Hello and welcome back to Whole Body Upgrade. How are you? I’m doing great! Earlier this week I offered the Burnout Recovery Workshop- so fun. It was a little taste of the Whole Body Upgrade program which opens March 25th. If you are feeling stuck, exhausted, burned out, having migraines or digestive issues, this 8 week course is the healing container you need to change your life. I’ve taught this course several times and it’s always amazing to watch people change in that short period of time. They stop having chronic pain and feeling stuck, and start having more energy, clarity, a better mood, – they overall feel better. I’m looking forward to supporting the women that show up for the program!
Part of what I’ve learned in the last few weeks is going to be added to this go around of the Whole Body Upgrade program. I’ve been healing my own burnout over the last year and I want to share with you some of the things I’m really learning deep in my bones. For me there is academic or intellectual learning, and there is a deep learning that I feel in my body.
One of these areas has been around stillness. I’ve been a meditator for the last 23-24 years and I’ll tell you there are so many different nuances to this idea of stillness. Most of us think of stillness as, well, sitting still. What I’m noticing in my life lately is that there is definitely a time for being still and for deep rest that looks like napping and literally not moving off the couch. There Is also a time of stillness in movement.
What I’ve been noticing more and more is how I’m being called to this less traditional kind of stillness. Yes, I’m still sitting in meditation, which is where I practice cultivating the presence that goes along with stillness and awareness. In the past, I’ve been to silent retreats where the practice was to cultivate awareness and inner stillness while also doing. A common example of this is walking meditation. Still moving, but not allowing the movement to move your mind out of stillness. I also really love what’s called working meditation on retreats. In this practice, washing the dishes or doing yard work, or even writing a report, is another practice of moving stillness.
This week, I’ve been watching how much I am drawn to stillness in activity. Cleaning the shower, planting the garden, working on the Whole Body Upgrade program, or even posting on social media. It’s cultivating the quality of stillness in movement that feels so good in my body.
I think there is a connection with me with releasing self-pressure. As I was sitting in the sun on my deck this week, and I was listening to a Crystal Report from Michelle Wolff (if you haven’t had one yet, you totally should) and the channeled message was talking about this connection of stillness and movement. And in that moment, it was like a weight had been lifted and almost like giving me permission to do where I was being led- working in the yard, creating a patio, sitting on the deck reading in the sun. There was a subtle self-pressure of what I “should” be doing that was causing me to spin my wheels and actually get nothing done.
So in that way, stillness is about accepting and listening for what is next. Allowing life to drop in the information necessary. Self-pressure is the underlying old patriarchal belief that work equals doing something from your to-do list. That there are only certain activities that count. Now for my mind, sometimes cleaning the shower “counts” as productive; so this can be a little tricky. It’s more of a feeling in the body and a conversation in the mind about what I “should” be doing.
“Should” I be cleaning, but I really want to read on the deck? Then let’s check in with that feeling in the body. Or the example this week was that I should be “working” when what I really wanted to do was sit on the deck. There was such a lightness after remembering that stillness can come in many forms. If I’m doing a task to avoid something else, that isn’t stillness. If I’m listening and it drops in that those tomatoes posted in a FB group are the ones I want to buy, then YES. Let’s go do that.
Here’s the thing. Most of us are conditioned to believe that the more/harder we work, the more worthy we are. This creates a disruption of that inner stillness, the inner listening that we have and as a result, self-pressure evolves.
I’m practicing being in stillness, no matter what activity I’m doing. I’m cultivating the deep listening that serves my nervous system, my body, my mind, my health, and my life. The practice of stillness (and I’ll say the companion skill of awareness) are some of the most helpful skills I’ve found. They are the foundation to everything, which is why they are a big component to the Whole Body Upgrade program.
If you’d like to practice more stillness, awareness (both of which help with burnout), this is the place to be. the Whole Body Upgrade program that opens this week on March 25th and registration closes Monday the 28th (so just a few days from now)! It’s a small group, 8 week course that is only $333. I want to empower as many women to listen to that inner wisdom, and trust themselves; This is the key to burnout recovery. This is how we will change the world, and well, smash the patriarchy too.
Ok dear ones, thank you for being here today. If you have questions, please feel free to email me. Take good care of yourself. I’ll talk to you next time.
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