Dear Wild One,
I am excited about our practice today.
I've been playing with these ideas in my head for a while,
And this week I watched the roses open up and the peonies blossom,
And I tasted the first strawberry from my garden,
And I'm feeling ready.
This spring has been an incredibly creative season for me,
But this is recent because the winter we had here was long and cold,
And I found myself feeling really disconnected and distracted from my creative drive.
And if this resonates with you,
I believe you're in the right place.
You are not alone in this.
We can trust that the universe has your back.
So let's settle in.
Let's get comfortable in the space where you won't be disturbed for a few minutes.
And as you're ready,
You can close your eyes or soften your gaze.
I'm going to ring the bell three times,
And I want you to follow the sound for as long as you possibly can.
What do you notice about your breathing?
Without trying to force or change your breath,
What do you notice?
How would you describe it?
But don't judge it.
I mean,
Can you allow yourself to gently deepen your breath?
Can you invite yourself with kindness?
Can you invite yourself with compassion?
Can you gently deepen your breath?
Can you invite yourself with kindness to soften any hard edges in yourself?
Now what do you notice?
I'm going to focus today's practice on this phrase,
Meet your edge and soften.
Tara Brach's work in radical self-compassion is built around this phrase,
Meet your edge and soften.
As I've been thinking about this phrase and doing my own work in this area,
I've had a few insights that I hope will be helpful to you.
But for right now,
I want you to notice where your hard edges are.
And if you need to make any adjustments to how you're seated,
Your posture,
To help yourself have more openness or space,
Go ahead.
Find a way to open your heart space more.
Maybe drop your shoulders or lengthen your spine.
And notice all the places where you're already supported.
Maybe all you need to do is lift your chin just an inch.
Let yourself lean into that support.
And say thank you to the support for already holding you together in this moment.
Say thank you for meeting me right here.
Take a few grateful deep breaths.
The trouble with a creative block is that it's really a head game.
Like most of the time we feel blocked creatively because we are too far in our heads and not far enough in our bodies.
Creative energy flows through ideas and connections.
We could have tons of ideas but be unable to enact them because we are disconnected from our whole body or isolated from our tribe or both.
So reclaiming our creative flow is about reengaging our embodied experience.
And we do this every time we meet our edge and soften.
So I want you to keep breathing into all that supports you.
And with this same gratitude,
Breathe into your hard edges.
Have you noticed what happens when we meet our hard with more hard?
Or harsh?
Or judgment?
Or criticism?
Anger?
We make it worse for ourselves and we don't need more of that,
Right?
But can we take this moment to lean into all that supports us and take in our harder edges with kindness,
With curiosity,
With gratitude?
And when we do this,
The energy around us starts to shift and open and expand.
Let's breathe into our expansion.
This is what growth feels like.
We meet our edge and then we soften.
The picture I keep getting as I think through this phrase is the way a tree grows.
Like how we can count the rings of a tree trunk to know how old it is.
Each year,
As this tree digs its roots deeper into the earth and its branches stretch higher into the sky,
The trunk is also meeting its edge and softening just enough to expand.
Just a little bit,
Right?
The branches meet their edge and soften and lengthen and unfurl their leaves.
The roots dig deeper and this trunk expands.
This is all happening so that when the wind whips through them,
They're able to sway without breaking.
They're able to weather storms from a strength that they didn't know they had.
Does that sound like you?
As you breathe,
Are you able to lengthen and unfurl yourself a little more in every direction?
Meet your new edge and soften.
So let's begin working with this creative block.
You've probably noticed this litany or tyranny of voices in your head that stop you,
That shut you down or shut you up.
The,
Who do you think you are?
Or are you sure about that?
Or what will people think?
I know we are all well acquainted with these voices.
And I want you to invite all of these voices,
These shadow parts of yourself,
Into the room with you.
Invite them with softness.
And are you still in your body when you do this?
Stay in your body.
Keep breathing.
And repeat after me.
I am fully here right now.
I want to be here right now on purpose.
I hear and see and feel all these feelings and sensations.
And I know it's weird,
But I'm completely here for this.
And I fully love and accept all the parts of myself.
All the parts of myself are welcome.
I embrace all these different thoughts,
These feelings,
These sensations.
Because I love all the different parts of myself.
Good job.
I want to give you a couple minutes to really take in all of your parts with gentleness.
Are you still in your body?
Are you still breathing?
You can tap your chin gently with your pointer finger.
And repeat after me.
Yes,
Yes,
Yes,
Yes,
Yes.
Yes.
All of me is here for this.
All of me is here for this.
Yes,
Yes,
Yes,
Yes,
Yes.
Excellent work to your wild one.
I can feel your edges softening.
Your branches are stretching.
What do you notice?
I'm going to ring the bell three more times.
I want you to slowly follow it and bring yourself back.
As you follow the sound,
Follow the sound.
Let your eyes open and gently wander around your space.
Let your gaze land wherever it wants to.
The shadow work is a practice I return to again and again.
And it's always interesting to journal through it after.
Feel free to do that.
And feel free to message me with questions or thoughts.
I love hearing from you all.
So also,
You can share this with a friend if this was helpful.
Leave a review so that this unblocks as many people as possible.
And the world becomes a freer,
More creative place to be.
Dear wild one,
I can't wait to see all your creativity flooding the earth.
You were made for incredible things.
