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For background on this series, head over to the welcome letter or find the entire series on the roots section of my page.
Hello Friends,
We have had a wild energetic last few weeks in the cosmos therefore if you have been feeling all of the feelings, you are not alone. The sun has entered the earth sign of Taurus asking us to remember our roots and what grounds us whilst still watering our creative seeds of spring. Plus, a full moon in scorpio yesterday is luring us into our own inner misty depths. Surrender… explore… and remember your center during this time.
This week in our roots series, we further tune into the swirling flame of the mind, the body, and the breathe by adding another piece of kindling to the fire… movement… movement of both the physical and the energetic bodies.
Just as we can easily slip into sleepy routines of getting through each day mindlessly versus painting your blank canvas with moments of presence and joy, we can also become reliant on a workout class to tell us how to move or on an article to tell us how often to move… same thing goes for reliance on a series of studies to tell us how long to sleep or looking at the clock to tell us when we’re hungry. The key word here is reliant… reliant on these cues or habits instead of also bringing your intuitive self to the moment.
Keep the nourishing ways you routinely move the body… your daily jog, the classes, the inspiring messages and knowledge from your favorite podcasts, the discipline towards the goals that you know support you…. AND can you perhaps create just a little bit of space to play with what deep intuitive movement could look like? Can we remember that we have access to a greater field of conscious intuition? Can we activate that intuitive felt sense a bit more often so that the reliance on habits or on external voices isn’t so strong?
One aspect that our routines or your spin class instructor or your training schedule isn’t tuned into is how your being, your emotional state, your physical state is appearing at a specific moment in time. As I often express, we are not stagnant beings nor are we living in a stagnant environment. We are receiving, expressing, processing, witnessing, influencing energies around us….
If we only lived in those currents of fluidity, it could be very ungrounding as a human, which is why we do build structure and categories in our lives and brains. Yet, where has this led to us taking aspects of our days too seriously? Where have we abandoned the fluidity? Abandoned our inner knowing? Where has this led to us self imposing restrictions on our innately wild selves?
I have and will continue to forever be curious on the question of why we do the things that we do. For this reason I often check in with and revisit even my most nourishing routines and biggest dreams to see if they continue to ring true for this evolving me.
In this context of moving the body… I check in with and see and seek to dance across that fine line between discipline as an intentional step towards larger goals and free falling into what may most profoundly serve my spirit in a given moment, what may allow me to feel my aliveness most vividly. When can I simply come back to the body, the heart, the breath, and trust in a deeper intelligence than my mind, than planning? When can I let the wild essence free?
This week, I invite you to explore that space between the structured and the free, between the disciplined and the wild. To dance, to play, to move in a way that feels authentic and true to you. To let your body speak his or her own language and to listen to what they have to say.
You likely do this on a subtle level already… when rolling your neck in a way that feels extra nice or twisting your tight back to find a little release. This is the frequency that we want to tap into except on an even larger scale and for a longer period of time than you may typically have considered.
I invite you to take the typical time that you prefer to exercise if you have one, or set aside an hour on the calendar where you can be ready to move with or sit with the body in some way, and show up in that moment without any expectation or any plan to what you are going to do. When this moment arises, take a few deep breaths and ask the being, how do I seek to move? You can have your toolbox (or how I like to imagine it.. my Hermione Granger bottomless handbag) of potential options to choose from - walking, yoga, breathing, strength exercises, etc. You can choose which feels most exciting to you in this moment OR release even those ideas and turn on some music and see how the body freely moves… It might be dancing of some sort or it could be shaking, light stretching, or just moving without any rhyme or reason… let the body begin to move you. Try it out, see what arises.
Another option here to incorporate into the above is working with the energetic body. Heavily influenced by taoist practices and specifically qigong, we can actually incorporate the visualization of the mind with movement of the physical vessel in a way that activates our energetic bodies. A wonderful example of this is the microcosmic orbit or any qigong practices. It is magnificent how much subtle energy work can activate and replenish the body and can do so in less than 10 minutes. Rather than only relying on physical movement to shake up stagnation or to energize us, we have practices such as these that at times can have an even more impactful affect especially if our nervous systems are feeling drained. Explore them if you feel called to do so.
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Avoid overthinking this one… if nothing else, simply ask yourself during a short break in your day today what might be most nourishing in this moment? Maybe it is a few cat/cow spinal undulations… or dancing to one song… or perhaps just closing the eyes with your legs up the wall. Think outside of your typical patterns. Welcome in movement, flow, restoration in a new way... play with dropping down into the frequency that goes beyond what you have outlined in your calendar for the day and is simply thrumming through you.
May you receive this invitation deep in your bones… may you remember your wild nature… And may you twirl through the abyss of life itself.
As always, thank you for being here and see you next week!