I'll be back in September. See you all then! xoAnna
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In some situations in life, we may have become expert at leaving. In other situations, we may get that leaving is necessary for our health, struggle to leave or feel incapable of leaving, and yet ultimately know that it is in our capacity to do so. Taking breaks — from work, from challenging interpersonal dynamics, and from our own thinking — is a practice in self-care that can be difficult to get ourselves to do at all, or on the other end of the spectrum, a bit too easy to do. How do you practice balanced checking out in your day-to-day activities?  All relationships begin and end. When a relationship feels short to us we can be sad or relieved or both. When a relationship feels long to us we can be filled with joy or challenged by the journey or both. The length of the relationship does not predict our happiness, and yet we can practice acknowledging the meaning of the length in our own hearts, become familiar with our own yearnings, and give ourselves compassion and self-understanding in order to cultivate equanimity with the coming and going of the seasons of our lives. What is one of your relationships — past, current, or future — that you want to send some love out to through your mind's eye (and heart's eye) today?  We're all following our own North Star, the place inside of us that tells us what our deepest truths and biggest desires are. And around that North Star is a constellation of what we've learned and what we can understand, a constellation that helps guide us in a direction forward. But sometimes the map gets turned around inside of us for different reasons. Sometimes we second guess ourselves. Sometimes we lose faith in our own knowing. It can be helpful to be reminded that we do know, and that we maybe have just forgotten or gotten distracted. What helps bring you back to your internal compass?  The human startle reflex is with us from the time that we're babies. We may hear a loud noise or suddenly feel uncontained physically or unstable in gravity, and in reaction, our whole body will jump to attention with a force we didn't expect or consciously call up. With effort, we can meet these moments of surprise with self-care. We can practice orienting our awareness to ourselves and to our surroundings. This effort can help us to stay calm and alert, while the body is being called to attention and to react on our behalf. How do you stay connected to yourself and to your surroundings when life throws you a curve ball?  PREPOSITION: a condition governing one's relation to another ~ ~ ~ Sometimes we want so badly to know what this or that is all about. The human mind is a meaning maker. Both the enskulled, bodily part of the mind, or the brain and nervous system, and the relational part of the mind, our social networks of friends, family, and community, are often very busy trying to figure out what we ourselves are all about. As the same time, just feeling like we're about something can become as important to us as knowing more about what that something is in the first place. What about your life feels meaningful to you right now?  PREPOSITION: a condition governing one's relation to another ~ ~ ~ Sometimes in life there is someone who you just love being around. It doesn't really matter what you're doing together — it just feels good to be in each other's company. What do you have coming up on your calendar to enjoy passing time with someone?  PREPOSITION: a condition governing one's relation to another ~ ~ ~ Sometimes you just don't want to go outside your comfort zone. Sometimes you want to go outside your normal experience more than anything. What lies outside your average Sunday activities that you are or are not doing today?  PREPOSITION: a condition governing one's relation to another ~ ~ ~ When we direct our energy toward someone, we may hope that they will direct their energy back to us. But sending energy out to others it not a guarantee of returned energy or returned energy in the way we want it returned. We may need to be thoughtful about our expectations and also about how we communicate. How do you make choices about giving your energy to others?  PREPOSITION: a condition governing one's relation to another ~ ~ ~ Sometimes we just need to do things our own way, unlike what others are doing, unlike instructed, unlike what we thought we had to do. Those times when we first go our own way with something it can be an experience unlike any other we've had, and for this reason it can bring up a range of co-occurring feelings — confusion, excitement, doubt, calm, disconnection, pride, and more. What is your favorite self-care when you're charting your own path forward?  |
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