As a queer woman, I’ve experienced a lot of situations where it hasn’t felt safe to speak up, and I know many of you have encountered those too. It’s sadly all too easy to stay stuck in danger-detected mode. Living in a world where most things feel like an immediate threat to your own or your family’s safety dulls your ability to discern when it is safe to speak up.

Let my discomfort and body aggravation be loud enough for us all to remember: keep your small pockets of self care at the forefront because they create BIG goodness.

It’s really easy to confuse brain business with body presence. Brain business (or brain presence, if you will) is you trying to tangle intellectually with whatever’s happening — trying to puzzle over it, work it out, or solve it. Body presence is literally being with it. Noticing the sensation and your breath, and then whatever happens next. Not trying to exert force or make it into anything in particular. It’s riding the wave with wide open inner eyes.