Hello Fellow Body-Mind-Hearts –

How is your heart today? How are you tending your body? your mind? your heart? The first step in the process of self-care is to acknowledge the truth of how we are and to allow it some breathing room. Often this is not how we approach ourselves…much of the time simply want to feel better or be elsewhere…but what we ignore grows and expands within.

We are not a problem to be solved or a broken engine to be fixed, but a living organism that needs attention and tending. We need to be able to express/feel/honor the pain, heartbreak and exhaustion in order to be able to move through it and recover more energy and other possible modes of being. This generosity is an act of kindness, even if it is sometimes uncomfortable. 

The crux of this reclamation of kindness is to transform our self-talk and inner thoughts. We need to be less harsh and demanding with ourselves. I don’t know about you, but I would never treat someone the way I often treat myself; with so many criticisms and demands to be perfect and inhuman. We are the ones we live with 24 hours a day for the entirety of our lives! It only seems appropriate to offer this life long ally the kind of love and concern we offer others we care about.  So how might you be kind to yourself today? What might you DO or NOT DO to allow for your humanness? 

These days, I am beyond tired, as I know you must be as well. It is so important to recognize this and tend it. For those of us who are used to going like the Energizer Bunny (for those of you too young to remember, this was a battery operated toy that never stopped, ever!) it is no mean feat to stop. Here are some ways I have been kind to myself this week… I paused and stared into space for 10 minutes, I lay on the couch and watched an episode (okay, multiple episodes!) of The Great British Baking Show and I chose to catch up with a friend via the telephone rather than on a video call. Some other ways I tend my truth is to talk walks, take a bath, have a good cry and/or yelling session and share my frustrations with someone who can simply hold them for the truth they are. We have to reclaim the kindness we believe in and offer to others and commit to giving it to ourselves.  We are all in need. 

And then we also need to offer these acts of kindness out into the world which so desperately needs it. It doesn’t take much to say ‘thank you’ to the customer service person, to make eye contact above the mask, to send a prayer of succor to so many who are in need. We have to keep creating room in our hearts for ourselves and each other. 

May we be kind and generous with our aching bodies, our distracted minds and our broken hearts. 
May we honor the exhaustion, the frustration and the yearning that we feel in our being
May we offer ourselves time to BE in order to support all that we DO
May we be kind and compassionate with others we encounter on this wild journey of life

Practice Prompts:

• Practice pausing and letting yourself have a few moments of whatever emotion is current in you…sense the physical sensation and allow yourself to be with the truth of this
• Think of the some of the simple and kind things you might do for another…do them…and then offer yourself something in kind
• Consider the incredible stress you are under and offer yourself some breaks in ways that feel nourishing for you
• Schedule an online Resiliency Session with me. Sliding scale available upon request. Please allow me to support you in this wild time with support and guidance to access the wisdom of your body and resource your nervous system. I offer this from my lived experience.

Upcoming Live Streaming Practice Opportunities:

• Monday 10-11:30am PST All Levels Yoga via online streaming through Seattle Yoga Arts
• Sunday 10-11:30am PST All Levels Yoga via online streaming through Two Dog Yoga Studio
• Yoga Nidra Practice, Sunday, Nov 29, 5:30-7pm PST, via online streaming through Two Dog Yoga
• Full Moon Mandala Practice, Thursday, Dec 1, 7-8:30pm PST via online streaming through Seattle Yoga Arts
• Continuum Moving Inquiry Playshop, Monday, Dec 14, 6:30-8:30pm PST via online streaming through Body of Insight

Inspirational Wisdom:

SMALL KINDNESSES
by Danusha Laméris

I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.
We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,
and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile
at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress
to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,
and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.
We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,
have my seat,” “Go ahead—you first,” “I like your hat.”