Can Feeding Your Demons Modulate Difficult Responses to the Rest and Restore Protocol?
Why Try Combining these Two Powerful Modalities?
Feeding Your Demons® (FYD) is a guided meditation practice that transforms difficult emotions through dialogue and visualization. The Rest and Restore Protocol™ (RRP) is a listening therapy designed to help our internal systems work together—though it can sometimes feel overwhelming.
The idea to pair these practices came from Dr. Richard Schwartz's observation that the RRP "puts the Manager Protectors to sleep," allowing vulnerable parts of us to emerge. This made me wonder: could FYD offer a safe way to meet these emerging parts so that RRP listening might land more gently?
To explore this, I worked with three volunteers who had each experienced challenging responses to the RRP. Each person completed an FYD process, connected with an Ally, then listened to a self-selected RRP segment.
What Emerged: Three Different Responses
One participant felt the familiar tingling awareness, but with an added sense of connection to their Ally. "FYD definitely felt really good while listening to RRP, and using the same Ally imagery in the days afterwards also really helped," they shared. Though life challenges made it hard to separate what was practice-related, they wanted to try the combination again with gentler pacing.
Another participant's Ally appeared as a hawk. During RRP listening, they experienced themselves soaring overhead, seeing their world from a broader perspective. This brought spaciousness and symbolic protection that lasted beyond the session.
The third participant had a different experience: their Ally felt so strong it seemed to block access to material ready to be processed. They noticed a mild histamine flare afterward and felt withdrawn and low-energy the next day. Despite this, they remained curious about trying the combination again.
What This Reveals About Modulating Difficult Responses
From this small experiment with participants who had previously struggled with RRP, it appears that FYD doesn't neutralize adverse reactions in a predictable way. For one person, the Ally seemed to provide stabilizing support that made the RRP experience more tolerable and carried benefits beyond the session. For another, it offered protective distance and a broader perspective that altered their relationship, at least temporarily, to the listening process. For the third, the Ally's presence may have created too much buffering, potentially preventing necessary processing while the body still responded with familiar activation patterns.
Practice, Not Prescription
FYD develops gradually like other meditation practices, improving with patience and consistency. The RRP, though structured as a listening protocol, also benefits from gentle, repeated exposure to support nervous system regulation.
Each nervous system responds uniquely. What supports one person may overwhelm another. This reminds us to carefully consider timing, dosage, and individual capacity. Whether we're providers or individuals doing our own work, following best practices for RRP becomes even more important when combining modalities.
Looking Ahead
The potential for FYD to modulate challenging RRP experiences feels promising, but the integration requires careful attention to each person's unique response patterns. Moving forward, I'm curious about how different levels of RRP tracks might interact with the FYD process, whether the strength or nature of the Ally affects the outcome, and if timing between the practices influences their interaction.
For now, the invitation remains the same: to approach with curiosity rather than expectation, and to let each nervous system teach us what it needs to feel safe enough to trust and to heal.
Have you experienced challenging responses to the RRP, or are you curious about combining contemplative practices with nervous system work? Whether you're a practitioner exploring these integrations or someone on your own healing journey with the RRP, I'd love to hear about your experiences and questions. Let’s connect!