I’ve heard the word "gentle" a lot lately and I've been reflecting on gentleness as a useful approach to life, especially for us sensitive, creative, and/or neurodivergent folks because we often experience both our inner life and the world around us with great intensity. This can be a beautiful thing leading to extraordinary depth of feeling, sensory pleasure, and creativity. The flip side is that it can more easily lead to sensory and emotional overwhelm and burnout. So there's this fine line, a precarious dance between the gift and the shadow of intensity. We all know the myth of Icarus who, out of hubris, failed to master this dance when he flew too close to the sun. But what if Icarus had GENTLY approached the sun, allowing him to still enjoy its warmth but also to feel the very first drop of melting wax, alerting him to pull back a bit? Could he have saved himself with a gentle approach? Could we? As I've been reflecting on gentle, I've noticed it being modeled in nature - the breezes, delicate flowers, easily-gliding birds... They've reminded me what going gently looks like. I've started playing with the concept in my own life and noticing that new options and opportunities seem to open up for me when I approach a situation from gentleness. If I'm feeling overwhelmed with a project, approaching it gently becomes taking a baby step that no longer feels overwhelming but still keeps me moving in the right direction. I think almost any situation could benefit from an infusion of gentleness. Is there anything that you can do more gently this week? Can you approach your day with more gentleness? The next hour, creative project, meeting with your boss/client, call with your friend/partner/relative? If you do this, let me know how it goes:)
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I am incredibly inspired by Day Schildkret's impermanent earth art, Morning Altars. This morning, he posted the following on his Morning Altars' Instagram page:
"Today I'm calling for a GLOBAL ALTAR MOB! What that means is: 1. Go outside: Take that anxiety and worry to the trees. Go wander and forage. 2. Make an altar: Do it on the streets, the sidewalks, the forests, beaches and esp in front of places of power! 3. Channel your heart and mind: Place your hopes, fears, dreams, grief, exhaustion, prayers and pleas in the altar. 4. Share it: Post on social media to warm our hearts, give us courage and gather us in. Make sure you hashtag it: #morningaltars #victoryaltars #vote Let's make altars pop up everywhere today! Nature and art as activism, my friends!" This image is the election day victory/democracy altar that I created in response to Day's call - it was such a centering, calming, and literally-grounding exercise to take part in on an anxiety-provoking day. I was thankful for the suggestion and opportunity to direct my energy into this process and to spend time in nature and create beauty rather than stew in anxiety. I've been following Morning Altars for a few years and have wanted to make an earth altar like this for a long time and had just never taken the time to do it. This was my first time and certainly not my last! The truth is, we don't need the stress of an election to inspire this kind of creative meditation -- I commit to creating more earth altars and sharing them here, join me if you feel inspired to as well. Unsurprisingly, my nervous system regulation practice # 2 is: MAKE SOME ART!
It doesn’t matter what it is — it could be coloring in a coloring book, pasting a collage, doodling in a notepad, painting on a canvas, or messing with some clay. We can approach the act of creation as an active meditation and easily access a flow state, regulating our entire system. I’ve been working more on my houseplant series and truly nothing calms me and grounds me in the present moment quite like sitting down and focusing on pasting these little torn pieces of paper onto the canvas. Everything else drops away and I am immersed in flow... calmed, grounded, and regulated. I invite you to try making something this week if it’s been a while. Don't focus on the outcome or finished product - no need for your creation to look good or to be shared with another single soul -- just create as a form of meditation and let the rest go. With my sensory sensitivities and "overexcitabilities," regulating my nervous system has been an ongoing practice and place of deep learning and experimentation for me. While at times, these sensitivities and intensities can inspire an almost magical experience of life and can be great for artists and the creative process, they can also make certain aspects of life a lot more challenging to navigate.
I wanted to share some the practices, tools, and resources that are most useful for me in this long learning curve of nervous system regulation in case they are useful for you as well if you're exploring your own sensitivities and intensities or are simply craving more peacefulness and balance. It may be obvious from my posts that one of the most foundational practices for me is moving my body in the beauty of nature. Nature's beauty: the sun, the air, the particular shade of green grass or tree leaves - speaks to my senses and grounds me in that which is so much bigger than my small self. Truly one of the fastest and easiest ways to reset / bring our systems into balance is diving into nature. There has been research study after research study proving that spending time in "green space" has vast physical/mental/emotional health benefits. If we have access to this resource, it behooves us to put it to good use. Let this be a reminder (for both you and me!) to get out into it if it's been a while. |