Notes before an Escape to Emerald Green Waters
take a cold plunge. life is full of ups + downs
Things can change on a whim. It’s unrealistic to think you will have an entirely stress-free life.
I love how many of you are doing such highly imaginative work right now and getting creative with cabin fever hitting this Summer!
There can be umpteen uncertainties that afflict us - about our identities, roles in wider circles, our life philosophies.
From the most ambitious startups to the humblest of side hustles, top of mind for many is connection, stimulating innovation, heart-opening conversation and taking space to plan and center. Keeping your priorities balanced and stress levels in check. You may be fantasizing about a new contribution, a broader skill set, a successful collaboration, a better way to educate your children.
So happy Summer is here! Fresh air, calm vibes, and tucked away watering holes seem sublime. Especially the cold plunge. It is immune boosting + releases endorphins + helps with pain relief + brings more mental toughness. For more calmness in your life, try bringing these in-season cooling foods to your diet that support more calm: cucumber, zucchini and melons. If you are called, take that long awaited reprieve from the same scenery. (I know many of you are!) I’ve been dreaming of getting away to a wild and scenic river utopia. I want swaths of time to read, hike, search for wild foods and meditate into emerald green water.
Some of you are looking for the right professional partners to execute your brilliant bigger-picture vision. And, simultaneously creating “pandemic school pods.” Families are self-organizing home schooling pods for the Fall academic year start (and criticism exists as to privilege and inequality associated with the selection process). To be more effective working with others we need increased self-awareness. This is an uber-real time to access tools, practices and resources that bring more awareness. It is comforting to know you are not alone and have a relationship with a trusted individual, a community, mentors and friends to share your fear, problems, and experiences with.
Whether in a groove or rut, stress brings to light unhealthy habits of mind and heart. Compassion practices, for example, draw you out of yourself and remind you to think of others. You feel the force of stress narrowing you down, and you resist the tendency to close down. You can lean into the sharp points of your experience and change your relationship to stress.
NOTES ON PAIN + STRESS:
We are vulnerable. I came down with a virus this mid-July. The word virus makes me vibrate with anxiety! My body let me down. I felt trapped - with shingles. The now hardly recognizable rash on my torso was once a symphony of painful ugly red jagged raised markings, a precise shade of pinkish red. During the height of the intense pain I experienced waves of tears, frustration, irritability and loneliness. I longed to throw myself into a cool meadow of lush damp greenery and breathe, in search of any kind of creative freedom and magic to put it all to an end. Science tells us shingles comes from the same virus that causes chickenpox. After you’ve had chickenpox, the virus lies inactive in nerve tissue and can flare up in adulthood.
There was a lot of fatigue, and I would sit with the not knowing. I took a lot of time for self reflection. Meditation helped me come to a calm, contained and steady place. Where did this viral infection come from? A compromised immune system, or was it stress induced from compulsive reading about this fragmented world? Maybe it came from an unfulfilled desire for escapism - to check out of the world versus check into the world. Or, way too little deep rest. Was it an unhealthy rising and falling of efforting and surrender prior to the onset? For sure not those excessive amounts of raw cacao + fair trade coffee + roasted oregon grown hazelnuts!
It took a Zen-like concentration to follow a self-designed plant diet to clear my body of toxins and stagnation. No skillet wild blackberry crumbles for me! I attended my first-ever “at home” meditation retreat on zoom. This particular retreat had some kind of aura of otherworldly beauty. For meditation practitioners our practices and studies are a priority. We take pleasure in awaking early, chanting to the rising eastern sun, coming closer to colorful images that transport us to other places and back again to the present moment.
Lately, its been cool seeing the humblebragging from intelligent, artful friends who venture out into the unknown, far, far away from any clad of mask-wearers. Bright and shiny experiences make us happy, right?! And, its been eye-opening to observe women empowerment playing out by women posting black and white photos of themselves with the hashtag #challengeaccepted. A protest of the unheard female voices. Femicide is a globally overlooked human rights issue.
At long last, I‘ll take my cold plunge in a few days. Get away from the news + socials. We are almost into August and a border crossing awaits! (Don’t get me started on border issues!) Just over the border to California that is, along a scenic byway - towards some less traveled access points along the Smith River, one of the cleanest on the planet. Stuffed in my weekend bag will be favorite creations from some local Rogue Valley outfits - Eladi Oil and Neroli Facial Toner from the clean, cruelty-free Ayurveda skincare line www.neetanaturals.com; and a Diamond Weave Scarf for sun-cover and cooler evenings, from www.fairandsimple.com, fair-trade goods made by women artisans around the globe.
There is something deeply moving about this time and women supporting women. We are interdependent with everything that is. We can transform and be flexible. Something to think about - “It is said: the future is female. But what does this mean? Is it just like the old days, when women were called upon to clean up the mess? Now that everything has gone sideways, it is our turn to put in the difficult work of turning it all around? And what does female even mean anymore in a time when we are acknowledging that gender is socially constructed and there is no such thing as binaries? Everything lies on a spectrum. We must throw out the fixed and rigid rules.” - Gina Rae La Cerva, geographer and environmental anthropologist
Answer truthfully: How are you navigating the stresses of life?
Accumulated stresses left unchecked can be crushing. If you don’t like the way things are going – change them.
HAPPY SUMMER! Nourish your heart + mind.