Founder, Author, and Creator of Brave Rest
You are whole. You always have been. What you need isn’t out there somewhere, it’s already inside you.
I’m Sarah Brassard, founder, author, and creator of Brave Rest. Brave Rest is a home for everything I make in service of rest: guided Yoga Nidra practices in the REST Library, a 40-day self-led journey through the chakras, retreats and gatherings like Illuminate Within, and writing that comes straight from my corner by the sea. My book, Inside: A Guide to the Resources Within, lives here too.
It’s all built on one belief: rest isn’t a luxury, it’s the foundation everything else is built on. If any of this speaks to you, I’d love for you to explore it.
Why I Do What I Do
My Mission
My purpose is to help people find inner peace and real growth through steady, lifelong rituals and practices.
I believe all parts of us are connected, and healing comes from seeing ourselves whole. Self-care and self-reflection let us face even the parts that feel shameful or fragile. When we hold all of who we are, we find compassion, love, and the strength to keep going.
About Sarah W. Brassard
Founder, Creator, Healer
Sarah is a teacher, author, healer, and certified life coach who blends wisdom traditions with intuition, energy, spirituality, and self-care, inviting people to open themselves to new ways of responding to life.
For the last 35 years, Sarah has guided people from struggle to grace, peace, and ease through her signature process of sacred self-care.
She is the author of Inside: A Guide to the Resources Within to Stay Connected to Your Truth, Even in Trying Times, where she shares the self-care practices that sparked and sustained her own healing journey.
Her work is driven by a dedication to integrating body, mind, heart, and spirit, and an unshakeable conviction that there’s nothing in life that can’t be healed.
My Story
When she left, a piece of me walked out with her.
I was 13, and the wheel of my young life had her at its hub. Piece by piece, it bent until it simply wasn’t a wheel anymore.
A few years later, my father died after a long battle with leukemia. I still remember that day in the woods, when he told me, as his oldest, that I’d need to prepare for a life without him and find a way to forgive my mother. I wasn’t ready to hear it. But he was right, and he loved me enough to say it anyway. He died when I was 16. I had siblings and schools that held me up, and I held it together on the outside. But inside, I was searching for something hopeful. I found it in an Outward Bound program that pushed me past my fear. That led me to a woman’s boutique in Worcester, where the owner became my lifelong mentor, and later, at 21, to opening my own boutique in New Hampshire.
Then I met David. Steady, kind, easy to laugh. Comfort was new to me, I’d only ever known how to handle chaos. But slowly, I learned to trust it. He learned to meet me where I was. We built a life. We had a kid. Then another. The storm inside me was quieter now. But it hadn’t left completely.
Despite the trauma of abandonment and the suffering that unfolded, my life was blessed. I had loving siblings and gained support from the schools I attended. And I still had my father. I believed he would beat his illness, even after I learned of the severity of his health diagnosis. Until that day in the woods when he told me—as his oldest biological child—that I’d have to prepare for a life without him and forgive my mother. I couldn’t accept it. Not him. Not him. Not…
He died when I was 16. Although I had plenty of familial support, I was lost. So lost, on the inside. To the outside world, I kept it together (sound familiar?). In a search of anything that felt hopeful, I applied to an Outward Bound internship program that challenged me to grow beyond my insecurity and fear. After my month-long outdoor experience, I returned to Worcester, MA to finish out the year in the internship portion of the program. I chose an opportunity in retail with a woman’s boutique. The owner of that boutique became my lifelong friend and mentor. Inspired by her caring presence in my life, I opened a woman’s boutique in New Hampshire at 21 years old.
Then, I met David. He was a strong man with a kind heart and a light sense of humor. Life with him was… Comfortable. And I wasn’t used to comfortable. Not in the emotional sense. A part of me had been trained to handle chaos. I didn’t know how to deal with this new phenomenon of emotional stability. But I learned and small step by small step, began to trust this path of healing deep down. And he learned to support me the best he could. And we had a kid. Then another.
But deep inside, the storm still swirled.
