Day 37
After 37 days of being guided together, it’s natural to wonder at this point… what happens next?
What might I do from here?
First — you’ll have access to all of these materials until the end of the year. (And an invitation to join me again for future rounds of 40 EM, more on that later!).
But what if you’d like to create a daily practice for yourself, on your own?
I absolutely believe that you have everything you need to make that happen.
Like I introduced in last week’s group live, creating a practice each day is wildly similar to creating a meal.
Just like you’d check in with yourself, say, before dinner — what am I in the mood for? what ingredients do I have on hand? do I have special conditions or preferences or needs I have to account for? what have I been eating all day? what do I have to do all after dinner? what do I love to eat?
You can ask yourself similar questions on any given day for your practice —
how much time do I have?
what it is it that I’m feeling physically in this moment? mentally? emotionally? energetically?
what time of day is it? time of year? day of the week?
what do I need less of? (stress, tightness in hamstrings and hips, anxiety, distraction….)
what do I want more of? (calm, focus, attention, energy, strength, flexibility, rest…)
Asking these basic questions will give you a sense of what it is you’re working with and what it is you need.
Choosing from the possible components of practice is like opening the cabinets and scanning your well-stocked pantry. These are the ingredients you have on hand that you can combine in different ways and amounts depending on the practice you’d like to create:
the arrival - centering - intention for your practice
movement
meditation
breathing
self-study / journaling / contemplation
self-care
prayer / gratitude practices
rest
other areas of daily ritual you might currently have in your daily rhythm
And just like you’d set up your kitchen for optimal cooking & eating enjoyment — or your office for efficiency, organization, and inspiration — the best way to set yourself up for success in the creation of — and commitment to — your own daily practice is to create the space for practice. Consider:
where you’ll practice at home
what you’ll need
what support / rules you need to put in place to make it happen
how to make it feel like Y O U
Perhaps you put pen to paper to map out a recipe for yourself. Use what we’ve practiced together as your cookbook to reference back to. What practices (meals!) really worked for you? What were you drawn to you? What did you love? (And of course, what didn’t work? What wasn’t your taste?).
Make notes and design some recipes to take to your own test kitchen after these 40 days. And kind of like those Thanksgiving-turkey-call-in-hotlines, you can always reach out and ask me for support and advice.
We’ll put this theory to work today in our LAST group live at 1pm EST, which we’ll begin with a proper guided meditation.
And if you’d like to try a bonus practice this morning with your breakfast or cup of something warm, today’s short meditation invitation uses TASTE as the sensory skill toward presence.
I cannot WAIT to see you later today to bring this all home together!
xo Cath
Catherine Zack is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
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