Something New! Rest on Request!

I was inspired today to begin offering short private resting sessions, say 15 minutes, for $20. It’s like getting a chair massage for your body/mind/spirit but from home (Skype or Zoom or phone or I suppose in-person, if we’re passing by one another anyway . . . ).

I created a page on this blog for it, and you can find that right here.

We have paused our weekly REST Room calls for the time being, as the entire team has other projects calling for our attention; however, I love having REST like this as a part of my life, and I love to share it. So if you are looking for Rest on Request, you have come to the right place.

Love, love. xx

And Trust Rest. ❤

No Conclusions

To start, I want acknowledge this lovely post that an anonymous reader brought to my attention by clicking on it. Mmmmm. So helpful to see the self-loving writing that has come before, when today has had a similar pull . . .

that internal (unexamined) command to do something. Write this blog. Do the writing exercise. Forward my projects. Do my homework for the Seminar. Do the dishes. Clean the Venetian blinds. Be somehow other than how you are. Jeesh!

I took a brief day away from FB for Father’s Day and I liked it. When I come back around that scene, I feel mixed.

I have the sense that doing some things differently is a way for me to go right now, but I haven’t seen the different ways yet. And that brings me back to the being vs. doing. Someone in a doodle class the other day made a picture announcing, “I don’t know what to do, but I know how to be.”

Slowing down helps. Stopping helps.

And the day turns on a dime anyway with a message from a friend requesting and airport pickup and my requesting of her a couch surf for the night, and now the day has some structure and purpose to it that wasn’t there before. All that was there before was some agitation, a bit of a stuffed up nose, and the ricocheting (OMG put that on my success list that I spelled that correctly the first time!) thoughts of all the things I could be doing.

A nicely doodled mind map could soothe that right quickly, as well as resting in the body and looking for that sneaky command.

I don’t have conclusions here at the moment. I just feel good having written. ❤

It’s Been Worth the Exploration, For Sure

I’ve been writing this blog for over a year now, and I’m happy to say that I’ve come through it very well. As I write today, all is well. I continue to feel more and more peaceful and I prioritize low-stress. As much as I can, anyway. I’m not perfect at it, but I’m willing to look. Even now as I sit here typing, I’m feeling some sensations in my body that I’ve written about (every 28 days or so) throughout this year. Sometimes they really take me out, these  pains. This month, I came into it expecting things to go better. I’ve been doing two things differently: taking my vitamins (including B12) much more often, and practicing Reiki. I find that just knowing that I can treat myself relaxes me in the moment, and so I’m already not gripping too hard against the pain. Am I having some? Yes. And I feel more relaxed. I have time and space to rest right now. I have a heating pad that I may get when I’m finished writing if it’s still aching. I just came back from a walk — something else that’s going my way — and so I know that I’ve moved my energy today, and that feels right.

I’m not saying I won’t jump up and grab an Advil either. This isn’t really so much about the cramps, per se, as it is to say, my mood has been good, my mind has been quiet, and things that often have affected me on-goingly have passed by quickly once the subject is dropped.

AND I am never one to say always or forever or never. I mean, I know too much about living and changes and moods and states to suggest that I won’t go through a big upheaval of emotion any minute now. But I will say that my faith is strong these days. It’s natural. I also laregly credit that looking-in-the-mirror-loving thing. Something in that breaks down ideas of separation in some sort of paradoxial way. I mean, who does it make sense to address a self and have it disappear at the same time?

Well it doesn’t matter how. I just dig it. So lots of really sweet, loving, open energy flowing through and around. I feel full of possibility and have evidence to back it up. As good things happen, I rest into my good cheer, always allowing my nervous system to catch up, relax, and open up to increase its capacity for happiness and goodness, love and abundance, creativity, health and wellness.

Trusting rest was a really good idea, for sure. It wasn’t really a choice though.

And P.S. that wave of pain passed. Let it ride.