Heavy childhood trauma cuts deep...
I found massage therapy and fell in love with it, going all-in on an intense two-year program, the kind where you work on cadavers to truly understand the body’s structure. It was my first step within, and I began to understand how body, mind, heart, and spirit are woven together. It also showed me something I’d been avoiding: my own body was suffering. But watching so much healing happen around me opened a door to another way of being.
Still, the chaos inside hadn’t settled. Marriage, kids, a new home, a small business, life doing what life does, I was stressed in a way that couldn’t last. I didn’t tell anyone. I thought I had to look like I had it together, even as I felt the wheels coming loose underneath. I stopped taking care of myself. I pulled inward.
Then I found Kundalini Yoga. That first class was unlike anything I’d known. Slowly, the practice brought me back to myself, the self who existed before my mother left, before my father died. That connection has stayed with me ever since.I could breathe again. Literally, and emotionally.
Kundalini gave me my life back and my breath back.
I wanted to go deeper. So I did teacher training in 2004 and opened Kundalini Yoga Barn in Hollis, New Hampshire. And I haven’t looked back since.
If anything, I was now instead of living in my hurt past, suspended in my growth journey, obsessively future-focused. While the spark of healing and passion was lit, I was still in need of a firmer grounding in the now. I wanted to go deeper into the theoretical and philosophical aspects behind these transformative practices I’d become so fond of. I enrolled in divinity school and became an ordained Interfaith Minister through the Tree of Life Seminary in 2012.
While I wouldn’t change my past or any of the decisions that brought me to today, I soon reached a point in life where I was done striving. I was done guessing and manipulating and controlling outcomes. I had the realization that outcome-obsession was the root of my stress and dis-ease in life. Even though I’d experienced my share of ‘unfavorable outcomes’, I also saw that my life had been blessed and that each ‘unfortunate event’ was necessary to shape me into myself.
Through a life of trial and error and a spiritual practice rooted in varied ancient and modern wisdom traditions and healing practices, I’d finally shifted the focus from outcome to inner peace. And for the first time, I felt free.
Could I reverse engineer the path to this freedom for others?
There were so many ups and downs, so many false starts, before I found a real sense of peace, of “enough”ness, of being grounded in love instead of fear. I wondered if I could make that path a little straighter for others.
In 2012, I began examining my own healing journey to shape it into something others could use, a signature process of sacred self-care. That led to writing my book and journal on inner healing, building coaching programs, and growing a community of devoted seekers and self-healers.
Today, that healing lives on through my writing and my Yoga Nidra practice, offering rest as a path back to grounded vitality and real joy.When I’m not writing, you’ll likely find me gardening, cycling, or traveling with my sweet husband.
What I Believe In
My Values
Self-Kindness
When we can extend compassion to ourselves, opportunities open up for us. This generous expression allows us to seek the truth about our circumstances, what keeps us stuck, and how we will move beyond limited perspectives, expanding our healing and growth.
Bravery
Inner healing requires a courageous commitment to truth. This path of learning is not for the faint of heart. We will shine a light in dark places and break through all sorts of nervous system messaging that says, 'it's not safe to be here.' Trust: no matter how lacking in courage you may feel, you do have the inner resources to see this journey through.
Mastery
Consistency brings a new way of interacting with the world. The truth is that transformation takes commitment. By valuing mastery while appreciating the commitment needed to achieve it, you will discover what it means to be empowered. Once this reality is integrated, it becomes YOUR WAY.
All of Which Brings Me to You
You’ve lived. Loved. Hurt. Won. Lost.
Started over, maybe more than once.
If you’ve made it this far, you’ve put in the work. The healthy eating, the meditation, the affirmations, the striving.
And now you’re ready for something different. Ready to lay down the tit for tat with the universe. Ready for surrender and trust instead of control. I applaud you for that.
Everything I offer, the book and journal, Brave Rest, my retreats, my podcast Stay Close, was built for people exactly where you are. Consider this your invitation.
Let’s rest, heal, and grow together.
With love, from my corner by the sea,
