It's sweet to be with you today!
I welcome you here if you're new to this monthly note. I welcome you here if you're not so new but have felt like it's been a minute since we've connected. I welcome you here with however you are experiencing your life right now!
here to connect (not to drop fake urgency)
Take in the details of this note whenever you wish, as that's your right to design.
The first invitation is for a gathering next week, so if you're intrigued, you may want to read that part sooner rather than later.
I'm here to connect how and when it flows for the both of us, not to drop fake urgency in your inbox.
a moment to breathe and take in the view of this note:
- riff: might my inhale deepen just like my exhale can?
- #1 invitation to join: October's Supportive Spiral
- #2 invitation to join: Moment of Slow's last enrollment window is open
riff: might my inhale deepen just like my exhale can?
Have you been in a period of noticing yourself in new ways? of sensing new felt experiences? Maybe a perspective shift on a previously entrenched personal habit?
If you're nodding along to these questions, I welcome you to reply if you'd like to share your noticings with me!
If you're not nodding along, well, this is real for me! ha. And I'm feeling called to share about it in this here and now:
I was saying to a small group of kind co-workers that I was stretching myself too thin. Doing a few too many things at once. Feeling scattered, feeling overwhelmed.
This is certainly a habit of mine. I expand in my life and then feel overwhelmed and want to then shrink in some way, to shrink some responsibility, to shrink some want or need of mine. For so many years, I'd expand in my waking life, taking on something new and then I'd shrink the hours of sleep I got each night. "I can sleep when I'm dead" was definitely my M.O. There was too much life to live, but a lot of the living was sleep-deprived.
What I realized the other day is that I can choose to respond to expansion in my outer life by also expanding in my inner life. Said in a different way, my exhale can deepen just like my inhale can deepen. Said in a different way, my capacity to care for others and for things out beyond me can match my capacity to care for myself and things within me.
Woven into this noticing is becoming much more clear about what it means to care for myself. Is degrading self-talk the care I want to give myself? Is watching tv the care I want to give myself? Is a long sleep the care I need to give myself? Is a snack after dinner the care I need to give myself? Is an earlier dinner the care I need to give myself?
Overwhelm can be replaced with discernment.
Overwhelm can be replaced by pause.
In this moment, I am so grateful to be willing to welcome deeper inhales.
#1 invitation to join: October 17th Supportive Spiral
The September Supportive Spiral was such a delight.
The Supportive Spiral offered [me] a nuanced and celebratory space where connection, reflection, and exploration were easily accessed and well appreciated.
- a September participant
The scoop: I've restarted Supportive Spiral gatherings and the second one is next Tuesday October 17, 2023 3 - 5pm PT! I'm hosting Supportive Spirals on the third Tuesday of each month.
If you wish, register right here for next week, November 21st, or December 19th!
if you want to know more, continue onward...
Deceptively simple but a powerful part of my routine--this is a very low-stakes way to prioritize your learning and exploring, while making fun connections with others along the way.
- F., a repeat Supportive Spiral participant
Supportive Spirals are gatherings for people to co-learn.
We meet for 90 minutes to connect with one another at the beginning and end and "spiral into" a resource of your choosing in the middle. Simple as that!
In this iteration, Supportive Spiral is a pay-what-you-wish offering. Offer what you wish, pay before or after the Supportive Spiral. Your presence is an abundant exchange if you cannot offer money at this time or if you're already offering money in exchange for membership in another community, network or group.
They are gently subversive and subversively gentle. I write more about the why's and how's behind the Supportive Spiral process here.
I desire this Supportive Spiral relaunch to support each and all of us in deeply considering ourselves and each other.
You're not only spiraling into a resource, you're spiraling into yourself.
- R., a repeat Supportive Spiral co-host
I envision a Zoom room that serves as a hub for cross-pollination both within ourselves and with each other, for new friendships, for new creative partners, for riffing with our own and each other's (un)learning experiences!
If you're into what I'm putting down, I welcome you to October's Supportive Spiral! Register here for next week, November 21st, and/or December 19th.
#2 invitation to join: Moment of Slow is open
Moment of Slow is my offering that is part private podcast, part private email newsletter, all parts intentional!
I record all of the episodes outdoors, most always by a creek.
One member has shared with me that right when she hears the sounds of the creek, her body instantly relaxes.
Moment of Slow is an experiment in belonging I've been offering for the whole of 2023. If you join now you receive access to every single episode and note shared since the beginning of this year, in addition to receiving all the new goodies through the remainder of the year.
The month of October is the last open enrollment window for this offering. I am excited to welcome in new energy as we move through this year-long arc together!
If you've been intrigued by Moment of Slow for awhile now, or if you're simply intrigued by it in this here and now, this month is the time to join. The window will be closing Friday November 3 so I welcome you to take your time with considering if you'd like to join.
I welcome you reaching out with questions about it, too. Simply reply to this note, I'm on the other side.
Feel into your "yes, I'm in!" "not right now," or your "no, thank you." Moment of Slow is here to feel into your inner knowings.
Moment of Slow is offered at three sliding scale tiers. Check out the details here. I'm so excited to welcome you in, if you feel called!
You are a gift and I welcome you to accept the gifts I am offering in the ways that serve you and serve our connection.
Til next time,
Cassandra
P.S. My attempt to follow the first Friday of each month cadence for this note was a bit too rigid to my present reality so I'm welcoming in "towards the beginning of each month" as a new pattern with you.
Aah the many ways the speculative fiction of our lives manifests!! (just finished this awesome workshop that A Bookkeeping Cooperative is facilitating and now I can't unsee budgeting as speculative fiction, as well as any type of habit predictions.)