How often have you shrugged off a regular (or semi-regular) “wellness practice” because you’re too overwhelmed, overworked, uncertain of its benefits in relation to the time it takes, or just in such a state of adrenal fatigue that it’s impossible to feel into what would help you to feel better?
It’s so easy to think, “This is just one more thing on my plate,” and lose sight of how that practice can create exactly the spaciousness, release, perspective, or re-centering that you need for your life to come into better balance.
It reminds me of a meditation recommendation I once heard: “Meditate for 20 minutes per day. If you are too busy for that, meditate for 20 minutes TWICE a day.”
The more you need it, the more it can help — and yet that’s often when it’s so much harder to prioritize it.
My partner and I recently squished our weekly Wednesday evening yoga practice a couple hours earlier than usual for about two months. We did it to accommodate rehearsals for a play. It definitely made Wednesdays more challenging in some ways.
Yet despite the inconvenience, I knew it was the right choice not to give up that practice for several weeks — mainly because I can feel its immediate benefits physically, emotionally, and spiritually. If I am tired, I feel more energized afterwards. If I am stressed, I feel more centered when I’m done. If my body is tight, I feel a little looser. And so on.
I’ve long felt the same about my monthly sessions with my spiritual counselor (“soul work” sessions, though she does not necessarily use that term). They’ve always been worth the time, money, and effort.
And while the immediate benefits are generally tangible, it’s really the long-term, cumulative effects that have more than proven their worth in these last twelve years of my life.
I am so much clearer in who I am as a result.
My relationships are so much more functional and joyful and healthy.
My sense of what I want, what I need, what I deserve, and what I have to give has been massively restored.
My capacity for growth and change and creativity has expanded, as has my intuition (and my trust in it) — and my capacity to give and receive love.
I have healed relationships in the present and extended this healing into the past — to my own “inner child” in this lifetime, through my ancestral lineage, and to relationships in past lifetimes (no worries if “past lives” is not something you believe in).
But it’s taken a commitment to myself: a commitment to my desire to feel better… a commitment to stop hurting in the same ways over and over again… a commitment to my process of deepening awareness and self-becoming, to joy and resilience.
It’s been a doozy of a spring so far — energetically, astrologically, technologically, globally. Certain political and world events are clearly intensifying in ways that are upsetting and disorienting. Making contact with ourselves and with each other in healthy, grounded, healing ways is more essential than ever.
What are the wellness practices you are committed to, even when — or especially when — life tries to squeeze them out?
If you don’t have one, what is the biggest thing getting in the way of starting one? Or, what is getting in the way of connecting with someone who is offering a wellness or healing practice that you’re curious about?
I’d be happy to hold space for you and your commitment to your wellness and healing process. You’re invited to contact me if you’d like to discuss what that might look like.
With love,
Amanda
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