How's your body feeling right now?*
*my attempt at a potentially more answer-able question than "How are you today as you move through your personal and our collective chaos?"
Even more answer-able... Where are your feet right now? What about your shoulders?
mantras for moving through
Sometimes when I'm walking up one of the steep hills in my neighborhood, I talk to myself, saying, "I have ten toes, I have ten toes, I have ten toes..." each toe receives a newfound kick of energy to keep touching the earth, step by step, up and up.
If I'm feeling especially done with walking but I haven't yet reached my home on the last hill, I let it become a mantra for as long as I need it.
I like to think that my feet and my legs appreciate it when I notice these small ten parts of them – of me.
And then eventually, I make it up the hill and then flat land for a bit ... before the last hill where my home is perched.
Little sayings, personal prayers, empowering spells, soft meditations, or whispered mantras... whatever word feels good and true to you... do you have some for yourself?
They may not ever be shared with another.
Their sole purpose is to support you as you make your way through the world.
what's mine / what's yours
A few days ago I was working with a creative consulting client.
She's actually my first creative consulting client. We have been co-creating what "creative consulting" means as I support her in writing and producing season 3 of her podcast.
She was sharing about the need to do something (truthfully, many things) to help herself along in her journey of being alive.
It isn't other people's responsibility but it's yours... it's mine – it's my responsibility to support myself – in the unique ways that work for me.
It's your responsibility to do the same for you.
There are some massive things that you and I do for ourselves and there's a bajillion tiny things, like this mantra or remembering to relax my shoulders away from my ears... that we do for ourselves over and over, moment to moment.
No one else may never even know about most of these tiny acts of self-responsibility.
Of course, we don't live isolated from one another and we do truly need one another.
There are things (that only I can determine for myself, and only you can determine for yourself) that must be self-supported and other things (again, that only I can determine for myself, and only you can determine for yourself) that must be co-supported.
Take on a mantra if it works for you. Take a walk. Take a nap. Take to a garden.
Til next time,
Cassandra
P.S. The mantra that came to me for yesterday was: "I work my courage muscle."
P.P.S. 🎙️ Episode 2 🎙️ is live for you to listen to or read!! Transcript and show notes here and subscribe to be the first to know when the next one is released.
It was so wonderful to hear from some of you about how episode 1 resonated. I love to receive your resonance and feedback.