Yesterday’s Rest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was so proud of myself yesterday for lying down and resting when I needed to rest. My head was aching and I was planning to go to a friend’s birthday party, and I was kind of feeling like crap and like, yeah, resting. I’d been “trying” to work on some stuff but I wasn’t feeling motivated. That’s not all true. I did some things that were important to get done for my awesome class today (it was amazing — doodling for writers and those who aspire to write — Love love love!!!!). But this other thing I thought I really had to be working on just wasn’t coming. I took a break. I took a breath. I went outside on the porch to eat a snack and checked out Mama Bird and her new baby in the planter on the porch. I felt the breeze on my arms. I felt relief at realizing that I’d been pushing all this time. Whew. Push stopped.

I turned off the electronics and lay on the couch and read my book for a nice long time. Then this picture happened.

By the time I got up to go, I was feeling much better, and I had an awesome time at my friend’s party.

Rest often comes as grace. The stopping of the push. The moment of “oh, I’ve been pushing and there’s no need.”

The release of the yawns.

The joy of a lie down during the day.

The gratitude for the beautiful space in which to do it.

TRUST REST, my loves. What else is there, as a foundation?

Resting Writing Evening

It’s super beautiful outside, and when I don’t do anything else but just notice what’s up in my moment, I’m in awe. There’s been a hornet or wasp — I don’t know which is which — flying around here. I even swatted it with a broom for a little while and then we both settled down and I’m not really afraid of it anymore. Also flying are several different types of birds flying through this widescreen of blue and white sky that’s framed by this patio’s fence and the floor of the one above.

Watching the amazing flying creatures, especially the birds, inspires me greatly. This is the book of fantasy stories we all read as children. Have you ever been to Sequoia National Park or Goblin Valley State Park in southern Utah? And there are aeons of places that I’ve never even dreamed of seeing, just on this little tiny amazing miraculous planet alone! And then there are people talking in the parking lot whom I haven’t seen before, and I wonder what they’re talking about by that Ford hatch back.

It’s wonderful out here and my ass hurts from how I was sitting in the chair.

I’ve beyond 51000 words in the book that I’ve been writing, and I felt uninspired by much of what I wrote tonight, because what could be better than this? A breeze on my arms, the people in the complex coming out for their evening walks, wonderful flying things cutting the air and creating a moving skyline . . .

Here comes another person I’d not seen before, and now they’re all three looking at something on a phone and smiling and interested, and they seem like they have good feelings for each other. Except now that he’s arrived, she looks bored and is biting her nails. her shirt is purple and the young guy is in a workout shirt and the guy with the big belly and the phone has on readers and has grey and white hair and is laughing and smiling, and it’s just all so simple and wonderful.

This is what I like to write about.

Set a Little Timer with Me?

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that I do not deny my compulsive nature, especially around the electronics. I love to take social media breaks, but when I do, they often have to be really strongly intentional, or that wire overrides and I’m looking, scrolling, posting, etc.

I don’t shame myself for it. I just notice. And when I’m a bit amped up, pre-menstrually, for example, all compulsions tend to run a little more heavily.

Today I came outside for a little rest. I brought my blanket, and after I spent 10 minutes making a meme-type-thing about resting (I like it!), I lay down. Knowing, however, my ghost images and energetic habits, I opted to relieve myself of my phone for 20 minutes by setting the timer and setting it down.

I picked it up once to check the timer (there were six and a half minutes remaining) and did not shame myself.

I noticed a lot of ghost images and impulses to share and post and even to write things down. I have so many ideas pouring through me these days, and I’m working on two different books and a detailed website and writing here near-daily. But I didn’t cave, nor did I get up to grab paper. I let the ideas float into the sky and mingle with the leaves and the birds. It felt so good, and I felt better when I got up.

Toward the end of my on-the-floor-of-the-porch-in-the-afternoon-sun/shade-rest, I envisioned and felt into the moment in which absolutely everything is handled. The work that I’ve been struggling to muster energy and focus for: totally handled. This is a moment of mega rest. I even envisioned heading to the UK, as I told some friends on a conscious creator page this morning. I imagined, too, making a few stops on the way, but I quickly noticed that those thoughts were bringing my energy down and were shoulds, and I dropped them from my fantasy. No shoulds. No obligations. Everything is handled. Resting is deep.

