started to put this thing together of like, well, maybe I could just stay a few extra days after my husband and I are doing our weekend away. And, like, would that be available to do? And I will also be gone on the shed retreat the following weekend.

So it's not like a full week away, but it's somewhat a full week away. I'll be gone two weekends in a row and, like, most of the week in between. So for now, that's gonna be my. My week away.

So I just encourage you to really think about for yourself in this moment in time. One, what is your relationship to rest? Is rest something that you never give yourself permission to do? And if so, I wonder about that.

I would be curious about that. I would learn for yourself, what are the barriers that I am putting in my way to rest?

And what are the belief systems that I have in place that tell me that rest is not for me?

And then I want you to think of rest also for those of you that are here that love the side of me that is all about creating a new world and sticking it to the people in power currently. I want you to know that rest is a way of resistance. I will link the NAP ministry in this too.

That has been a really integral part of me learning about this. I can't remember the woman's name at the moment, but there are two books that she has written and it's all about how rest is resistance.

Again, we have been bred in a world where you do not get to rest unless you have produced enough to rest. And that can be out in the workplace.

I also see it in my own home where it's like, I have to run the errands, I have to do all the cooking, the cleaning, the laundry, of course, all those things need to be done. But sometimes it's like your body just needs to rest.

I will also say for anyone that has a cycle throughout the month and you bleed once a month, it is also really important to rest during that time. We are also coming into the time of year again that is all about rest and connection to ourselves, connection to our bodies and our intuition.

We cannot connect to those things if we are not resting. And, you know, our monthly Cycle is a smaller cycle within the yearly cycle.

And so the time that people with wombs bleed is the same energy as the winter time in our like four seasons that we go through in the year. And that time for so many people, we just want to skip past it.

We want to always be in spring and summer energy, always outward facing and lots of bubbly energy and fun, fun, fun. But we can't be in that energy if we don't take the time to rest. Everything is mirrored in nature.

And you know, the trees are in their fall, they are or autumn, they are shedding what does not serve them anymore, which tends to be the leaves. You know, they're dying off for the winter to hibernate and hunker down. And you know, trees and plants, they don't last all year round.

They go through their period of growth and then bloom and then they die back and then they hibernate for the winter. And we also have cycles like that in our lives. You don't have to be a womb owner to feel the pulse of the seasons and the pulse of the moon cycle.

The time during the new moon is the darkest period. And when we are resting and rejuvenating ourselves to then go into the period between the new moon and the full moon.

And the full moon is when we're kind of in bloom and in that summer energy. And then we go into our fall and then back into our winter during the new moon.

And that's the same cycle that people with wombs follow on their bleed. And you know, when we were out in nature mostly and not inside with fluorescent light, we were more synced up with the moon.

Now, you know, you can bleed at any time during the month.

And so giving yourself the rest that you need during this coming up season as well as those times during your own cycle where you really need to rest is where we get that rejuvenation. If we don't take that rest, then our spring and summer is not going to be as full and lush as we want it to be.

We're still going to be carrying over some of that need for rest in those times.

And so many of us are just constantly depleted and constantly running on low energy because we never give our time, give ourselves that time to rest in the way that we need.

And so if we even just, I see a lot of people saying if we even just slow down for like 10% more than what we normally slow down, that can pay off dividends in the end. And so kind of to recap, you know, we are we need to rest as resistance.

We need to rest to show that we don't want to live in a world where our bodies need to rest, but we're not allowed that. We are dictated what time off we can get.

We are dictated how many sick days we can have, how many vacation days we can have, how many personal days we can have. And guess what? We're humans that actually need more than that.

And sometimes things happen, especially if you're a parent, you not only need time for yourself, but you also need time to take care of your kid when your kid also needs rest days. And I just, I don't want to live in a world where everyone's rest is predicated on whether or not they have enough days to take off of work.

Because usually it's nowhere near enough. Absolutely nowhere near enough. And so that's like just the tip of the iceberg.

