Hello Fellow Body-Mind-Hearts –

I have been having several powerful conversations lately with different folks about the way many of us tend to override our body’s wisdom. The habits of pushing through our exhaustion, always working the extreme edge of our body’s capacity for either strength or openness, assuming we ‘should’ be able to do what we have always been able to do with our bodies, and more. This attitude towards our body as an object to be manipulated and managed in some way is a direct result of living in our current modern society. We are taught to treat everything as an object that can be controlled and utilized for some advantage. This includes our body. 

But our bodies are NOT objects to wring dry with demand and constant pressure. They are a living, breathing biological process that is unfolding moment to moment. And we are as young as we will ever be, as someone once said to me. In other words, part of this process of being embodied is aging and eventually dying. So the invitation is to come to our body as a subject…an experience that is changing, shifting and curious.

Can we start to notice when the override happens? Can we be curious about why we need to push so hard? Is this is simply a learned habit from our collective attitude of bigger, better, more with no slower, quieter, adequate? Can it be okay to simply do enough and reserve some energy for other activities or simply not max out all the time?

These are some of the questions I and some of my peers have been exploring. I have come to believe that pausing and slowing down are acts of rebellion and revolution in our time. I resonate with the idea of subverting the common ways of machinery and linear time to honor the sacred ways of nature and space. I get the endorphin rush of checking the boxes on my list…so with a chuckle I put my nap on my list. And I cultivate the capacity to interrupt the habits of treating my body like a machine rather than the plush, sensitive, fluid being it is.

Inviting a deepening of our sensory life can help with this revolution. Opening the senses to noticing the life around us with gentle attention and attuning to the life within with compassion is a way to shift from object to subject. I also like to add -ING to the end of nouns to help me remember the living process that is happening when the tree is tree-ing, my skin is skin-ing, the stone is stone-ing and my heart is more than just beating it is heart-ing. This practice seems to immerse me in a living subject world…try it and let me know what you discover.

I am excited to announce that my Monday morning Yoga for Resilience class will begin on November 7 at 10am PT. This is an ongoing 90-minute virtual weekly class offered for all bodies and abilities to encourage and support you in finding more resilience and capacity for life. We do this through the welcoming and varying practices of conscious movement, breath, and meditation. Drop in and class cards available. Check it out.

I am also offering an evening workshop on Tending Our Nervous System; Resourcing Ourselves Amidst Tumult on Monday, November 7, 5:30-7:30pm PT. It is a great opportunity to learn a little about your nervous system and practice some ways to settle, ground and enliven yourself even with so many challenging things happening in our world. Please join me.

Guiding Lights…

Gratefulness.org is an organization founded by the amazing and thoughtful Brother David Steidhl-Rast. His personal story is remarkable and his teachings on the foundational quality of gratitude are beautiful and simple. I love his written and spoken words and his organization sends a daily quote and has inspiring videos as well as a great array of e-cards. Check them out.

May we practice the generosity of listening attentively to the wisdom of our body

May we embody a revolution of kindness and sensitivity to our biological rhythms

May we find ways to ‘get it all done’ with more grace and ease

May we offer kindness, compassion & beauty everywhere we go & in every interaction

Practice Prompts:

• Can you begin to notice when you override the wisdom of your body? Can you offer some compassion to the part that pushes through as well as the part that is trampled. And perhaps offer a pause and some kindness to the conflicting urges.
• Offer some space to notice when you are simply following the generally accepted ways of working, moving, being and if there are other more organic ways you would like to originate your being from. We can still get things done and move at a fast clip and be grounded in sensation and sensitivity.
• Consider joining some group practice (in person or online)…yoga, dance (Soul Motion, Open Floor, etc) or other modalities with guides who invite you to listen inside for the wisdom about how much and how fast and how often.
• I offer one to one sessions in person in Bend, Oregon and virtually all over the world. If you would like to learn more about my offerings please email me or schedule a free 20 minute Exploratory Session.

Upcoming Live Streaming Practice Opportunities:

• Yoga for Resilience, Mondays, 10-11:30am PT, livestream through Body of Insight (starting November 7)
• Tending Our Nervous System; Resourcing Ourselves Amidst Tumult, Monday, November 7, 5:30-7:30pm PT…livestream through Two Dog Yoga
• Continuum Inquiry Playshop, Monday, November 14, 5:30-7:30pm PT, livestream through Body of Insight
• All Levels Yoga, Sundays, October 30 and November 20, 10-11:30am PT, livestream through Two Dog Yog
• On Demand Yoga Practices…All Levels… through Two Dog Yoga (practice with me anytime, anywhere!)

Inspirational Wisdom:

The Most Important Thing

I am making a home inside myself. A shelter
of kindness where everything
is forgiven, everything allowed—a quiet patch
of sunlight to stretch out without hurry,
where all that has been banished
and buried is welcomed, spoken, listened to—released.

A fiercely friendly place I can claim as my very own.

I am throwing arms open
to the whole of myself—especially the fearful,
fault-finding, falling apart, unfinished parts, knowing
every seed and weed, every drop
of rain, has made the soil richer.

I will light a candle, pour a hot cup of tea, gather
around the warmth of my own blazing fire. I will howl
if I want to, knowing this flame can burn through
any perceived problem, any prescribed perfectionism,
any lying limitation, every heavy thing.

I am making a home inside myself
where grace blooms in grand and glorious

abundance, a shelter of kindness that grows
all the truest things.

I whisper hallelujah to the friendly
sky. Watch now as I burst into blossom.

~ Julia Fehrenbacher