And so, I was inspired to try out a little experiment. I’m too chicken or overloaded already to say that I can do it for an entire week, or even for three days, so right now, I’m saying that for one stretch of 24 hours, every three hours I will turn off all screens for 20 minutes.

I may read or write (by hand). I may rest. I may sleep. I may eat, walk, dance, fuck, go to the store, play guitar, draw, sing, whatever. But every three hours, a 20 minute no screen break.

I’ll come back tomorrow and tell you about it!

Love, love.

The meme I made. I don’t even know if I’m using that word even remotely correctly. But I dig the picture.

I Wonder, and Then . . .

So I wonder what this trusting rest business has to do with how beautifully this inner-guided path is unfolding? And then I can rest, and allow all of these words and the feelings with them to come all the way through, and everything can just chill.

Trust Rest

I’m so fucking tired. It’s 9:37 and I’m actually really happy to be writing here. I always want to, and I always want to write my 1000 words for my book that I’m working on, though I rarely feel like it, as it were. They are both priorities but far enough down the list that I tend to do them before bed when I’m exhausted. But I’m doing them. And maybe in some ways they come out a little more honestly.

I had some chai today. A big cup of it with cow milk. I left myself with a headache and an inability to eat my dinner (the salad actually went down well) and a memory, finally, of why I’m not into this. Lately I’ve been thinking I want it. I have tried three or four different chai configurations in the past few weeks. None left me feeling all that great, but I want the luxury and the ritual and I don’t know, some kind of pick me up or something to do while I’m at the fucking cafe making a puppet.

You probably haven’t seen me with too much attitude before. Or maybe you have. I think there are hormones getting involved too, if we’re gonna name things, but how about we don’t, and we just breathe and rest and feel and brush teeth and get in jammies and lie down and see what happened on The Voice?

11377 (or, When Resting is Doing the Work)

Well, it’s late here. 11:14 pm, and I’m tiiiird!

I came in to my friend’s place where I’m staying tonight — a comfortable, familiar pad where I’ve spent many a night here on this couch, sometimes with roommates, often alone. Tonight I’m alone and sleepy and ready to recline here in a moment. Driving here tonight, I let myself off the hook from producing 1000 words for my book tonight. Today would have been the eighth or ninth entry, taking me above 10,000 words. How about that?

But I was feeling super tired — another active day. I cleaned the sweet Tree House thoroughly. I did some errands. I sat at the ravioli trailer under their beautiful new canopy and made a commissioned puppet. It’s fun but it’s not easy and sometimes it’s really tiring. And then I chatted with my friend Zach who owns the place for a few hours, and I finally made it home, juice and soup in hand from up the way.

After I finished my soup, I felt rested and fed and I felt that, in fact, I did want to write my 1000 words and that I did want to write here on this blog, too. I felt that these two things were stirring in me and that my body wouldn’t calm down without doing them.

Whether it would have or not is moot now because this is what happened. I wrote my words, bringing me up to 11,377 total so far, and I’m stopping by here to say, wow, who’d have thought that doing a bit more was actually the restful thing to do?

And with that, I’m off to write a doodle prompt and likely promptly fall asleep.

Relax Your Mind

I woke up earlier than my thoughts said I ought to this morning. I realized, too, that it wasn’t that I even felt that tired then, but I just thought I should be sleeping more. You know, still getting over my cold. Moving. Whatnot.

Eventually after resting for a while, I got up to write Morning Pages and put some music on Pandora to keep me company and sweeten the moment. And the following song came on.

So there.

And it’s been a full and lovely and rich day. I took an Artist Date by driving out to a town in the country and visiting a house that I stumbled upon on Craigslist yesterday (when I accidentally found myself on CL instead of the library website that I was intending to open). It was wonderful and absolutely gorgeous out there. I could definitely see myself in that house. And also, coming home tonight to the Tree House where I often stay, I’m super moved by how beautiful it is here.

Tonight the sky is reflecting the pink sunset behind me in its passing little grey and white clouds after a storm.

Writing class is playing on the speaker, and I’m writing to you, and after class, more writing.

And I got a mini-inquiry session, which really super helped me drop into the body and fully rest. Thank you!!!

All is soooo well.