But what if we lived in a world where rest was actually something that we prioritized, that instead of work, rest was like the status quo, that it's not like, oh, how much work did you get done today? But how much rest did you get today? Like, did you take a nap today? Oh, if you didn't take a nap, what are you doing?

Like, why, why would you not, like, relish in that? And my last point with this too is that pleasure lives in the rest and digest state of our bodies.

That if we are constantly fighting rest and never taking time to rest, then our bodies are always going to be in a state of fight, flight, freeze, fawn, all the Fs. We're never going to get to a place where we feel like we can really center pleasure in our lives if we don't also center rest.

And when we want to access pleasure, that's where we access it is in the rest. Oftentimes people need some rest time before they're able to get into pleasure.

They need a little bit of play, they need a little bit of me time, they need a little bit maybe actual rest, maybe you need to take a nap.

But there needs to be some, like, taking our energy down, getting to a place where we can center in our bodies and connect to ourselves, and oftentimes connect emotionally and spiritually with our partners. And then pleasure is a lot more easy or it flows a lot more easily if we take that time.

And so when we allow ourselves to rest, we allow ourselves to connect to pleasure. We allow ourselves to connect inwardly to our power, to our divine.

If you are wanting to meditate, if you are wanting to manifest, if you are Wanting to connect to spirit, connect to ancestors. We have to rest.

We do that in a state of rest, in a state of calm, in a state of just letting ourselves be in the here and now, closing our eyes, letting ourselves drift into our inner world. That allows us to rejuvenate and connect to the parts of ourselves that we can't hear if we're not allowing ourselves to rest.

So I challenge you to think about what rest can I get in this full moon again? Usually, full moon is all about outward energy, and, you know, that summer energy. And this full moon is about going well.

It's about grounding yourself. And it's also because we're in Scorpio, because Pluto is kind of coming in here. It's about the underworld.

And I think this is one of the biggest underworld things that we all have collectively in this society, especially in American society, is the fact that our ancestors for thousands of years have not been resting. And I think our bodies are finally, like, we need to rest. The Earth is saying it needs to rest more than it has been.

Everything is like, I need to fucking rest. We've been doing too much. We have been doing too much. We need to rest.

So many of our bodies are having aches and pains and weird medical issues, myself included, because of a lot of, like, the trauma that our bodies have been through, not just in our lives, but also in our ancestral history. And we're carrying a lot of that trauma. And I think some of that trauma comes from the trauma of not being able to rest.

So how can you infuse a little bit more rest into your life? It could be five minutes, it could be an hour, it could be a day, it could be a week, it could be a month, could be a year, could be multiple years.

Like, what. What do you want your relationship to rest to be? And what support do you need to make that happen?

So with that, I have a new offer that I am putting out into the world. So on this full moon, I am. Well, first, let me tell you that I am going to be starting my priestess training in January.

I was able to make it happen and received a beautiful gift in getting some help to make my dream come true, which, honestly, I didn't really know was so much of a dream.

I have known for a while that I wanted to do priestess training and wanted to become a priestess, but I kept putting it off because I felt like I didn't have time, I didn't have enough resources for it. And I kind of, like, was given an opportunity to put something out in the universe and see what came back.

And I was totally fine with it going either way. And then when I got the news that I was given a chance to do it, I was like, over the moon excited. I'm still over the moon excited.

And I really feel like this is my calling and this is where my heart and my soul are leading me. And so with this new path that I'm taking, I'm still wanting to infuse some pleasure into anything and everything that I do.

My background is always going to be in sex and sexual wellness and the intertwining of that with feminine rising and healing and the sacred Feminine becoming a part of our everyday lives. And I think being more of a spiritual leader, that is just bringing that aspect into what I do.

Instead of it kind of being like sex first and then everything else is kind of like, how do I fit this into it? I think that's where I'm going with all of this.

I. I really want to be the grounded space that hold or the grounded person that holds the space for anyone that is needing to be held.

