Today I urge you to remember that feeling from when you were younger and not so bogged down with the serious of being a grown up. Regardless of how many very important responsibilities you shoulder, you still deserve playdates and adventures. We should never grow out of that.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to reflect on how grateful I am for the hard things we go (and grow) through. I’m specifically referring to the smaller scale things we handle, maybe on the daily or weekly — things we might get so frustrated and annoyed with. And while I wouldn’t wish them on anyone on purpose, I see how we emerge more capable, more resilient, and even brighter than we might have ever thought we’d be.

Don’t make do and make yourself a martyr because you were taught that’s the cool and chic thing to do. We all deserve to have our needs met.  And every time you lean into that resource, you’re reinforcing how much you care about yourself, and that’s some BIG magic ✨

Imagination might seem to be in opposition to mindfulness: letting your mind wander and dance with ideas that have no bearing on the present, dreaming of things that aren’t current reality, and creating fantasies that have no sure-footed roots. But I don’t think imagination is a foe of mindfulness. I think they need each other quite deeply and fervently.

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.

I’m looking into what I can put down, especially as I know that more things are coming up with the holiday season. I don’t want my being to burst at the seams in some vain attempt to ‘hold it all together.’ Because no thanks — I have a long history with holding it all together, and while I’m pretty good at it, we really need to part ways on my terms. That’s just not how I want to live.

We could really use some mindset and intention shifts — some cleansing of diction that harms. I know this is especially difficult when we’re surrounded by media and people and bosses and systems that use the language that promotes us “killing ourselves” to be successful and worthy. And the truth is that we can’t change all those things in one day or with one powerful and well-crafted statement.

TLDR - hope is punk AF and I’m on a mission to spread it.

If there’s anything I’ve learned through my own time-management struggles and self-cultivation practices, it’s that we have to be willing to break our own unsupportive patterns in order to evolve. And this is inherently uncomfortable. Sometimes (speaking for myself), just the idea of interrupting a pattern can feel like a real live threat to my nervous system.

I don’t do the super unhealthy things anymore, and I really try to enhance my own self-care practices to nourish my whole body, but it’s hard. And sometimes I fall back into my old patterns of negative self image and beating myself up about food choices. And I feel bad about it. Just like I would if I treated someone else like I treat my body sometimes.

You’ll probably recognize all of these, but to have the language around them is powerful because you can express what you need that much better, to yourself and your supportive circle (or star or rectangle), and that’s some potent self care.

Part of thriving self care is observing these things and creating change so you can evolve. We are moving beings by all definitions. We are not meant to stay in one place or practice or state of mind for all the rest of time and forever and ever.

In our busy lives and schedules we’re often looking for ways to shift what’s already there and find the smallest ways to fit more in. We cram our calendars until we’re exhausted, exerting much of our creative energy in playing Tetris in our dayplanners rather than other creative endeavors (imagine what we’re robbing the art world of!). 

Within the 8 limbs of yoga, the physical yoga practice is actually meant to help you prepare for meditation. Movement makes meditation practice more accessible (think of it like getting your wiggles out first), and if you’re not into yoga, any kind of movement can work. It also helps to drop any expectations. Loudly. And with a thud if you can.

We give our time and energy so readily to many other things that we find worthy without a second thought. Let’s learn from that. Own your worthiness and show yourself that you mean it by investing your own time and energy in you.

Mindfulness shows us a wider, bigger truth: the universal law of giving and receiving. Everything is an exchange that requires balance. You taking care of yourself keeps the universe (and the YOU-niverse) in balance.

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.

Most of us have learned to numb because it feels easier than restorative care, but it can be really hard to notice that’s what you’re doing. So I’m inviting you to get better acquainted with your own personal numbing habits as a loving step toward breaking that pattern.

Do you enjoy moving around? When it doesn’t feel obligatory? If you don’t, did you ever? If you notice that it’s shifted to not enjoying it over the years, what changed to cause that?