Every morning, without fail I do the same thing. Minutes upon waking up, I walk into my bathroom I grab the bottle of Basil Essential Oil and drop two drops into my hands. Then I take my hands and place them on my lower back, right about where my kidneys are. I breathe three deep breaths into my hands and repeat this affirmation: "Today I am Focused and Purposeful". I remove my hands and feel just for a moment that I am awake and alive. I acknowledge the vast importance of that truth. And then I move into my day.
Why Basil? Basil is the Oil of Renewal. It helps to support adrenal health and combat exhaustion and fatigue. It helps to increase personal power and regain control of the direction we choose to walk in this life. Reminding myself of this each morning is powerful. I don't always have control over where the day will head, but I have control over which way I choose to walk. And even when I wake up in my own fatigue and exhaustion, I know that I am alive and so therefore have everything I need to honor myself throughout the day. Why Ritual? I believe so strongly in the power of daily ritual. I aim to actually have small rituals placed throughout my day. Often they involve an essential oil because aromatherapy for me is powerful. Our sense of smell has the power to ignite our brains, calm our hormones and inspire our breath. It may seem like a small moment is insignificant, but I promise you, they matter. And the more consistent we become in these small daily rituals, the more we come to see their power. I have shared this before, but I am sharing once again to remind you, make the small moments of your life sacred. Create rituals that center your attention on where you are in the present. Listen, feel and acknowledge yourself with honesty and unconditional love. It will propel you forward in a way that has you in contact and trust of your own potency. If you would like some assistance in creating a daily ritual, send me a note.
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Even still, there is so much work to be done. So much healing that needs to happen.
How do we move forward and do it? Join myself and Audra Malerba for a class this Saturday called GATHER. We will come together and do some breath work, tapping, meditation and self-inquiry to help see where and how we need to proceed into the next right thing. Sign Up Here: Dear America,
I know that half of us are celebrating and half of us are angry and hurting. In full disclosure, I am in the camp that is celebrating. For the first time in a very long time, I am proud of what our country has chosen. But while it would be very easy to sit in the gloat of what feels like winning, I do not believe that we have won anything. I believe that we chose to want more empathy in our existence and our society. I believe that we stood up against what we saw was the deterioration of it. But I do not believe that we won anything, because nothing is actually over. In fact, so much must now begin. And wanting something to be so is not the same as making something so. That takes time and effort and a lot of hard and perhaps ugly work. And the first thing we must work for: is our healing. All of us. Those of us who are celebrating and those of us who are hurting. Now we must do the hard and unglamorous work of healing what brought us to this moment in the first place. Now we must look ourselves in the eyes and ask what it is that needs to be healed within ourselves? We must ask the question, what did my family of ancestors hand down the line to me, that I still carry with me today and call forth into the world, that is no longer serving the greater good? And while I am positive that the healing required spans all races and cultures, I can only speak fully to my experience as a white woman in America. As a member of a family who hears other family members call people that cross our border “Illegals” and can dehumanize in an instant with their words, unflinchingly. Who can place their vote solely for the health and well-being of the economy while able to completely ignore the health and well-being of other humans, likely ones who look and live differently from them. I’m not singling out my own family, I share honestly because I know that mine is not the only one. I can tell this story to just about any one of my friends and they can tell me a similar story right back. This is no longer the story of a relative you see only at Thanksgiving. This is a story that is weaved into the fabric of our country and the reality is, it isn’t new in the last four years. It has been there for centuries. We are only just waking up to it now. And while it is great that some of us are finally beginning to wake up, we cannot go back to sleep once the celebration dies down. We cannot for one second believe that we are free from anything or anyone who yesterday threatened to keep us in the darkness of our past. It’s all still right here, sitting in our laps, waiting to be healed. What we have won is the chance to actually pick it up, take a look and go to work on it. We have to take it seriously. We have to be ambitious about it. We have to recognize that the same family member who voted differently from you comes from the same line of people as you do. And while you may be the one to wake up first, while they may never wake up in this lifetime, your healing is your family’s healing. It is what you will pass down so that when your ancestors look back, you will be the link that broke the chain. And the reality is, even as “woke” as we may be, as “right” as we may feel, we are not done. Nothing has been won and the work is only beginning. Please let’s remember this. It’s Monday. It's the beginning of a new week at the end of a very long one. It’s a new era that is being birthed from the belly of an era of shadows, much longer than four years of time. There are a lot of possibilities, but we have to keep choosing. Our vote didn’t end anything on that ballot, our vote simply gave us the power to begin again. We have to choose our healing, every single day. From racism, patriarchy, and deep self-loathing. It will be the very thing that centuries from now will have made the difference. It will be what will heal our families. It is the choice that will breed empathy far and wide because we will stop seeing ourselves as separate from the whole. It’s time to make empathy cool again, by way of our own healing. Let’s get to work. In addition to all of my other offerings this week, I want to invite you to a workshop this Saturday called Gather. I am collaborating with my dear friend, Integrative Teacher and Healer, Audra Malerba. We will be leading a discussion on how we now move forward in our healing process and offer techniques on where to begin. 4-6pm MT/6-8pm ET Register HERE. Also this week: Monday 8pm - Meditation Circle Thursday 9:30am - eMOTION30 Friday 12pm - Meditation Circle Sunday 11am - eMOTION Now you can listen to my blog posts as well as read them. Read below or press play to listen to me read it to you. I write this as someone who has incredibly strong convictions and beliefs about what outcome would be best tomorrow, this week, from now on. I do not wish to erase that, nor do I wish to pretend that isn’t the case.
