This is an essential aspect of succeeding on the long term.
You want your practice to be easily sustainable on the long term.
To do that you alternate periods of activity and rest.
Rest is integration and healing.
Here is how I personally apply it in my life and vital tantra practices.
If I do morning activations Mon-Fri every day 7-8, I drop the practice Saturday and Sunday.
I might still do some stretches if go for a light jog or do whatever comes up spontaneously but I don't put effort or discipline into it.
This allows me to relax and integrate.
If you are in discipline and structure all the time, you might run out of will power.
In a year time, I had as well 2 episodes of rest I think, don't recall exactly but I think I dropped discipline for a week at one point.
Right now it is end if the year holiday period and I am as well resting from strong discipline for a few days now.
I am still dancing at ecstatic dance events or docking some very light short activations but basically I am giving my body some rest.
Right now I don't know if it's a few days, a week or two or even a month.
It could be a 4 week rest period before engaging again in discipline.
Already now after a few days rest, the urge to engage with daily disciplined activations is already very strong.
But I am relaxing and allowing my self not to respond to this impulse.
So far what worked really well is to have this week end shift from daily 7-8 activations to no activations on Saturday and Sunday.
For about 3 months now, I started as well adding a 1-2 hours practice in the evening, anywhere 3-6 pm
That one involves light jog to get to river, refreshing in the waters, natural waterfall massage, invocations, yoga pauses, mantras, etc.
That's natural too and worked well.
With some rainy days, I often ended up doing these river trips 3 to 5 times per week.
I usually dropped them as well in the week end.
I have been dancing at ecstatic dance like events maybe 2 or 3 times a week and this can as well be a 1-3 hours activation practice.
What I am discovering right now is that the drop in discipline in the week end worked really well.
I notice as well now that after a year if discipline and regular activation, taking a longer break from disciplined activations feels good too.
That break can happen spontaneously or due to circumstances like travel or it can be scheduled in the program.
For instance in the year structure, you can have a week break every 3 months and then have a longer 4 week break once a year.
That's a structure that feels quite natural.
I like of course the spontaneity and I always allow the flow to take over if needed.
The structure I talk about now us a time structure.
But there are frequent other structures and influences coming in like the cycles of the moon or other energetic influences.
You might have a friend or lover coming over and decide to intensify a certain practice or drop another.
You might as well, travel, attend a retreat or festival that brings you to another time structure.
So the idea of discipline is great but having flexibility and adaptation with it is essential too.
That's all I have right now.
The core message for today is that I not only have weekly week end rest, I might have as well week long rest periods every 3 months and one longer 4 weeks rest period once a year.
That sounds like a possible good rhythm.
The idea of fixing this as a rule in my life rigidifies me way too much right now.
I like the freedom and spontaneity.
But I do keep in mind that having week long rests 2 to 4 times a year is natural and I happily embrace that need as it comes.
Right now, I feel that scheduling rest periods around specific events, retreats or festivals that I am either leading or attending might be part if building that year rhythm, activations and rest periods.
The goal is to make Vital Tantra harmonious and sustainable on the long term with activity rhythm that is natural and spontaneous.
This is why I spend some precious time diving in these questions and designing the best possible format for these practices.