Hello,
Wishing you a light filled solstice as the evenings linger in the dappled turquoise skies and the dawn chorus begins so early.
I so enjoyed sharing Mindfulness in the Wild and Well area at Hellens Garden Festival recently. The sun shone and the visitors arrived, and people shared in a mindful practice or two, with the trees whispering around us as the birds called out their songs. Thoughtful and evocative mandalas emerged, created with such care and warm, poignant attention; Nature connecting to the felt natural rhythms deep within us. A lovely weekend for everyone.
Mindful Tip:
When you find your thoughts getting busy, and/or the stress levels rising, let yourself pause, and take notice of where you physically feel the effects of stress.
The crick in your neck, the tight band around your head, the clamping of your jaw, the coil of tension in your chest and belly, the holding of the breath perhaps.
It’s time to be and do what will reduce the accumulated adrenaline and cortisol in your body; stand up, shake your hands and arms, swing them along, shake out your ankles, feel the ground under your feet.
Let the air be felt somewhere on your skin, stretch out your arms sideways and bring them in to give yourself a heart hug on a deep breath in, then on a deep breath out, shake your arms down, and breathe out deeply. Notice how your body feels now.
If standing up feels too hard, let your legs and arm stretches be smaller, let your jaw drop open and your mouth and throat widen, feel your cheek skin lower and your ears wriggle.
Be in the movements whether only slightly or in full. Oxytocin will be liberated, the antidote to adrenaline, and the moments will steady and feel clearer, so you move into the next moments as well as is possible.
You need to be your own best friend and take kind care of you.
If you would like to explore and practice longer meditations, I have longer meditations on my YouTube site, from 10 minutes to 35 minutes.
EVENTS ...
Saturday 13th July
Mindful and Sound Bath Retreat Day.
Join myself and Soesen of Edan Sounds in a feast of delights for the senses as we spend the day in the quaint village of Vowchurch, set in the beautiful countryside of the Golden Valley. With a church, river, fields and footpaths close by, there is Nature in abundance to explore after lunch. With a combination of mindful practices and approaches and a healing sound bath, the day will unfold moment by moment in tender attention.
An EARLY notice of my Weekend Retreat at Hellens Manor, Much Marcle, 15th-17th November, Resting in the Heart Space. As winter draws closer, we will follow the stronger beat and connection with the heart space, a well of nourishment and resource in the season of the coming stillness. Book your place now for this gift of restful, renewing time for yourself.
On-Line Drop In... Monthly Drop-in via Zoom
A regular 1 hour (7:00pm - 8:00pm), sharing mindful time and practices to
balance and ground in a busy life.
Cost: £10 per person per session.
Pre book deal: 4 sessions for £35.
Up coming sessions:
17th July 2024
14th August 2024
Give yourself the gift of a regular practice to steady and re-align with the calmness within you that gets easily overlooked and stretched.
Find the details in the link.
FREE Online Mindful taster session
1st July 2024 at 7.15pm
A poem and beautiful image to be savoured.
Anything that is not love is only a visitor to your body.
You are not anxious, stress is simply flowing through you.
You are not permanently depressed, sadness is simply visiting you.
You are not lost. Confusion is simply wandering through you.
And you are not broken, pain is simply passing through you.
Words by Tahlia Hunter, Inspired by the poem by RUMI, ‘This being human is a guesthouse’.
Artist Artist Laura Gallmever
If you have any comments, thoughts, ideas or questions, please do contact me. Wishing you a Happy Summer Solstice.
With kindest every-things,
Gail
What I Offer...
Get in touch
Mindfulness crept into my life about 12 years ago after I completed a Mindfulness Based Reduction for Stress Course [MBSR], offered by my workplace, a Hospice. The teachings touched a need in me to want to experience life in a calmer and more enjoyable way; to find ways to be present helpfully to the way my life was unfolding rather than engage in battling with the automatic behaviours with repeating conflicting thoughts and emotions, with all the attendant emotional and physical fallouts.
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