A breath for these tough times

Sending out extra wishes of Safety & Sanctuary for everyone, these are such scary times, inhaling and exhaling for everything getting peaceful as swiftly as possible.

Announcement / get your copy of Emergency Calming Down Techniques

I’ve been reeling hard lately in some cursed combination of heartache, numbness, political anxiety, winter stuff and some wild panic episodes.

Have been holding on (for dear life) to my Emergency Calm The Hell Down Techniques from a long time ago, and it’s been helping.

I am giving away a copy of these (ebook + audio recordings) to anyone who gives any sum of money to the appreciation funds / discretionary fund in the hopes that we can all keep practicing together, for each other and for the collective, and also for ourselves in these scary times. ❤️

A wild abundance of begin-agains

The winding path(s) of following a wish

While I don’t do New Year resolutions both out of an innate rebelliousness and because it stresses me out to think about big goals during hibernation season, I do select some experiments to run for the new year.

(Though often I stealth-start them around October or November, just as a test run, because I have more energy then, and also I like casually sliding into the new year with some of the new habits and rituals already working for me…)

Then I also treat January as a test-run.

January is for Reconnaissance

Or really, maybe even more than a test-run, I think it’s more accurate to say that January, for me, is for RECONNAISSANCE.

I do some peeking, and some poking (around), I test the waters, and I take some notes.

Which is to say, I try things, sure, but I’m mainly just trying to learn what I can learn about the territory.

Learning about the territory…

This is the winding path, or many paths, of following a wish, or pursuing a goal. I start by learning about my goal-wishes, and I try not to put too much pressure on myself to force any changes or move too fast.

While January is when I hum on some goal-wishes and take inventory, February is when the goal-wishes begin to take more shape for me, to reveal themselves a bit more.

And this works well for me, because this time of year offers up an abundance of reminders about new beginnings and how that fresh-start feeling can be made available again and again.

Aka the power of RESET RESTART! And a good reminder about how we get Do-Overs forever…

An entire season of Do-Overs Forever!

First we get Lunar New Year at the end of January. Hello, year of the snake. Let’s do some constructive shedding.

And then there’s Groundhog Day, my personal holy feast day of Do-Overs, or what I like to call True New Year, because it’s a holiday of just try something new today, see what happens…

This week (today!) is Tu B’shvat the new year for the trees! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TREE FRIENDS! Best new year ever, a holiday for eating fruit and nuts, and feeling joyful about the trees, all my favorite things combined.

Truly so many good reminders right now about RESET RESTART, and how we can just keep on beginning.

Feet on the ground.

Feet on the ground.

Inhale and exhale. Root to rise, retreat to emerge, let’s go, hello new moment.

Just like that. A small shift in sensation, in physical awareness, a frisson of newness. Reset, restart.

A time of new beginnings and also some monster-fears around that

February might also bring (here, for me) blank skies and wild winds and a monster chorus of “nothing will ever change, all the stuck things are going to stay stuck in the exact same boring way forever”, and yet…

And yet…

And yet…

And yet, I can practice now is not then, and I can name the things that have changed or shifted for the better. I can remember the mysteries and challenges that have already solved themselves.

Superpower of IT SOLVES ITSELF! I can place all the remaining mysteries into the cauldron of It Solves Itself!

I can practice Acknowledgment & Legitimacy.

I can ask, What’s true and what’s also true? I can glow some extra compassion towards the stuck places. I can be the detective investigating the most compelling mystery….

No worry, no hurry. We invoked some wishes in January and maybe they stirred some things up for us, and now we are learning about the process of how things shift and change. The bravest part for sure.

The semi-truck

I was talking to my brother about what I have been learning about my wish of Navy Seal Ops, which is actually a wish about Days Start Earlier, which turned out to be a wish about Earlier to Bed…

Which in turn turned out to be a wish about Reducing Anxiety, which itself turned out to be a wish about investigating What Is The Utility In The Anxiety, which appears to be connected to what I thought was a different wish about Craveable, aka grounding myself in a comforting evening routine and energizing morning routine that are so good at doing what they do that they are craveable…

And I was telling him about how even though I have made so much progress on this whole tangled mess, and achieved so many wins, and I know so much more about it than I did six weeks ago…

Still, I often feel frustrated or perceive that I am stymied. Even with all the wins, progress and improvement, the basic wish itself (feeling rested? getting consecutive hours of sleep!) eludes me.

He said, it’s like when you’re behind a semi-truck.

Slowly but surely

He said: “Lots of wins to celebrate here! I think of it like when you’re on the freeway, and stuck behind a truck that is passing another truck. You know that you’re making progress, and that eventually this stuck thing will be gone, but it’s so slow and that’s frustrating.”

Slowly but surely. We’re getting somewhere. It just might seem like we are in the slowest slow part.

Okay, so we breathe. We practice RESET RESTART. We press pause on the boring stories we are telling about how nothing is working and everything is bad. We get inquisitive. We remember to add pleasure. We remind ourselves about play.

We notice what is working. We make guesses and hypotheses about what we might want to try next.

We meet ourselves with as much compassion as we can muster for this moment. And if we can’t, then we can remind each other. (This is me reminding you, if you want that reminder, and also reminding myself.)

