Love's "Fierce Celebration"

September 29, 2021 Susan McCulley

What does it mean to love someone? To love yourself? To love your body?

I can say I love someone but if the impact of my beliefs, words and actions hurts them and they don’t feel my love, do I really love them?

This question was beautifully broached in the Let Her Rest episode of Glennon Doyle’s We Can Do Hard Things podcast recently. The conversation was around addicts who say they love their family while hurting them, and evangelical Christians who believe that homosexuality and queerness is a hell-worthy sin while also professing their love for gay and queer family and friends.

While these are extreme and dramatic love dynamics, we can explore love in all kinds of relationships.

Non-Linear Healing

September 24, 2021 Susan McCulley

At the ocean last week, I spent a lot of time looking at sea shells. Shells have always struck me as extraordinary treasures to be discovered among the rocks and sand. In all their strength, protectiveness and beauty, there is not a straight line among them.

Same for trees and flowers and everything that grows: no straight lines.

And yet somehow, when I look at my own growth and healing, I think it’s going to go on a straight trajectory. I somehow think that this will heal and then that will heal and then *bingo-bango* I’ll be all healed just like new.

Rest

September 18, 2021 Susan McCulley

Rest.

Just take that in.

Rest.

When is the last time you rested?

Rest is different than sleep. Rest is stopping. Pausing. Feeling. With awareness, not sleep.

If you haven’t rested in a while, you’re not alone. Rest, in our culture is equated with failure and death. So no wonder we avoid it.

A couple of years ago I wandered into a Restorative Yoga class. That experience opened my eyes, my body and my heart to our human need to rest. While Restorative is one of my favorite ways to rest, I also love to swing in a hammock, be near water, listen to music or sit in the sun (not for too long).

A favorite book about the power of rest is The Way of the Hammock by Marga Odahowski

One of the Essential Nutrients of Movement is REST. The invitation this week is to consider how you do (or do not) rest and how you might incorporate even a few minutes of rest into your day. Make a list of the ways you enjoy resting or imagine you might enjoy and specifically when you could do them.

If it feels awkward or even uncomfortable to rest, think of it like finding ways to get more vegetables into your diet. Like sneaking some greens into your smoothie or carrots into your pasta sauce, see how you might sneak some rest time in a way that feels RESTorative.

Here is a simple practice to give yourself the Essential Nutrient of Rest using one thick bath towel for support

Lie on your back on a soft and firm surface like a carpeted floor, a yoga mat or blanket, or a firm sofa.
Fold the towel into a square and put it under your head so your neck is long and your chin is just slightly tucked.
Breathe deeply. Notice your body. Relax whatever you can. Stay here a minute or two or longer if it feels good.
Fold the towel so it is a little thicker and put it right under your heart and rib cage so your chest opens and there is no strain in your neck.
Breathe deeply. Notice your body. Feel the support under your heart and let it soften as much as you can. Stay here a minute or two or longer if it feels good.
Move the folded towel under your sacrum at the base of your spine. Avoid your low back and instead let the big flat bones of your sacrum relax into the support of the towel.
Breathe deeply. Notice your body. Unclench anything that you notice is gripping. Stay here a minute or two or longer if it feels good.
Move the folded towel to under your knees. Let your feet relax out to the sides and the backs of your knees give in to the support of the towel.
Breathe deeply. Notice your body. Relax whatever you can. Stay here as long as you like.
When you are ready to end the practice, roll to one side slowly. Pause there for a moment, then gently push up into sitting. Pause there for a moment and then gently transition into whatever is next.

This week, the mindful movement practice I’ve posted on Insight Timer is the first in a restorative rest series: Full On Goddess/Goddex/God. It’s a Restorative Rest practice that offers some stretch and movement and then one of my favorite supported poses using pillows and towels. You can find the practice here. I hope it inspires you to take more time to rest.

Explore All The Floors

September 8, 2021 Susan McCulley

Illustration by Hilary Knight from Eloise by Kay Thompson (c) 1955

My favorite picture book of all time is Eloise, the sweetly quirky, playful and poignant story of a six-year-old girl who lives at the top floor of the Plaza Hotel with her Nanny.

When I was young, I spent hours gazing at Hilary Knight’s detailed and imaginative illustrations of Eloise traipsing around the Plaza like she owned it. I delighted in the naughty, messy, all-over-the-place Eloise and her antics with her dog, Weenie and her turtle, Skipperdee.

My favorite page of the book was a big fold-out section that showed Eloise completely messing with the elevator operator as she would hit the UP button and then run up the stairs ride the elevator up and then run down the stairs, hit the DOWN button and then run up the stairs again. That Eloise, she loved to explore all the floors.

If she had been a girl like me, who followed directions and stayed in the lobby and her room like she was supposed to, it would have been a much different … and frankly, boring story.

One of the Essential Nutrients of Movement is Explore All The Floors, and it is inspired by Eloise.

Our bodies love to move down near the Earth,

in the middle in the heart plane

and up high, as far as we can reach.

Explore All The Floors is a practice that is both physical and highly practical no matter what you do with your body. Moving low, middle and high can increase your strength, your cardiovascular fitness, and your youthfulness simply by moving your body up and down in relationship to the floor.

Side Body Spinnaker

September 1, 2021 Susan McCulley

Think of your side body like a big, beautiful spinnaker sail on a sailboat. It’s often squished up and unnoticed but when we let movement and breath in, it expands with grace, beauty and power.

A beloved yoga teacher called the side body the most over-worked, under-paid part of the body. And it’s true. We are using the sides all the time to reach, twist, move and breathe but rarely pay much attention to them.

And most of us, even those who move mindfully with regularity, don’t notice how much tension and contraction we carry in our sides. Focusing on side body movement opens and release the torso and core, and allows for deeper, more nourishing breath. I feel a relief and release like I put down a heavy bag. What I notice when I move the side body is that I feel great.

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Here is a simple practice to give yourself the Essential Nutrient of Rest using one thick bath towel for support