To be held in your transition, to be held in a moment of confusion, to be held in a moment of just needing support and love and knowing that you have someone on your side. So I am opening up some spots for spiritual guidance. These will just be one off, one hour, one to one sessions.

And it, you know, this is just totally like I'm throwing this out there and I'm seeing how it lands. So it could evolve over time, but they will be one hour, one to one sessions. Really. You can bring anything to the table.

It does not have to be around sex and pleasure, obviously, if it is, I have plenty of experience with that, but it can really be about anything. And you know, I'm a trained, licensed therapist. I've worked with pretty much any problem in, in, in life.

And I've just like, I've worked with people I know, I know the ins and outs of what is hard for people.

And then pairing that with spirituality, pairing that with the sacred feminine and the things that I have been learning, I definitely have so much more to learn. And I'm so excited to start that journey. And I still feel like I have a lot to give where I am now. I have years of experience and I can hold space.

I can hold space for anyone that feels like they are in a transition moment and needs space held.

And if you connect to me on any level, I would love to hold that space for you and to be a sounding board and to you know, we can witch it up a little bit. I. I have visions of, you know, having both people or myself and you light a candle.

We can do some, you know, grounding work, some somatic work, some internal, like, let's really invoke and call in what you want to call in in that moment. And then you get to just tell me what's on your heart and what's on your mind. And I will hold space and I will give the guidance that I have to give.

I think one of my gifts is really I am able to distill information very easily. And I'm coming to understand that my ability to really, like, see through bullshit is actually a gift and something that not everyone can do.

I'm really good at pulling all the pieces together, putting the puzzle together, and really understanding what is true, what is true in this moment. You will not get any thing from me around sticking to patriarchal norms, that's for sure.

So if that's what you're looking for, that's not, that's not going to be part of this experience for you. Because I'm going to hold up a mirror to you and say, this is what is true.

This is what I'm hearing, and this is me bringing all my love and all my support to you in this moment, while also telling you this is what is true. And it's been so helpful for me to have spiritual leaders do the same for me.

So if this is calling to you, if this sounds interesting to you, it's going to be a really easy, energetic exchange. It'll be $111. We're going for the numerical one. One, one.

And so it'll be $111 for each session. I will put the link in the show notes. It'll be very easy. I will have some questions that I'll have you fill out.

That will kind of be just a very small intake, just so I kind of know who you are, what you want to talk about before the session, and you will pay when you book and then maybe we'll have a session together. And again, this is kind of like me just throwing this out and seeing where it leads. If people need more than this.

And I see that there's a path forward to, like, provide more support. I can do that. But for now, we're just doing easy, easy, easy. That's like my new motto. Like, whatever is the easiest thing is what we're gonna do.

Because this should not be hard. I just want it to be fun. I want it to be light and fun. I mean, the things that we talk about may not be light and fun, and that's totally fine.

But like, on my end, putting it out there, I just want it to be light and fun.

And I want this to feel like you are coming home to something that is very sacred and loving and that is also like an easy lift on your end, too, to say yes to this. So if that is something that piques your interest, then go click on the link in the show notes and, you know, if.

If this is for you, then it's for you. And I really, I fully believe that the people that are meant to be in my orbit will be.

And so I just thank anyone who listens to my episodes and wants to be a part of my journey. So with that, I am going to have this be my episode for the week. It's. It's a lot trying to put multiple episodes out there in one week.

So because this falls on the full moon, this will be our episode for the week.

I'm still trying to get some new guests lined up, so I have someone scheduled for later in November, and I will try to see if I can get any more in the next couple weeks as well. But if I don't have a guest next week, then I will talk to you next Friday, and it'll be the Friday when the Shed retreat starts.

So again, we do have one spot left if you want to get in on the last spot of the Shed retreat. That will be on Vashon island in Washington on the 14th, 15th and 16th of November.

And it's just going to be an amazing, amazing weekend full of women that are in transition as well and are willing to step through the threshold together. So if that is also calling to you, that is available and I will put the information for that down below as well.

So I will see or talk to you, you all then. And until then, take care.