Hello Dear Ones –
Everyone I am engaging with these days is naming the very real experience of our collective anxiety of what may unfold in the coming weeks around the US election. This is on top of all the other devastation and heartbreak that is beamed to us from around the world. We are not biologically designed to take in this amount of information in an ongoing stream. We are designed for local input in smaller waves. This is why it is imperative that we consciously take breaks and resource ourselves by limiting the amount of information we take in…words, images, conversations, etc. And also choosing to engage with people and activities (and non-activities) that can help us settle and remember the slower and larger view.
Here are two wise elders offering some wisdom that may benefit you during this time and going forward…
Michael Meade: How Not to be Overwhelmed
and
Anderson Cooper Interviews Francis Weller on Creating a Companionship with Grief.
As I write this, a four point stag has chosen to take a nap in the rocky and wooded area behind my home. He is stunning and his potent presence is palpable even as he rests. I keep taking breaks to commune with him…standing on my back porch and sharing a gaze of such soft intensity that it melts my heart and brings me back to truth. He is here to remind me of the beauty and grace all around me, the soft need for rest and the wider circle of my kin and concern.
Where are you being invited in small and subtle (or not so subtle) ways to return to the wholeness of yourself and life? Where can you pause and turn towards your wholeness that is deeply rooted in the larger animate world? I encourage you to go there soon and often.
May we choose to honor ourselves with practices and time for reconnection to Self and World
May we offer kindness and generosity to the world that so desperately needs it
May we take time to rest and renew amidst the cacophony of information
May we bring wild blessings and fierce love to all we encounter
Practice Prompts:
- When we say no to something we are saying yes to something else. Explore putting down the phone, turning off the TV, taking out the ear phones and turning towards another way of engaging…sitting, walking, resting, dancing, singing, etc. See what can feed your Soul so you can bring more of that to the world. Practice setting some limits to the amount of digital information that you try to ingest in any given day.
- In the morning, ask the Universe, the Ancestors, Divine Consciousness (whatever name you use) to show up and speak with you in symbols and images and experiences that you can easily understand and that can nourish and remind you of the Vastness and Beauty of Life. They are already doing this, we just need to tune in.
- Look for glimmers of beauty and kindness all around you…even the little moments and images. Let them land in you and feed you. This is also part of the story.
- I offer one to one sessions, in-person in Bend, Oregon, and virtually all over the world. These sessions are centered on supporting you find nervous system capacity and resiliency through various practices including but not limited to Somatic Experiencing, embodied movement and sensory perceiving. Please email me or schedule a free 20 minute Exploratory Session.
Live Streaming Practice Opportunities:
- Yoga for Resilience, Mondays, 9:30-11am PT, livestream through Body of Insight (no class on Nov 11, Dec 23 & 30)
- All Levels Yoga, Sundays…Nov 24, Dec 15, 9:30-11am PT, livestream through Two Dog Yoga
- On Demand Yoga Practices…All Levels… through Two Dog Yoga
- Save the Date…May 16-18, 2025…Embodying Presence; Continuum Inquiry and Deep Perceiving Retreat at Breitenbush Hot Springs… registration will open in the next few weeks!
Inspirational Wisdom:
Subtraction
For months now, the days darken.
This signals the trees to stop making chlorophyll,
and, in its absence, other pigments in the leaves
can be seen. Yellow flavonols. Orange carotenoids.
Red anthocyanins. They adorn each tree
with such radiance, such honest treasure—
a beauty that was always there,
concealed beneath the green.
Touch me, I want to say to the darkness.
or perhaps more truly, I say to the self,
be touched, be touched as if you are a tree.
Let what you know of yourself break down.
What hidden gold might be revealed then?
What amber? What astonishing vermillion?