It can be challenging to sit with yourself in your own home, doused in chores-to-be-done and essence-of-busy-life. If, despite your efforts, you are finding yourself mid-hullabaloo, a little frantic, and/or struggling to connect with yourself, it might be time to observe where your attention is going, particularly when you’re actively engaged in a mindfulness practice.

This month I invite you to support your local LGBT+ communities in ways you can. Show us you care and you stand with us. Not only is this a powerful heart opener off the mat, it’s also a magnificent way to connect with your own personal power — you can do something.

For those of us that live in a near (or actual) state of constant tension and activation, softening our bodies can be so far beyond our realm of familiarity that we don’t recognize it as safe for our bodies. It brings a lot of sensations that aren’t the hard, locked muscles we’ve grown accustomed to moving with. Instead it brings things like twitching, shifting, lengthening,  and loosening, and sometimes those things are uncomfortable or even hurt.

When we don’t take the time to show ourselves we’re safe, we’re likely to (a) rush and/or force our bodies into shapes, or (b) resist at the same time we’re trying to allow. Either of those things is a recipe for discomfort and pain, which is going to make you feel less safe. Which is going to turn up the tension and guarding in your body and mind. Which is not an environment that supports embodiment.

We do kind things for others because we think they’re worth it, but it’s a little too easy to only do things for ourselves out of obligation. However, I don’t do well when I feel like others are treating me as an obligation, so why would I treat myself like that and hope for a different response? 

I’d like to say something out loud: you’ve been taught to not like your body.

Various systems and companies and institutions and people in your life benefit from you not liking your body. That’s just fact.

Not liking your body is a huge obstacle to getting on a yoga mat or sitting still with only yourself. In those moments, you’re being asked to turn inward to the very places you’ve been taught are bad or not worthy or unacceptable.

This week it just isn’t lining up. But like all things, I know that’ll shift. The best thing I can do for myself is try not to force it. So even with this week’s Mindful Morsel, I’m going to keep it short. Because what better way to show something than to do it?

Building a strong relationship with your body is something that only you can do, and a good start is acknowledging what you’ve been taught about how you “should” treat it and separating those things from what you believe to be true for you. Take a good look at what you’ve learned from your family, media, pop culture, religion, and community. What might be in there that doesn’t ring true for you? 

We’re like these living nesting dolls of urgency, buried in container after container – each reinforcing the drive to go faster, squeezing our essence smaller and smaller until it seems like a tired old joke. 

Can you picture yourself like that or get a sense of it? Imagine what could happen if even just one of those nesting containers broke wide open?

Just like we’re not supposed to be happy all the time, we’re not supposed to feel good all the time. That’s not how we’re built. The hard and uncomfortable are as they are for a reason — maybe it’s so we can learn where we’ve faltered at resourcing ourselves, or maybe it’s so we can lean into our communities when we need help, or maybe it’s so we slow down and reflect on our own roles in contributing to our discomfort. Maybe it’s all of the above and then some. I don’t know. But I do know there’s a lot to learn in this space.

A good bit of this comes with affirming a trusting relationship with our bodies — not just mind→body, but also body→mind. This relationship is a two-way street. Our minds need to be receptive to listening to our bodies, and then make decisions that support what’s being heard.

A thoughtful meditation for the beginning of Spring (or any new beginning) to connect with your body and discover where you're yearning to bloom. Feel free to listen on a walk around your neighborhood, as you make your bed and do some morning chores, or simply while sitting in stillness with yourself.

This week’s Mindful Morsel is an invitation to lean into the changes of life in the present.

Created in good energy💚

This week’s Mindful Morsel is a reminder that mindfulness is a hard practice. Let’s let our brave hearts shine and keep on keepin’ on.

Created in good energy💚

We are in the energy of the harvest moon* this lunar cycle, a time to take in the fruits of our labor, and I invite you do this with a lens of acceptance.

This week’s Mindful Morsel focuses on how oxytocin-producing activities are a win for proactive self care. Cheers for doing the pleasurable things in life ⭐

Created in good energy💚

Shifting into Mindful Morsels: tasty nuggets to help us sprinkle more mindful moments throughout our days (with hopes that the snowball effect will work in our favor).

This week’s Mindful Morsel is a reminder to walk away. We all need purposeful breaks to unplug, recharge, and breathe. Physically get up and move to a new environment.

Created in good energy💚

This week’s Mindful Musing is a bite-sized reminder to ask for what you need — give people a chance to help, and show yourself love by speaking up.

Created with good energy💚

This week, I’m practicing honoring where I’m at energetically with a little more peace by noticing when I’m judging myself and instead telling myself (out loud) to drop the imaginary yardstick.

Let this Mindful Musing be a pulse check - are you bypassing and avoiding or honoring where you’re at?

With tender and empathetic energy💚

what’s in front of you?