That being said, for the sake of our collective energy. For the sake of our mental and emotional health and well-being, I recognize the immense need for hope right now. Not as some pie-in-the-sky, spiritual bypassing rhetoric. But because our nervous system desperately needs hope in order to move itself out of the high stress and anxiety response that we have all been feeling these last several months. For the sake of our immune systems, we need to find some kind of hope so that it will be able to continue to do its job. For the sake of each other, so that we may find solace and peace in one another again. And for the sake of ourselves, so that we may see the light that we carry each and every day and how it impacts all who come into contact with it. May we not forget the goodness of this life as we sit with bated breath for an outcome that will bring a reaction in either direction. And so I offer the following. Even in the knowing of my own desperate wishing, so that we may be able to manage our emotions this week and be of incredible value not just to ourselves, but to each other. Simply Repeat the following, perhaps closing your eyes and taking a deep breath with each one: No matter what, I will continue to do what is right. No matter what, humanity will find a way. No matter what, healing is happening. No matter what, my light is abundant and valuable. No matter what, it matters what I think of myself over all else. No matter what, I am in charge of my own mindset. No matter what, I am able to choose where I place my time, my attention and my focus. No matter what, I will do good in the service of others. No matter what, I will work to see the good in others. No matter what, I will come to myself first when I feel disconnected. No matter what, I will listen to my fear with great respect. No matter what, I will choose love. No matter what, I will look for the helpers. No matter what, I will ask how I can help. No matter what, I will breathe my breath with the knowledge of what a gift it is. No matter what, I will move my body so as to not get stuck in one specific feeling. No matter what, I will honor the power of my stillness. My listening. No matter what, I will see the beauty around me. No matter what, I will hear the sounds that bring me to the present moment. No matter what, I will taste the sweetness of life. No matter what, I will smell the scents of this one precious earth and all her offerings. No matter what, I will feel what I feel to its fullness. My fullness. No matter what, I will be here now. No matter what, I am ready to serve. No matter what, I am ready to heal. No matter what, I am ready. I am ready. I am ready. I am ready. You are not wrong when you forget to love yourself, to take care of yourself. It’s very likely that you simply haven’t been taught how to nurture the seeds of softness within. None of us have. We have all been feeling it for quite some time; the disconnection from one another because we have become so disconnected from ourselves. But it’s not too late to learn. It’s not too late to connect the value of our own hearts and feeling to what matters. It’s not too late to grow inside ourselves so that we may see how we resonate beyond our own skin. How completely potent we actually are in how we impact those around us. It takes a simple step towards saying yes. Towards the understanding that you will not get it perfect or right, but your willingness to keep showing up, to keep on learning more about the person who resides in your body will move mountains of misunderstanding. We can’t fully see ourselves, hear ourselves, feel ourselves because we haven’t been taught. But it’s time to learn, now. Your ability to look within and to connect to yourself is as powerful as the ocean, the wind, the gravitational pull of the earth. It will not be for nothing because it is not nothing. It is everything. Hear me now when I say this: connecting to yourself is everything. Please do not forsake this power any longer for the lies that have been told to you. Please do not believe for one second longer than you have to that you do not matter. That how you feel in this world and in this life does not matter. Come home to your own feeling touch, your sweet breath, your own heart. It is time now. It is time now. It is time now. This is a big week. Beginning today until next Sunday, I have two free offerings:
1. a free 30 minute eMOTION Class 2. a free guided meditation May both of these serve you this week when the connection feels lost. May we know that when we come home to ourselves, we simultaneously create the chance to come home to each other. And I don't know about you, but I desperately want to come home. |
Sara Packardis a Mama, Wife, Yoga and Meditation Teacher, Coach, Writer and Activist. You can read more about her here. Archives
September 2021
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