The Soft Animal of Your Body

{Image from bellagracemagazine.com}

With the passing of Mary Oliver earlier this year, I loved seeing all the posts sharing her body of work. There were so many favorites I was reminded of that just speak to my soul, but one that has stayed with me over the past several months is this one:

“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.”
-Mary Oliver, “Wild Geese”

While the whole piece is exquisite even beyond that excerpt from above, the line that keeps playing over and over in my heart and mind is:

…the soft animal of your body…

I just love this so much!

I once trained with a physical theatre company who’s methodology was all about letting the body of the actor move and feel and react in the instinctive way we would if we weren’t so… for lack of a better word… “civilized”. To allow the physics of our body and the gravity of our world be the guide. To allow our animal roots and instinctive reactions come out to play. So when we are angry, we allow the body to pulse and feel the fire of energy radiate from the inside out. When we feel grief, we allow the well of sadness to overflow from each cell so that it is palpable to an audience. When we feel ecstatic joy, we allow the body’s shape and form to be just as expansive and electric.

Training in this form of art-making was very healing as it gave permission for the body to communicate the way it does best, which is not through words necessarily, but through feelings, images, expression, energy.

It provided a structure and an understanding of it being okay and normal and actually quite NATURAL for the body to be messy and complicated and soft and instinctive and evolving with desires, needs, wants, cravings, yearnings.

We are come into the world being that way and we are trained to hone it in and tone it down.

And I think this is one reason why I love breathwork so much. In the sacred container of breathwork, we give the mind a job to do (breathe) so that the body can communicate in the way it does best (feelings, images, expression, energy). With the movement of our oxygen, we have movement of our emotions and energy. With the permission to express, we have the safe space to make noise, to yell, to shout, to moan, groan, wail, sob, laugh, and give the warrior cry that is being held in our cells while we are being “civilized”. With the power and invitation of our breath, we let our bodies be soft and the animal that it is, without judgement, limitations, or the perfect box it’s “supposed to” fit in.

So if you’ve breathed with me recently or if you join me for breathwork sometime in the next several months, you may hear me use this phrase!

Of course, breathwork isn’t the only way to allow the soft animal of your body some space for healing, if that modality doesn’t resonate for you. You can dance it out, shake your body, break things, pelt a pillow, bash a kickboxing bag, belt at the top of your voice in your car or your shower, have sex, make art, play in the dirt, break a sweat doing some sort of physical exertion to help move that energy through your body, giggle or laugh hysterically, move through a yoga flow, walk in nature, etc etc etc, trust that you will know what you need to give yourself!

Most importantly, just L I S T E N to your body.

No matter how silly or un-logical or strange or quiet or simple the request, can you give your body what it loves even just for a moment?

This springtime full moon, as we continue to awaken and rebirth and get messy through the growing phases of the season, my wish for you is to honor the fullness of yourSELF. The fullness of your spirit. To honor the whole spectrum of emotions that you feel as a human being in this physical form, no matter how big or small.

{image from @chaninicholas on instgram}

Happy Full Moon radiant being!

I Gave Myself A Timeout

I got caught in the “Comparison Trap” on Tuesday after spending a significant time scrolling through social media. Can you relate?

For the most part, I find instagram and facebook to be amazing tools of connection and expression, creativity and community. I know the point of many of the posts from people is to inspire and lift me up, but I found myself comparing so-in-so’s success, outreach, images, message, tech capabilities, offerings, etc etc etc to my own, which rather than firing me up to take action, put me in a state of overwhelm and analysis paralysis.

Ugh.

Not the most productive or kind way to spend an afternoon! After doing a little inquiry as to why my energy was so low and why I felt totally unmotivated or inspired to write/create/be excited about possibility!, I realized it was the numbing out, scrolling habit of that little screen in my hands that was enabling my victim-mode procrastination.

So I put myself in a time-out on Wednesday.

And it was EXACTLY what I needed. I share this because (in case you too need a self-imposed time-out! ha!):

That is the beauty of the waning moon season!

It’s an invitation to do a little inquiry into the systems, habits, mindsets, routines, relationships, patterns that we are into (almost on autopilot mode) and see what’s actually working for us and our highest good and what is not.

