Nourishing Ourselves - A Creative Practice

This creative practice will help you explore what nourishes you in your life. The creative prompts will help you work with the storylines that lead us to overwork and under-nourishment. Good for social justice leaders who want to be more resourced as we work for liberation.

Transcript

This is a creative exploration.

So before we begin,

I invite you to have a pen or paper nearby,

Materials to draw or paint with,

Whatever you need for whatever artistic medium calls to you as we do this exploration.

And don't worry,

You don't need to be an artist.

This is about a creative process as reflection and exploration,

A way to go deeper and to kind of follow your intuition and whatever arises for you.

I also invite you to pause the recording throughout so that you can really take whatever time and space you want to explore the prompts and questions,

Then resume the recording whenever you're ready to go to the next part of the process.

So take a couple deep breaths.

We can inhale and exhale together a few times.

Letting your breath,

Bring you to your present moment and experience.

So that we can really be attuned to whatever is arising for us as we reflect on what it means to nourish ourselves.

What arises for you when I say that?

Nourish ourselves.

Nourish.

Notice what happens in your body when you hear that word.

Nourish.

Do you soften?

Is there a longing that arises?

And where do you feel that?

Do you get into your head?

Nourish.

Attune to what arises for you and where you feel it.

What images arise for you when you hear nourish yourself?

Pause the recording and either draw or journal what images or sensations arise when you hear nourish yourself.

Nourishment means sustenance.

Being held with care,

Filling our well,

Comforting.

To be nourished is to be cherished.

To be nurtured.

To nourish something is to foster something.

Or someone.

Notice what happens in your body,

Your heart,

Your spirit.

When you hear of sustenance or being held with care,

Being cherished.

Draw or write what's arising for you.

Maybe even pause the recording so you can really explore what comes up when you imagine or feel into being cherished.

What makes you feel held and supported?

What gives you sustenance?

What would it mean to nurture and cherish yourself?

I invite you to pause the recording and really explore that.

What would it mean to really cherish and nurture yourself,

To hold yourself with care?

What are some practices that can support you in feeling nourished?

Take some time to really generate a list of practices or a series of images that could support you in feeling nourished.

Take as long as you need to explore that.

I invite you to draw two circles next to each other.

And in the right one,

Generate ideas and lists and sensations of what helps you feel nourished in your life.

And in the left one,

What drains you?

So in the right one,

What helps you feel nourished?

And in the left one,

What drains you?

Again,

Pausing the recording.

Take a couple deep breaths and really reflect on what you've generated in those two circles.

What are you noticing?

And how might you increase the former and decrease the latter?

How might you increase what nourishes you in your life and decrease what drains you?

And how might you increase what nourishes you and decrease what drains you?

And as you consider that question,

Notice the storylines that arise for you.

Notice whatever thought processes or body sensations arise as you consider that.

Here are some common ones.

Well,

But I have no choice but to work.

I have bills to pay and tests to study for.

Yeah,

It'd be nice to be nourished,

But we're understaffed.

I have to work late hours.

The world needs this work.

We have to end injustice.

Many people don't have the privilege to step away.

What drains me is injustice in the world that targets me and my communities.

I'm too depressed at everything going on in the world to imagine being nourished.

I'll do this after fill in the blank is over.

Yeah,

But no one else will do this work or insert your narratives here.

Pausing the recording to just really reflect on what's arising for you when you think about increasing what nourishes you and decreasing what drains you.

Let's pause.

Take three deep breaths.

Feel your feet on the earth.

Notice something beautiful around you.

Maybe it's the trees outside your window.

Your sleeping cat.

The laughter of your children.

Take in that beauty and how it makes you feel.

Those storylines might be true.

Or they might be learned narratives that keep you running on the capitalist hyper productivity treadmill.

It is true that there is vast injustice in the world and that everyone who's committed to social justice is required to change it.

It is also true that systems of oppression target marginalized groups,

Whether we want it or not,

And that sometimes stopping that in the current moment feels out of our control.

It's also true that we are in deeply challenging times and depression and overwhelm is a natural reaction to what's going on in the world.

Breathe.

Feel your feet flat on the earth.

Imagine growing roots going all the way down into the soil,

Into the core of the earth and breathing up from that core into your heart center.

Sending your energy back down to the core of the earth through your feet.

And notice something beautiful around you.

It is also true that being nourished,

Being cherished,

Having sustenance is your birthright.

It is everyone's birthright.

What if you could feel nourished and still do your work?

What if you could be nourished and still do your work?

What if social justice requires you to be nourished?

What if liberation needs us to be our most nourished whole selves to co-create it?

Hyper productivity is a white supremacist capitalist value.

Yes,

We need social justice and we need to be more skillful as we do social justice and we can often be more skillful when we are more resourced.

Reflect on that list of practices that nourish you.

Can you commit to a few minutes of nourishing yourself a day?

Maybe five,

Maybe ten,

Whatever feels doable to you.

Can you make a commitment to yourself to do one nourishing practice from your list above for five or ten minutes a day?

Notice what arises in your body when you imagine making that commitment to yourself.

And now imagine making that commitment to nourish yourself,

To your community,

To all your loved ones and all the community that you work with and for.

What arises for you when you commit to nourishing yourself for at least ten minutes a day?

More if you can.

What arises for you if you imagine your vision of a better world,

Your commitment to a world in which everybody has their humanity dignified,

All living creatures are honored.

And your commitment to that world,

What arises for you when you commit to nourishing yourself and those around you?

It's not just for ourselves that we nourish ourselves.

It's for our communities.

It's for a better world.

And everyone deserves that.

What if social justice requires you to be nourished?

What if social justice supports you to be nourished?

And what if liberation needs us to be our most nourished whole selves to co-create it?

Can we collectively choose a nourishing practice,

One that fills our well,

One that comforts us,

One that cares for us?

Can we commit to doing that practice even if it's only five or ten minutes a day?

More if it's available,

But at least five or ten minutes.

And can we make it a ritual so that it is imbued with the intention and energy to give you sustenance?

In other words,

It's not just a rote action or a habit.

It's a practice that we imbue with sacred energy that is about caring for ourselves and others,

That is about nourishing ourselves in the service of larger liberation.

Pay attention to what happens when you do.

May we all be well and nourished as we work for a better world.