It is coming to the end of our calendar year. It is a time where we are conditioned to gear up to the end of the year…we go all out trying to fit in time for the idea of everything we didn’t get to in the past 11 months.
All the messaging around us is about completing and resolving what we didn’t manage eariler in the year, seeing friends or family we haven’t caught up with yet (particularly since many of us have been confined to our homes for long periods over the last few years), shopping for presents, organising holiday plans, getting that last bit of work done that has been hanging over our heads (the bit we don’t want to take into the New Year with us), and on and on.
With all that in mind, my question to you, is this: as the days continue to get shorter and darker, and our natural environment demands that we allow our bodies to rest more….
Have you ever tried to do nothing? Really do nothing?
It’s harder than it sounds.
To close out the year, I invite you in the month of December to take some time to do nothing… If you would like some suggestions on how to approach this…here are some things I have been playing with:
Set a timer (or don’t) and sit or lie on the sofa for as long as you have available (5 minutes, 30 minutes, one hour…)
Stare out the window and let your mind do whatever it will for as long as you have available
Choose a morning to stay in bed a while longer and just be with the sensations and feeling in your body. Be with your breath. Don’t reach for your phone, don’t rush to get up and “do”…and allow yourself to stay for long enough that your to do list stops running through your mind…
Watch a show on Netflix that doesn’t demand too much of your attention and let your mind wander into and out of focus as you watch
See what happens when you allow space for resting into doing nothing, and allow for your creative brain to come online!
If we take a lesson from the bear that hibernates, you may be surprised at how much can move forward when you allow yourself to do “nothing”.
THE CONVERSATION THAT YOU NEED TO HAVE BECOMES CLEARER. THE THING THAT YOU NEED TO DRAFT WRITES ITSELF.
I invite you to share with me, what you discover, and I’ll leave you with a couple of reflections.
Hibernation is when a bear (or other animals and plants) spend the winter in a dormant state. They spend several weeks or months sleeping, and this state of inactivity helps them to conserve energy. Hibernation is characterized by slow breathing, a slow heart rate, low body temperatures, and a low metabolic rate. Typically, animals hibernate to cope with months that are low in food supply. Stored body fat from earlier months gives the body all the energy it needs to last the hibernation period. And then when winter is over, life resumes with new vigour and readiness to go forth and forage and mate and all the rest of the things animals do.
We humans are also animals…so what happens when we also allow ourselves to hibernate. To conserve our energy. To really rest and allow ourselves to integrate all of the nourishment and activity we undertook in the other seasons of our personal years?
We are so conditioned to think that the only way we can achieve something is to take tangible action, to forge ahead and busy ourselves constantly. We are trained to be able to sustain a constant stream of ‘doing’ and to attach ideals of success and productivity to it. What if we flipped that on it’s head?
WHAT IF BY DOING ‘NOTHING’, LIKE THE BEAR, WE ACTUALLY MOVE THE NEEDLE FORWARD IN THE RIGHT WAY FOR US?
To close the year, we are going to allow our bodies to rest, to soften, and to integrate as much connection to the space we can create for ourselves as possible.
In class this month…
This month we rest into an un-doing…we allow space and time to breathe and integrate what we have learned this past year, whether through practices or just through living… we allow what has moved through our bodies this past year to come to stillness, and we rest.
Join us in this active breath meditation on Thursday 16 December 2021
7pm London : 2pm New York : 11am Los Angeles
Personal investment : 90 minutes : £35 GBP
You will also receive access to the recording for one month after the class, in case you want to breathe again, or you can’t make the live class
If you would like to attend but you feel you cannot afford this energy exchange at this time, please email me
To read more about Breathwork Healing, have a look here.