I was working with this really delightful Slovenian company (use KateBrenton for discount) that was committed to teaching people to get back into their bodies and align their mindset to flow. They were adapting to the digital age by creating really tangible (kinesthetic) ways to coach people into the significance and available transformation through the breath.
One example was to exhale regularly, and place your hand in front of your mouth: feel your breath.
Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Now the second step is to do a diaphragmatic breath, where you breath in and inhabit the lower lobe of your lungs. Not, push-the-belly-out-breath, but a slow deep inhabiting of your lower lung, then a rising and extending of your mid-body to the top of your lung…..with your hand an inch or two from your mouth, exhale onto your palm. Now touch your palm with a finger, (like a little swipe) you should feel some moisture. Some steam, if you will.
It’s an indication that you have reached the full exhale where there is enough warmth for their to be moisture (that is a Kate explanation not an informed description). So, I mean, if we are running out of steam— are we running low on a full breath? Are we in the best place to push or rest?
We already know the answer, but what if we all started to look more collectively at those questions and answers of language.
I feel like when I say I am running out of steam it’s an indication of exhaustion and has a little smear of judgment, like I mismanaged my energy: I ran out. Instead of an objective idea of there is a finite resource and there are indicators of where we need to reevaluate and replenish.
I think that is mostly the word—replenish.
How do we translate the body’s language for replenishment?
What does it mean when we are running out of steam?
I think I have way more questions for you this morning than answers, but that is also kinda perfectly timed. We have an eclipse this week with a new moon, and although I am no astrologer I think the rhythm of nature and the cosmos is something to consider since it is part of our environment, our life essence.
Juliana Swanson, a friend and astrologer, said that this is an exquisite week to clear out in preparation for the eclipse, a potent time to meditate and release that which doesn’t serve.
I have this suspicion though that many of us are so over-run, over-scheduled or over-stimulated, we aren’t even exactly sure where to begin. Am I right? I do that sometimes. Not all the time. Not when I am paying attention to my boundaries or have had a bit of a leg up on the restore and replenish aspects of my life. It’s one of the reasons I make lists and plan my week on Sunday night (courtesy of my own intuition and also every successful entrepreneur recommendation, the two that come to mind for me are Kate Northrup and Amy Porterfield), so that there is focus. So that when the inevitability of overwhelm arises, I have a list; I take a breath; I replenish before I run out of steam.
So clear out your lungs, your laundry and your language this week.
Let go of a bit of the patterning that is ensnaring you. If you are interested in delving deeper with the breath, with meditation, with sitting down and having a friend to hold the accountability space so you can gain some momentum in doing what you know is good for you….check out The Everyday Meditation Method with yours truly.
Listen, I didn’t think the world needed another meditation class.
Someone said to me, “People have free apps for that.”
That's when I knew I had something to offer to the realm of meditation: the pragmatic tools to sit with the etheric realms. Listen, most of us know that some sort of practice that calms and clears us is helpful; it’s just hard to find the time. BUT when we make a commitment, when we enter into space with another, it gets a little easier.
Kate