Recent reflections: tools for your wellbeing toolkit, surrender, love as a verb, hopeful rest and small acts of nourishment

Recent reflections from Instagram

Hello friends. It’s been a couple of months since I last shared a round up of reflections from Instagram. Instagram is often the home of my in-the-moment reflections and updates around the way I’m experiencing the world and my own journey through it. You can head over to my profile and follow me if you’d like to receive these reflections as they arise. I also share reflections, along with other tools to support you, in my monthly news letter which you can access here.

Recently I’ve been reflecting on the following:

Surrender
The way that rest makes me hopeful
Love as a verb
Small acts of nourishment

Keep scrolling to find out more. I’ve also shared links to some of the wellbeing tools I’ve talked about in the last couple of months.

Surrender

In this post I reflected about the way cycles and patterns repeat: “If you follow any kind of cyclical living framework, you’re bound to notice the way patterns repeat. Seasons disappear, only to return. Our grief and pain moves away, only to emerge in a different form. I often wonder whether this is an endless cycle of repetition or does the repetition end when you finally integrate the lesson? As someone who’s neurodivergent I’m prone to cycles of going at life full throttle before burning out and having to retreat. I hit my burn out cycle at the start of the year but something feels different this time. I am leaning into the need to rest. I am pushing through less. I am surrendering.

As someone who’s neurodivergent I’m prone to cycles of going at life full throttle before burning out and having to retreat. I hit my burn out cycle at the start of the year but something feels different this time. I am leaning into the need to rest. I am pushing through less. I am surrendering. Head here to read more.

Rest

In this post I reflected on my pull to rest and the fact that we, as humans, need space to rest and be soft: “For the last few weeks the pull to rest has been consuming. I feel weary to my bones. I reflected in my recent newsletter that I didn’t really stop over the winter so it shouldn’t be a surprise that I’m having to recoup my energy now. We aren’t designed to keep going and keep going and keep going. We need space to rest and be soft. We need to winter. It’s hard to remember this when we’re expected to be productive and it’s hard to be as productive as we’re expected to be when we’re carrying a heavy load. We find ourselves in the cycle of not doing as much as we ‘should’ be doing, feeling shame about that, trying to push through our exhaustion and hitting burn out. Recovering from burn out is almost impossible under late stage capitalism. That’s why I love @thenapministry and especially their Rest Deck, which is where I borrowed this quote from. Today I am reminding myself that rest makes me hopeful, open and tender. Actively choosing rest is an act of compassion towards myself. Today I invite you to consider your relationship with rest”

Tools for your wellbeing toolkit

I’ve shared a few new tools for your wellbeing toolkit in the last couple of months. They include somatic listening, working with your autistic special interests and Gyan Mudra. I share tools like this and other approaches with my counselling and therapy clients. I’m available for counselling and therapy online and in person in Birmingham. Check out my counselling and therapy page to find out about working with me.

Small acts of nourishment

In this post I started the process of exploring 30 days of nourishment. “What will you do to nourish yourself today? We often think of self care as an endeavour that requires huge blocks of time when, in actual fact, caring for yourself should be a core value. Yesterday after a full day of seeing counselling clients I got on my yoga mat for a short session. And by short I mean short. While I was gently shifting energy and stretching out some of the tension I’d accumulated over the course of the day, I starting thinking about small acts of self nourishment. I prefer the idea of self nourishment over self care because ‘care’ feels like a basic need whereas nourishment feels like something more expansive. The idea of nourishment also encompasses so many possibilities. Eating a nutritious meal is nourishing. Laughing with a friend is nourishing. Singing in the shower is nourishing. Basking in the spring sunshine is nourishing. Head here to read more and to join in.

Love as a verb

In this post I shared the words of this Massive Attack song and reflections on love as a verb: “I’m sharing these words by Massive Attack today from their beautiful song Teardrops.

The idea of love as a verb is something I reflected on at the start of the year as I explored the yoga principle of Ahimsa in @susannabarkataki’s Yoga Class Curator programme. Ahimsa can be understood as ’non-harm or non-violence’ but also as ‘love in action’.

“Love, love, is a verb, love is a doing word”

In the journey of self-discovery and growth, love is not a passive emotion but an active force that can guide our actions and choices.

I’m sharing this on Valentines Day; a day that’s all about celebrating our love for other people but love in action starts with loving ourselves. The action of non-harm means actively not harming ourselves.

That’s all for now. I hope you found the posts that I’ve shared today useful, nourishing and supportive. You can head to the blog for deeper reflections, tools and resources to support you on your journey. You’ll also find details of my in person events here.