When I am in a funk

I have been super in a funk this week. It’s partly the wild winds, and not enough sun. It’s partly frustration with still mysteriously, or not-mysteriously, waking up a thousand (seven) times a night.

It’s partly the ongoing general terror that accompanies every piece of news about the current U.S. president and this administration that is just a clown-car filled with the most terrible people with the most distressing plans…

It’s not like there’s a shortage of reasons. But it means I do tend to forget about RESET RESTART, or any of the things that help.

So let’s take a couple breaths in service of Acknowledgement & Legitimacy…

Acknowledgment & Legitimacy breaths

A breath for how reasonable and understandable it is (so reasonable! so understandable!) to get into a February Funk.

A breath for joy will return.

A breath for there are forms of pleasure available in this moment, and I can recalibrate myself and my focus to be able to perceive them.

A breath for remembering that the hard and challenging things are in fact often hard and challenging, it makes so much sense that it takes a toll just to exist alongside them. And some of them are not as bad as I think.

A breath for remembering that the good things are good, they do exist, and that I can ground myself in hope, which is a courageous thing to do at any time. A candle lit for hope sparks.

A breath for RESET RESTART, and revisiting the experiments with renewed enthusiasm, curiosity, playfulness and ease. Or rewriting the experiments as needed!

What helps?

My daily pasture walk aka taking that silly little walk for your silly little mental health.

Calling a friend for some good body-doubling (they clean their kitchen while I chop a mountain of onions to caramelize, everybody wins).

Naming what’s working, naming the small victories, the little miracles, every small shift towards something better. Then brainstorming what might help to try next…

Reducing the number of objects in my line of sight.

And of course, finding a new recipe to get excited about.

One song dance party or getting on the floor to roll around and bobcat-stretch for a song. Lion’s breath!

I don’t know what your list looks like, but maybe it helps to just name some things to start…

Another clue

This one also comes courtesy of my brother who often passes on a good clue:

“For your own sanity, you have to remember that not all problems can be solved. Not all problems can be solved, but all problems can be illuminated.” —Ursula Franklin

Alright, let’s illuminate some of these challenges. And maybe part of the work of illuminating is remembering that it’s a process. Slowly but surely, with patience and compassion, channeling grace.

Lighting a candle for whatever comes next in our grand (and small) experiments, and for remembering that we can keep resetting, and starting again.

And one more clue

Asked an old friend, whom I have not seen in twenty five years, how they’re doing, and they said they are “maintaining a low hum of positivity”.

So that’s what I aspire to now. What would it feel like to maintain a low hum of positivity? How is that related to hope sparks and lighting a candle and dancing it out?

Can this challenge be illuminated, and if not, can I hum my way into some loving clarity around the next steps?

That seems like a good place to start (and re-start), let’s hum on this together.

A good place to start and re-start

Humming our way into resetting. Vibrating into some vibrancy.

Also, if you see a tree, wish it a very happy birthday. Many happy returns is also a form of beginning again.

Here’s another clue: For sure the trees know how to maintain a low hum of positivity, that’s probably why it feels so good to hug them, right? Maybe I will hug-hum with a tree today, reset, and begin again.

Come play in the comments, I appreciate the company

Leave a pebble (o) to say you were here, so I know I’m not doing this alone.

Also it feels good to pick up a pebble and place it somewhere, I have noticed.

And of course you are welcome to share anything that sparked for you while reading, anything that helped, clues received, or anything on your mind, wish some wishes, process what’s percolating…

I am lighting a candle for us and our beautiful heart-wishes. What a brave thing it is to allow ourselves to want something better for us and for the world.

Or if there’s anything you’d like to explore further or toss into the wishing pot, the healing power of the collective is no small thing, companionship helps.

Whatever comes to mind or heart. Let’s support each other’s hope-sparks…

Housekeeping note: You can subscribe to posts by email again!

If you aren’t seeing these updates in your in your email and want to, you can can solve that here.

This will pop up a new page on Follow.It that lets you subscribe via email, newsletter, or RSS reader. They say “expect 50 stories a week”, and that’s a very imaginary number, once a week is the dream.

I am emailing copies of the Emergency Calming Techniques package!

Anyone who gives to the Discretionary this week (more info below) will get my Emergency Calming Techniques package by email as a pdf. I am only checking email twice a week because I no longer have wifi at my place, long story, so be patient with me but if it doesn’t show up within the week then let me know!

I have some ideas for the next ebook too but if you do too, shoot me an email or share in the comments.

A request!

If you received clues or perspective or want to send appreciation for the writing and work/play we do here, I appreciate it tremendously.

I am accepting support (with joy & gratitude) in the form of Appreciation Money to the Discretionary Fund. Asking is not where my strength resides but Brave & Stalwart is the theme these days, and pattern-rewriting is the work, it all helps with fixing the many broken things.

And if those aren’t options, I get it, you can light a candle for support (or light one in your mind!), share this with someone who loves words, tell people about these techniques, approaches and themes, send them here, it all helps, it’s all welcome, and I appreciate it and you so much. ❤️

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