Tuning In 9.6.2021

Each week I post an update called Tuning In on what I'm up to and ideas for grounding, connection, and discovering vitality in your life. Most of the links on this post are informational only, but a few are affiliate links that help me keep up my website. 

Events:
Facilitating: Center for Chronic Illness - Web-Based Rare Chronic Illness Support Group September 7th, 2021 at 4pm PST
Attending: The Clinician's Suicide Prevention Summit September 9th & 10th, 2021
September 6th, 2021 - Labor Day 
September is National Suicide Awareness Month and National Self-Care Awareness Month 

Ideas for Grounding: Grounding is about slowing down and settling your body. It is about connecting to yourself and to the earth. Something that helps me ground is watching videos of orca whales surfacing and diving in the water. They move with a slow rhythm and watching them can help our bodies connect to that rhythm ourselves. Give it a try with these amazing orcas in British Columbia. ​

​Ideas for Connection: During this pandemic we have lost our casual daily encounters with our baristas, grocery workers, and neighbors. We used to allow our dog to meet other dogs in the neighborhood and it helped us interact more with our neighbors, now we cross the street to keep everyone safe. Little did we know how important those encounters were until we didn't have them anymore. If it is safe for you, try to find ways to have more casual connections in your day. 

Ideas for Creating Vitality: I recently stumbled upon this quote from Thich Nhat Hahn, "Even the air we breathe can be a source of joy." I have always thought of the breath as a source of grounding and down-regulation, but reading this helped me understand it can also be a source of up-regulation and vitality. If you are feeling low energy or low mood, try stepping outside and taking a few breaths of fresh air and notice if it creates any vitality in your nervous system. 

Why grounding, connection, and vitality? Because these are the ways we regulate the nervous system. Spending intentional time in a regulated state allows our nervous system to wire in the direction of safety and aliveness. In other words, it's a big piece of the puzzle of how we repair the survival response of trauma.

Constellation Park in West Seattle

​What I'm Reading Related for Therapy: What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD & Oprah Winfrey

"Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain development and trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry discuss the impact of trauma and adversity and how healing must begin with a shift to asking 'What happened to you?' rather than 'What's wrong with you?'" 

What I'm Reading for Fun: The Last Season by Eric Blehm 

"Randy Morgenson was legendary for finding people missing in the High Sierra. Then one day he went missing himself." 

(I'm a proud member of the sloth reading club, so what I'm reading will not change weekly.) 

Podcast Episode with Impact: (Trigger Warning: Suicide) TedX Shorts "How I advocate for missing and murdered Indigenous women" ​

Song on Repeat: "Feeling Good" by Nina Simone 

TV Show or Movie I'm Watching: The Other Two on HBO Max
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Projects I'm Working On: Self-development book on trauma and worthiness, book of poetry, ongoing content for various publications. Considering next steps in career training—psychedelic assisted therapy, biblio/poetry therapy training, or yoga teacher training. ​

Constellation Park in West Seattle

Poetry: 

The Cure
by Albert Huffstickler 

We think we get over things. 
We don’t get over things. 
Or say, we get over the measles
but not a broken heart. 
We need to make that distinction. 
The things that become part of our experience
never become less a part of our experience. 
How can I say it? 
The way to "get over: a life is to die. 
Short of that, you move with it, 
let the pain be pain, 
not in the hope that it will vanish
but in the faith that it will fit in,
find its place in the shape of things
and be then not any less pain but true to form.
Because anything natural has an inherent shape
and will flow towards it. 
And a life is as natural as a leaf. 
That’s what we’re looking for:
not the end of a thing but the shape of it. 
Wisdom is seeing the shape of your life
without obliterating (getting over) a single 
instant of it. 

​Meme of the Week: ​

Quote that is Inspiring Me: "Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." - Lao Tzu 
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I'd love to hear how you are grounding, connecting, and creating vitality. What is helping you feel calm and alive? Or comment below on what books, podcasts, songs, shows, poetry, or quotes are resonating with you right now.  ​