Day 31 (Thursday 7.21.22)
Let’s face it: 2020, 2021, and even 2022 have not been set up for many of us to say: “WOW I’m really thriving more than ever these days!”
But here we are. At Day 31 and our LAST10-day cycle: SUSTAIN.
What brought many of us to this moment, these 40 days together is at least the seed of a thought:
I need to take better care of myself.
The self-care (self-preservation!) work of these last 10 days is not just about remedying our current stress right now, not just about the recovery from the overload / overwhelm we’re already carrying around. (It is that too, don’t worry.)
The work of these last 10 days is also about building RESILIENCY — a kind of bank account of reserves we can keep building up so that when we meet future stresses, inevitable uncertainty and change, we have a source of energy, recovery, and integration stockpiled to respond, recover, and move forward with renewed capacity.
So what does this all mean for your practice this morning? (and beyond these 40 days?)
Well, because only YOU know what YOU truly need, this morning’s practice prompt is a bit different than all the weeks before.
Let me preface this by saying: you are absolutely prepared for what I’m about to invite you to do. Whether you’ve been 100% “perfectly successful” with practicing everyday. Or it’s been 1-3/week or something in between — it’s all good. You have the tools and you’ve been becoming acquainted with them — your capacity for using them is growing — through all of the guided practices you’ve done up to this point.
So here’s the deal for today:
Pick your own morning practice and guide yourself through it (!)
Take a moment to pause and consider all the skills you’ve been cultivating in 30 days of morning meditation so far (breath awareness, working with the thoughts / story lines, working with the emotions, body scan and grounded awareness).
And practice … without a recording.
Maybe you choose what you’re drawn to , what you’re most challenged by — both of these are good reference points — good clues to what a practice plan generated by YOU in the spirit of self care might look like.
Be realistic with your time this morning. Choose an amount of time, set your timer, and that’s it!
Start with a bread and butter practice this morning (the daily essential that it will take to make you, YOU this morning) - not the fantasy-best-case-scenario-pie-in-the-sky plan. (Like, watch yourself if you’re saying well I’ll do 20 minutes of silent, seated breath awareness, then the alternate nostril breathing, then a 30 minute self-guided yoga practice, then…)
Just do it ;)
LEAVE A COMMENT: What did you practice this morning and how did it go?!
We can talk more about it tomorrow in our second-to-last group live (!), 9:30am-10am ET. This is THE moment where you begin to make this daily practice your own — not just for 40 days but for a lifetime!
so happy to be here with you,
Cath
p.s. As we round out our official time together, I invite you to take a few minutes to please share your final thoughts in our out-going questionnaire. Your input and experience are invaluable teaching tools to me. Thank you so much in advance.