Sacred Play Explorations

Good Morning PSA - do you need to find a fun way to exercise indoors because it's too hot or otherwise bad weather outside? If so, I cannot recommend this inexpensive dance exercise subscription program highly enough (and there's plenty of free sample videos on YouTube as well to try out). While originally geared toward women-identified people, it also now has ample videos with other gender-identified people. Their emphasis is on inclusivity and body positivity, and thus all videos have a range of people of various sizes, shapes, ages, and races, and there's examples of exercises from seated positions and therapeutic movement videos as well, including more relaxed and easy going. It's pretty vast, and the founder of the program has her own story she tells of how she came to create this. So that's my PSA today because movement is important to ongoing mental health, particularly in these times! And I love to dance (as well as walk outside in nature when the weather permits)! :)

Body Groove On-Demand at-home, dance-inspired fitness workouts for women.

Angel

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_curiosity_can_help_us_overcome_disconnection?utm_source=Greater+Good+Science+Center&utm_campaign=002d04a4bb-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_GG_Newsletter_September_28_2023&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5ae73e326e-002d04a4bb-51713535

How Curiosity Can Help Us Overcome Disconnection Here are four steps to practicing deep curiosity about the perspectives, stories, and humanity of others.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/relieving-pain-with-acupuncture #:~:text=Traditional%20Chinese%20acupuncture%20involves%20the,brain%20chemical%20involved%20with%20mood.

Relieving pain with acupuncture - Harvard Health Acupuncture has been used to treat most pain conditions, including low back pain, shingles and other nerve pain, hand and knee pain, headache, fibromyalgia, and menstrual pain....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/06/07/counting-10000-steps-new-goals/?utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere_trending_now&utm_medium=email&utm_source=alert&location=alert

Forget 10,000 steps. 7 surprising tips for step counters. Think you need 10,000 steps? Scientists have come up with evidence-based recommendations about step-count goals that might be lower than you would expect.

Good advice

New Year’s Never-lutions: 5 Things *Not* to Do This Year Ditch your lengthy to-do list for our expert-approved ideas of what to skip in 2023.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRObW9noiVk

"A Cloud Never Dies" biographical documentary of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh narrated by Peter Coyote A new biographical documentary of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh narrated by actor Peter Coyote, A Cloud Never Dies weaves together original film and photographi...

"What we perceive as a failure may simply be our inner being's way of telling us that we are ready to move to a new level of growth."

-- Anne Wilson Schaef

https://www.tenpercent.com/meditationweeklyblog/willpower

Why Willpower Doesn’t Work — Ten Percent Happier So, it’s February – a month when, for a lot of us, the resolutions we may have set a month ago start to fall apart. There are two big reasons for this: making changes is hard, and willpower doesn’t work.

Good podcast, worth the listen....

https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/emily-amelia-nagoski-409

#409. For the Burned Out, Fried, and Exhausted | Emily & Amelia Nagoski — Ten Percent Happier Available for free on: Amazon Music | Apple Podcasts | Castbox | Google Podcasts | iHeartRadio | Pandora | Pla yer FM | Spotify | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS Feed

"Some people could be given an entire field of roses and only see the thorns in it. Others could be given a single w**d and only see the wildflower in it. Perception is a key component to gratitude. And gratitude a key component to joy."

-- Amy Weatherly

The Life-Changing Practice of Death Awareness Chris Pacheco, Lion’s Roar’s Associate AV Editor, on why you might take up the Buddhist practice of maranasati, or mindfulness of death — even if you really, really don’t want to.

https://blog.fitbit.com/single-mindfulness-session/

Could a Single Mindfulness Session Ease Your Anxiety? Mindfulness meditation doesn’t have to be anything more than increased awareness and a focus on breath—but could a few minutes really make a dent in anxiety?

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/10-minutes-of-mindfulness-changes-your-reactions?utm_source=pocket-newtab

10 Minutes of Mindfulness Changes Your Reactions It’s a one-second lead over your mind, your emotions, your world.

https://www.lionsroar.com/discover-the-joy-of-doing-nothing/?goal=0_1988ee44b2-884e2cbee7-22679001&mc_cid=884e2cbee7&mc_eid=f5168a0f39

Discover the Joy of Doing Nothing Zen teacher Pat Enkyo O’Hara teaches us the practice of Shikantaza. Doing nothing but sitting and breathing, we rest in flowing awareness beyond the ups and downs of life.

Productive quote that came across my email today. :)

"You must never feel badly about making mistakes," explained Reason quietly, "as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons."

-- Norton Juster

Repost from
•
If you noticed a pattern of emotional overwhelm or shutting down emotions either through avoidance, disconnection, defensiveness or abandoning yourself, please know that these are the ways your nervous system has learned to with what was present or not present in your life early on. ⁣
⁣
We are wired for connection. This is our natural pull and emotions are the juicy and powerful energy that helps us navigate life. ⁣
⁣
We are also wired for self-protection. Our inner mechanism of protection is called the trauma response. When the trauma response is activated, it overrides the natural pull for connection. ⁣
And when it remains activated for too long it creates patterns of self -protection on many levels:⁣
⁣
- physical (tension, contraction, pain, inability to relax spontaneously, digestive problems...)⁣
- emotionally (shutting down, avoidance, anxiety, fear, self-abandonment)⁣
- mentally (survival thinking, inattentiveness, constant mental chatter, negativity bias, easily distracted, spacing out...)⁣
⁣
Re-organizing our internal state for more emotional containment, variation and expression may look like"⁣
⁣
- restoring safety internally and in relationship⁣
- re-regulating the nervous system through routines, rhythm and needs meeting ⁣
- reconnect to your body gently and gradually and inhabit the lower part of the body⁣
- allow the body to complete the incomplete survival responses naturally and at its own pace and capacity⁣
- make space internally to process emotions related to healing and transformation such as grief⁣
⁣
Love.⁣
Ally.
-

"I Worried" from "Swan: Poems and Prose Poems" by Mary Oliver, Beacon Press (2010)

Yes

What if every one of us has an inner kid that craves connection? What if that’s so innocent?

You can heal this connection to your inner creative kid self. Learn how (and why) in Jacob Nordby’s new book, The Creative Cure: How Finding and Freeing Your Inner Artist Can Heal Your Life > www.CreativeCureBook.com

https://hbr.org/2021/04/your-burnout-is-unique-your-recovery-will-be-too?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Your Burnout Is Unique. Your Recovery Will Be, Too. Organizations must be held accountable for employees’ mental heath — but when you’re feeling burned out, the best person to help you recover may be yourself.

"There will always be some sort of challenge you must face every day and some may be harder than others. Don't let any tough day make you feel any weaker because your strength is what brought you to where you are today. You've come a long way. Be proud." Roger Lee

"A disco ball is hundreds of pieces of broken glass put together to make a magical ball of light. You aren't broken. You are a disco ball."

-- Author Unknown

An interesting article offering additional perspectives....

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/burnout-runs-deeper-than-too-much-work?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Burnout Runs Deeper Than “Too Much Work” Find synergy between mastery and belonging without sacrificing your autonomy.

“Do not try to save
the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create
a clearing
in the dense forest
of your life
and wait there
patiently,
until the song
that is yours alone to sing
falls into your open cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know
how to give yourself
to this world so worthy of rescue.”

- Martha Postlethwaite