Dear Friends Who Have Chosen to Open This Email in this Midst of SO Many Other Emails,
I honor that it's likely that your inner and outer worlds are feeling full. My intention with this email is to share some embodied integration support in the midst of these transformational times we live in.
I'm just landing back from two weeks in Costa Rica for the most recent retreat Being With the Body Retreat and then the Qoya Inspired Movement Intensive Teacher Training. This was my 13th year hosting Qoya Inspired Movement retreats at the Blue Spirit Retreat Center in Nosara.
I love the card I pulled for the trip. It says, "Like a weed pushing through concrete. Like an unstoppable emotion erupting. Breakthroughs are my birthright. I let them take flight."
The intentional transformational nature of retreats often inspires and supports deep personal reflection and opportunities for personal growth. And the most important piece is always integration. How do you translate a moment of insight, desire, revelation, or truth into your daily modern life?
In asking this question, I love offering the metaphor of the spiraling labyrinth. A symbol across time and culture that represents the journey of descent and return, of birth, death, and rebirth of the consistent cycles of forgetting and remembering.
You could make a labyrinth in the sand outside on the beach or make one out of stone in your backyard. You could make one out of yarn in your living room or blankets in the bedroom. You could draw a labyrinth spiral with your heart into the center of your heart and then back out again. You could draw one on a piece of paper on a post it note and trace it with your finger. I invite you to take a few deep breaths and take a few moments to do your version of a labyrinth, and as you do, notice where you feel like you are in your life right now. Are you about to go on a journey, are you in the midst of it, are you humbled in the center, are you rising like a phoenix from the ashes, are you gently emerging again or confidently standing at the end? There's no right or wrong, simply an honest noticing of where you find yourself as this eclipse season comes to a close.
Wherever you find yourself, here are some options of embodied integration support that might be able to meet you where you are so you might be able to better meet where you are.
I invite you to give this short list a read through and notice how your body responds to the options. Are there one or two that as you read them, you can feel are good medicine for you? Is there one that you are called to, but it feels too far out of reach?
Whatever your body nudges you to notice, can you put it in your calendar? Can you bridge the intuitive to the practical? I was speaking with Melina, a woman doing the teacher training, who shared with me her 1-2-3's! And I was so inspired. 1's are the things you do everyday. 2's are the things you do every 2 weeks. And 3's are the things you work towards doing once every 3 months. I love looking at priorities this way! Perhaps there is a 1, 2, or 3 for you below.
Compassionate Inquiry: Whatever sensation you are noticing right now, can you offer your breath and compassion to be with it? When you are present with the feeling, notice if there's anything it needs that you can offer it.
Titration: Slowly and Gently. Honor the times when less is more for you. Titrate your experience so that you can integrate and meet the moment. Free yourself from the habits of urgency to override the body's voice. Allow spaciousness to listen and stay with yourself. Explore opportunities to move at the pace of your body. One of the great things about Qoya is that it consistently invites you to practice releasing focus on what movement looks like to focus more on how it feels in your body. As a reminder, we have a large library of free videos here.
Orientation: Like an animal waking up from a nap, look over one shoulder and then the other, look up to the sky and down to the ground. Let your eyes gently take in your surroundings and notice when something pleasing gets your attention. Say it aloud to bring your mind and body into presence. For example, "I see the way the sun is shining light on a large green leaf.” As you do this practice, it can be deceivingly simple. Notice if you feel yourself drop even more into your body.
Receiving Your Resources: Resourcing is the practice of inviting your mind/body to attune to sensations of safety or goodness, however small they may be. The process of attending to a felt sense of “okayness” begins the process of teaching your nervous system that it can experience stress and then come back to a state of calm. Beyond making a list of resources that can be intellectual, explore ways that you can receive and viscerally feel support. In many of my therapy sessions, I call on the felt sense of safety and awe I have experienced at the beach in this photo. What resources can you call on and feel in your body?
Nourishing Your Capacity for Glimmers: Glimmers spark joy. They bring feelings of ease, safety, and well-being. They infuse us with remembering a sense of interconnection and positivity. Actively noticing glimmers can lessen our sensitivity to triggers.
Holding Space: Honoring the cycles of nature and life, hold space for the flow of transformation that is natural. This is an opportunity to not have to force or fix, instead simply holding space for the honest emergent experience to arise in its own timing.
Deepening Your Personal Relationship with Nature: Making offerings of gratitude. Gifting yourself spaciousness to be with the mythopoetic teachings of nature as you remember to listen deeply with your body. Believe what you receive. Magic abounds here.
Calling on the Elements: Grounding with the Earth, Releasing with the Water, Transforming with the Fire, Breathing with the Air, In Reverence to the Cosmos! Here is a photo of a gorgeous altar someone made at the beach for inspiration for you!
Music: Lean into music to be a portal to infinite variations of experience. Sing mantras! Sing songs! Let the music all the way in, and let it move you to dance. Notice how the music has a consciousness and commune with it.
Play: One of the best indications of a regulated nervous system is one's capacity to play. Embrace humor, joy, and playfulness. I'm grateful someone got this photo of me on my last night of the trip just as a big wave was coming and I was able to jump up and enjoy the ride!
Tracking Patterns, Making Choices: Reflect on what your body is communicating with you. The tendency is to override or delay listening. Make a conscious choice to listen and then take tangible action alongside your body.
Rest: When truly being with the body, it's likely there will be a call to rest and integrate experience. Support the immensity of inner and outer change you are living in and make more spaciousness to rest in a way that feels nourishing to you.
Speaking of retreats, I'm excited to have the next one on the calendar! Please explore joining us in Upstate New York this summer for a small, intimate retreat. I'm also hoping to get a summer session of LORE up and going.
With much love,
Rochelle