And then like the moon, which is shedding it’s light little by little, we are invited to try something else, let go of a “certain way of doing things”, clear some space in our mind and our being and our environment so that we are ready to have some new beginnings with the new moon.

A little point to ponder for yourself: where are you needing to mix things up? What feels out of alignment? Where have you gotten away from yourself? How can you release or make a change for yourself with this coming new moon?

For me, I’ve put up screen time boundaries on my phone and I’m loving waking up to a phone with no email and social media notifications right at my bedside. Spacious mornings are an important shift for me this spring.

P.S.
Last year’s Spring Vision Boarding got snowed out (in April!!!) when we had a big snowstorm, so I hope I’m not jinxing MN by hosting another on (lol). If you feel like getting crafty, dreamy, and visiony (not a word, but fun to say), join me on Sunday, April 14th at Stockheart in Mpls - deets below!

Contraction and Expansion

Happy Spring! For those of us in the northern hemisphere, spring has officially arrived with today’s Spring Equinox -- the day where there’s equal balance of daytime and nighttime. We also have a full moon tonight and with the new sound of spring birds singing, I’m feeling all kinds of possibilities and hopeful.

With the arrival of spring, there is an emphasis on new beginnings. Of fresh starts.

However, in order to start something new, there often needs to be some sort of an ending. Closing a chapter can be a relief or it might bring up a lot of grief (or both!). Neither one is good or bad - you just might need to tend to your heart, nervous system, body in a slightly different way as you sit with and travel through the transition.

I call this portrait series “A Study In Contrast: Contraction vs Expansion” - haha!

One day post-dog park as I was working from home, I found Moon curled up contently in his tight little donut shape. A short while later, I found him stretched out long. Snapping pictures of both states of being, I marveled at the contrast: of how he could make himself so small and in the next moment embrace his length and size. (I’m sure he was not concerned with this philosophical reflection, but instead was concentrating on the squirrel he was chasing in his sleep!)

Before we expand, we often have a moment of contraction.

To prepare for the jumping off point. Before we spread our wings, unfurl our leaves, burst forth our blossoms. It might get uncomfortable before it feels better! You might feel resistance and tightness and tension and self-doubt or fear or a plethora of other difficult emotions. But on the other side of that is the relief, the respite, the clarity, the growth, the freedom, the thrill, the joy.

What ways can you care for yourself during this time of transition? How can you tend to your body, mind, and heart during this period of death and rebirth? As you can see above, Moonie here likes to take lots of naps, play, and eat lots of treats!

If you’re in the Twin Cities, I’ll be holding breathwork THIS Friday (3/22) to help support us through the endings and beginnings of spring (helenburon.com/events), which is MY favorite way to deal with change.

Breathwork also works long distance, so book yourself a session from the comfort of your own home (no special tech needed!) if you feel like you need to exhale the old and inhale the new.

Sending you lots of love and hope and strength and space for your Spring Equinox Full Moon Feels. xo!

Message From My Plants

I was about to toss these plants out.

The top one didn’t have any growth for some time now and I actually questioned myself as to why I was even still watering it. I was just lazy about putting them in the compost I guess and maybe still feeling just a still attached to hope.

And then this week, as I was walking past the end table these have lived on, I stopped in my tracks as I saw out of the corner of my eye the perfect little shamrocky leaves of the bottom pot sitting there gleefully. Oh hello! You ARE alive! AND THEN!! The next day, I saw the little shoot coming up from the top pot which I was SURE was a goner! I exclaimed to my man with disbelief and pure joy!

And I was reminded that life and growth are happening underneath the surface.

That we go through periods of time that feel stagnant or still or like we are hibernating or in the fertile void of nothingness.

That sometimes we can’t see the seeds that are beginning to burst forth or where our next steps are taking us, but the seeds are there and we can continue to tend to them. We can continue to take the next best step knowing that the path will unfold or we’ll look back eventually and see just how far we’ve come.

And just like these little plant babies, we can grow and bloom. We can wilt. Parts of ourselves can die, be released, recycled, dry up. We can rest and wait and percolate. And we can begin again, start fresh, grow, and push through the darkness towards the sun.

So that is my plant medicine musings for you.

Spring is coming. The cycles of life are always turning.

What can you do for yourself right now today to nourish the sweetness of your being?