Hello, my friend. Let’s play.
Last week I watched a lively conversation between authors Anne Lamott and Glennon Doyle. They were discussing Anne’s new book, Dusk Night Dawn: On Revival and Courage. The writing could not be more apropos as we cross the 12-month threshold of Covid sickness, death, quarantine, fear and… well, you know.
In their conversation, Glennon pointed to a piece about What If, and What Is. Their potent queries took me on a thrilling and exhausting deep dive. Let me share a few of the curves and dips I discovered.
First, we all have a tendency to prefer the mindset of What If (possibility) or What Is (reality). The visionaries lean toward What If, and the rationalists claim What Is.
To be clear, both orientations are necessary in our personal journey and world navigation. Categorizing things as “good” and “bad” never serves us well. So, let’s not.
What If takes us to possibilities and opportunities for something better, whatever our object of examination. “What If is a source of renewal, hope, creativity, purpose and offers our heart a way to connect and our belly a way to create.” What If – is the revival from Anne’s book title.
Of course, what if can also turn our stomach sour in knots when we allow fear and uncertainty to cloud our vision. It’s like walking in the woods, seeing a fallen tree in the distance and worrying that you won’t be able to pass and fretting over getting out of the woods safely. What If can spiral into desperation and terror.
When we are planning with finances, What If questions can be the source of more confusion, suffering and angst. Questions like, What if I can’t pay my rent/mortgage? Have you ever had that experience?
What Is lands in the here and now. We are present to current reality and source strength from facts and figures. If we are skilled, we go deeper inside and feel our somatic, or bodily, What Is.
Our somatic What Is feels any gibbers that may signal fear or uncertainty. And our somatic What Is sources our present state of “I’m ok, right now.” Any emotional fear energies dissipate in the certainty of knowing the sensation of what is right now is that I feel scared AND I’m OK.
This subtle and simple practice makes all the difference when we tend to our money matters. Somatic What Is – is the courage in Anne’s book title. It allows us to settle, focus, and gain belly strength and confidence while our heart offers nourishing wisdom.
When you are skilled with this practice, your financial What If planning can root deeper and shoot higher. After a healthy What is, we can more skillfully move to What if.
In my Walk with me Video this month, I share three points you might want to contemplate for yourself in “What is” and then move to “What if.”
First, the vitality and health of our body matters when we welcome the wisdom of our body. After completing a two-week Ayurvedic cleanse, I am choosing to eat whole foods, in sufficient quantities to satisfy my physical needs. It is a way I am practicing sufficiency and dignity, telling my body it is worthy of healthy food in sufficient amounts, in contrast to a slippery habit of stress- eating excess junk. After only two months, I feel a sweeter congruence with my body. If you are called to engage a food cleanse, please follow your inspiration. You might take notes or journal your before and after vitality experience. If a formal cleanse does not appeal to you, consider eliminating these three foods (or one of them): caffeine, alcohol and sugar for a couple of weeks. Again, notice the change in your vitality with a before and after examination.
Second, What If and What Is practice requires you to feel inside your body and access somatic sufficiency — the deep knowing of “I am OK.” With embodied knowing, your brilliant mind with helpful ideas can meet the somatic truth of “I am OK.” When you doubt that truth, your body intelligence is right there to feel the fear and return you to an open receptive state of exploration.
Third, true dignity, is foreign to most of us. In our Tiny Somatic Practice, I offer a place to get familiar in our spine. When we inhabit our body, and when we feel the vertical axis of our spine, our self-respect and worth are present for us to enjoy. We give attention to Pride which is a gateway to our embodied dignity. I’ll say more about this again; for now, get to know your spine, and back line and the beautiful dignified being that you are, as you move with What If and What Is.
Oceans of love my friends,
Tiny Body Practice
Find Your Spine in Pride
Yes, of course you know where your spine is! But this practice takes us closer into the strength, dignity, and truth of our innate worthiness. Our culture, families, and life experiences have a way of squeezing our worth out of us like twisting a wet rag dry. Here we let go of external forces and come inside claiming our worth by entering our spine.
Posture Preparation
Sit on a chair close to the front edge, where you can feel your bottom and sits bones solidly on the chair and your back free from support. Your feet are flat on the floor, hands lightly resting on your thighs.
Practice
- Bring your attention to your body by doing a body scan from the top of your head down to the bottom of your feet. Begin going down the front side and circle up the back side.
