February and March Embodied Gathering: Discovering Empowerment Together
It is crucial, especially in times such as these, that as we find spaces and people who listen to and believe in our stories - to our sacred, lived experiences. Your experiences are the hallowed ground of your being and will be fully honored in our sacred and carefully created container.
Connecting to our senses may help break our minds free of debilitating thought cycles. This 28 minutes rest gently and curiously introduces us to our senses in ways that are simple and effortless, waking us up to new and curious experiences, teaching us that it’s safe to be more connected to our bodies.
“The hardest thing in this world is to live in it. Be brave.” Buffy, the Vampire Slayer
I’ll get back to that quote in a minute. Before bravery, comes naming what gets in our way of truly living in the world… what gets in the way of bravery.
Blame Disempowers
It's routine for clients to say something like... "Everything that is happening is my fault." Upon hearing these sentiments I find myself taking a deep breath.
Purpose came up today in 3 client sessions. What a rich topic to explore! I feel gratitude of having the opportunity to journey into this a territory as it feels very sacred to me.
In a culture seeped in the oppressive dominant narrative (ODN), it can be hard to connect to purpose, for many reasons, and so I have deep compassion for how we may feel confliction around this topic.
Many years ago I had a vision that I needed to have a devoted romantic partner in order to be able to do what I was being guided to do in the world.
I knew my path would be... challenging... and that in order to be the truth teller, devoted, healer and visionary that I am, I would need the support of a partner who would have my back no matter what.
Have you noticed all the ads about weigh loss? To be honest, I hadn’t- until someone pointed it out to me. And then I got curious- how had I not been noticing? (I’m seeing the ads everywhere now! I even saw one for pet’s last night!)
I thought about it awhile, and… keep reading.
Today is the first day of 2021!!! New Year’s Day Blessings to you.
I connect to my intentions, desires, and fears- tuning into what I would like to open up to, and what I would like to release- on a daily basis. So NYE is not a big day for me, in terms of setting goals and what not.
“How do we live, love, suck, f*ck and liberate ourselves? How come we’re not talking about sex or desire anymore in relationship to liberation?” Cara Page.
Those who have been in my life for a long time may remember my posts of #100daysofbeingturnedon, #100daysoforgasm and other posts about being connected to the pleasure of beingness. In those days I spoke more openly about sexuality, being turned on, and orgasm as a transformative power, so to speak.
I recently read about a client “listening to his gut.” This is such tricky territory for many reasons. Not only do most of us not have a healthy relationship with our somatic systems (ie bodies), our guts and our intuition have been dominated by oppressive narratives for thousands of years. Yes, thousands of years. If we’re not aware of the oppressive narratives that we’re seeped in, then intuition and “gut” level responses will most often be coming from there, which means they will be largely be guided by the survival part of the brain, ie rooted in fear.
In this Solstice rest meditation I guide our nervous systems into a state of somatic receptivity and self connection. Then, drawing from pieces from Octavia Raheem and Joy Harjo, we contemplate questions and open ourselves to receiving wisdom: what we might be willing to release? what we might be willing to receive? what light do we have to share?
Grab a candle, a journal, and get comfortable as you open yourself up to what your wisest Self wants you to Hear and Know.
As we have been discovering over the past few months, the topic of discomfort[1] has many, many tendrils - some of which are still to be discovered! Always “on the journey,” new sacred tendrils constantly reveal themselves as I evolve. Maybe you’ve discovered that too? The Field of Possibility is ever revealing, and limitless.
I rolled over this morning, slowly opening my eyes. Snow greeted me a few days ago, fog today. This mysterious fog, embracing the trees. As far as I could see, countless trees being held by a sea of fog. Stillness. Every morning I feel gratitude at being greeted: by branches swaying, trees standing tall, the sky and what she beholds. Sometimes there is stillness, like this morning. Other times there is much activity, like the day before. Always there are reminders greetings me that I am alive.
I am alive.
This is a little area tucked back into the woods that I love to visit. It’s transformed over the years, significantly this past year when a big tree fell, and settled into what had been more of an empty space of swamp.
When I visit, I see the dance of all aspects of life.
There is death, decay… there is hibernation of plants in their dormant phases... and there is the deep green of life.
All of this is within a small area of land.
In this video I read the 4th and 5th blogs in my series on Discomfort. In the 4th blog post I wrote about how we might learn to navigate difficult territories - pleasure, pain, or other expressions - by also noticing and including resonances we’ve not yet become familiar with, such as the territory of neutrality. In the 5th blog post I take that a step forward into the territory of safety, a topic that is very related to discomfort, and what happens when we're able to uncouple safety and discomfort.
Here is my 5th piece in my blog series on Discomfort. In my upcoming 2021 Exploration we will learn how life altering it is to Know safety with/in our being, so that we do not have to try to control that which is outside of ourselves in order to “have” safety, and we will learn how to support others in discovering this as well.
What’s the matrix of oppression? How is it in relationship with the matrix of Love? And how is it relevant for you?
I had an exchange yesterday with Ana Maria Pardo from Move and Bloom on Live Facebook. We talked about Matrix Integration, the upcoming Exploration, the matrixes of oppression and of Love, the Field of Possibility, consent, the dominant narrative, and so much more!
December and January Embodied Gathering: Getting Real Together
It is crucial, especially in times such as these, that as we find safe spaces and safe people who listen to and believe in our stories - to our sacred, lived experiences. Your experiences are the hallowed ground of your being and will be fully honored in our sacred and carefully created container.
This is the fourth part in my blog series on discomfort. You can find the first one here, as well as a YouTube to all of them being read here. In this post I’ll be writing about the topic of neutrality, something I wrote a bit about last year.
(Edited to add: I had a fun conversation talking with someone about Matrix Integration and this Exploration. Click here to watch! )
Matrix Integration: A Ten-Month Exploration
In this audio, led in a group gathering, I explore how we can connect brain and nervous system health by the ways we utilize attention. In doing so we may be able to access the simple aspects of our experience even while we're having challenging moments.