- Choose how fast or how slow you feel your body…
– Top of head, forehead, cheeks, chin, neck, throat
– high chest, arms, hands, sternum, belly, hips, pelvic girdle,
– thighs, knees, tops of feet, soles, calves, hamstrings,
– buttocks, lower back, mid back, upper back, back of head, top of head - Allowing your breath to guide you inside, give attention to your back line, starting at the back of your neck and down to the base of your spine.
- Let your breath deepen as you get closer to your spine.
- Stay rooted in your seat feeling held by gravity and mother earth.
- As your connection drops and deepens, notice a slight pull upward as your spine elongates and chest opens.
- Feel uplifted as the top of your head reaches toward the sky.
- Gain access to the “sweet spot of ease,” tilting forward and back and side to side – finding “just right” impeccable balance.
- Stay here with an unaltered breath giving full attention to your spine.
- Notice the sensations moving along the spine, in front of the spine and behind the spine.
- Stay.
- Notice the stillness and the subtle movements.
- Access dignity, wholeness and worthiness.
- Repeat out loud several times feeling a resonance inside your chest,
I am dignified.
I am whole.
I am worthy.
Repeat this practice often and notice over time your experiences. You might:
– begin to walk a little taller.
– notice streaming energy flowing up your back through the back of your head.
– feel more confident and capable.
– experience relationships in new ways – more connection, more presence.
Let me know your discoveries. I’d love to hear.
Deepening Practice
Mar 25, 2021
Hi, beautiful You!
Earlier this month in the Walk with Me video you were introduced to a few ideas on Sufficiency and Dignity – capitalized on purpose – to emphasize the importance in our explorations this year. In the context of this month’s topic on “What if” and “What is”, you are asked to relate What is to Sufficiency and What if to Dignity.
What is, embodied, gives us access to feeling Ok. We deepen our truth of sufficiency, of feeling Ok in the present moment. Embodied sufficiency releases any traces of fear, scarcity and lack. We may feel scared but when we experience the truth of sufficiency in our body, that fear – beliefs, sensations, energy – easily dissolve. This practice heals the limitations we carry about not being enough, and even being too much.
What if, embodied, gives us access to confidence. We deepen our truth of dignity, of feeling our worth just by being who we are. Embodied dignity builds our confidence to explore What if from a place of vitality, strength and creativity. This practice supports our ability to live in sufficiency and generative action. I believe that when we each embody sufficiency, our natural response is generative action. We naturally turn toward others and give our gifts in service to others and a better world.
The Practice
Find Your Spine
Give attention to this practice focused on your spine
Posture Preparation
Sit on a chair close to the front edge, where you can feel your bottom and sits bones solidly on the chair and your back free from support. Your feet are flat on the floor, hands lightly resting on your thighs.
Practice
- Bring your attention to your body by doing a body scan from the top of your head down to the bottom of your feet. Begin going down the front side and circle up the back side.
- Choose how fast or how slow you feel your body…
– Top of head, forehead, cheeks, chin, neck, throat
– high chest, arms, hands, sternum, belly, hips, pelvic girdle,
– thighs, knees, tops of feet, soles, calves, hamstrings,
– buttocks, lower back, mid back, upper back, back of head, top of head - Allowing your breath to guide you inside, give attention to your back line, starting at the back of your neck and down to the base of your spine.
- Let your breath deepen as you get closer to your spine.
- Stay rooted in your seat feeling held by gravity and mother earth.
- As your connection drops and deepens, notice a slight pull upward as your spine elongates and chest opens.
- Feel uplifted as the top of your head reaches toward the sky.
- Gain access to the “sweet spot of ease,” tilting forward and back and side to side – finding “just right” impeccable balance.
- Stay here with an unaltered breath giving full attention to your spine.
- Notice the sensations moving along the spine, in front of the spine and behind the spine.
- Stay.
- Notice the stillness and the subtle movements.
- Access dignity, wholeness and worthiness.
- Repeat out loud several times feeling a resonance inside your chest,
I am dignified.
I am whole.
I am worthy.
Journaling, Reflecting, Integrating
Post practice, writing and reflecting, gain deeper insights with these questions and integrating moves.
- What takes you away from “What is” – your presence? Future worry or past regret? What is happening in the here and now that is too hard to face?
Pause with these questions. Let them go and come inside your body. Find your spine, your back line. Feel your breath rising and falling. Be present to what is right now.
Ask the questions again from your sufficiency and OK-ness.
- How might you benefit from imagining “What if” – an inspiration and vision? What blocks you from discovering and moving toward what you want?
Again, pause with the questions. Come inside your body and be fully awake in your back line. Feel your breath rising and falling. Float the questions from your dignity and worth.