The November 2023 Self-Guided Root & Flow™ Workshop

The main goal of this workshop is to help us embrace the rhythms of change. Each day we experience change as we are Life in Motion. We are continuously shifting through the days, nights, phases, seasons, and cycles of life. Even as we shift from moment to moment there is change in our thoughts, feelings, and experiences. All of it is writing the story of who we are and how we show up in this world. So many systems and dynamics of our life can make us feel like we have to be showing up in “full flow” ALL THE TIME! Hello Burnout! Such rhythms and expectations can trigger our nervous system to be in constant survival mode and coping strategies. Constantly operating at that level can disconnect us from being able to assess our rhythms and needs to truly nurture the roots and flows of our life. It becomes about getting through instead of creating and nurturing our presence, path, and purpose through the Wild Rooted Journey of life. Our displacement in that process and the strongly rooted attachments to comfort and security can contribute to the burnout. The need for control, going through the motions, or too dependent on coping patterns can keep change from having anywhere to go. It just keeps spinning and keeps us spinning around in a circle, continuing cycles of “JUST” have to do this, get through this. “JUST breathe”. “JUST keep going”. “This is JUST the way it is!” “JUST let it go!” No, no, and no! JUST implies that we can just snap our fingers, inhale, exhale, show up, and all is well. Sometimes, this is said with the intention of encouragement to ground or empower to just focus your energy on being with your breath and figure things out from there moment by moment. Even though it may have good intentions, it is a word I have removed from my vocabulary. Even if we are able to focus our energy on a single moment, one breath, one transaction of energy, there is still so much happening within and all around, below, beyond, and in between the inhale and exhale, root and rise, and engage and release. We may be able to show up, but are we consciously showing up? Can we truly feel our presence in the process. Are we honoring our season of life and able to access what that means and needs?

There are experiences in this life that can truly uproot us, shake us to our core. The survival mode is intense waves of ebb and flow with an overwhelming number of thoughts and feelings to a numbness, a fog that can feel motionless. Such a state of life can come from particular, current experiences or ongoing patterns and dynamics of experiences. However, current big events are not required for us to be in survival mode. Your life at the moment can feel calm, focused, happy, and thriving yet still be in a state of survival. Each and every single one of us have a story of “survival”, because we are surviving life at the moment. So much about how we were taught to be as a person, our perceptions, beliefs, experiences, and environments have shaped our roots, rhythms, and rituals of life. These wrote the coding of our nervous system and are writing the story of how we show up and create pathways for our flow of life. Some of those patterns have caused us to be in a constant state of survival. We can be unaware of this because it becomes our norm and a deeply rooted part of what seems like a natural flow of how to be.

Then, we also have all the collective energy of the diverse and magnitude of experiences, perceptions, and events happening all around us at once. This is a lot to process. We also have the energy in our bloodlines and in the roots and rhythms of the Earth. We are connected to this. Even though it was beyond our time, it is still a part of our story. The story of this Earth and how we as humans, as a group of people, as a person is still being written. It is a part of what was and what will be. This is a lot to process. So as much as we all want to “just breathe”, we know that in the roots and rhythms of things there is so much happening within us and all around us, below, beyond, and in between all the moments of what we can process. So many things have to come together even within our own functional systems to make that inhale and exhale happen. In between that transaction, there are pathways of thoughts, connections of synapses and neurons firing off, and the pulse of life itself dancing through our veins. Being with those rhythms requires us to engage and release the muscles of all that we are. That is a lot to process.

How can we process the amount of energy we are trying to digest, become conscious of, release, and not just survive it all, but truly live it all accordingly to the phases and rhythms of our season of life?

The breath is a good place to start.

Engaging the muscles of how we want to show up right here, right now. Closing our eyes and feeling our pulse. Trying not to think at the moment. Trying to be, immersing ourselves into our presence of the present. Patience. Stay with this for a moment. Eyes closed (after reading this, lol), breathing in rhythm with your pulse. Maybe your pulse is racing from the thoughts or energy flooding your system. Maybe your pulse is slow and steady. Maybe it is from struggle. Maybe it is from peace. Maybe it is from the drift of life unknown, uncharted. Maybe it is excited and motivated. Maybe it is overwhelmed and disconnected from support or inspiration. Whatever is writing the story of your thoughts, breath, and pulse in the moment. Let it be. Feel it. Not by thinking about it and all the pathways and roots and rhythms as to why these thoughts and feelings exist. All of that is in the past. The past too needs to be processed, but in doses, in the ways you can. Right now, this exercise is about acknowledging the thoughts and feelings that exist. Not attaching them to a pathway of reason. They exist, they are a part of who you are right now, they are flowing. Be with that for a moment. Then, focus on your breath, deeply inhaling to your core and root of existence in this moment. As I breathe in through my nose I like to picture soft, revitalizing clouds as my breath moving down the pathways to the base of my belly. I hold my belly for a moment, pausing with the breath, before releasing. As the breath moves back up and out, I picture it as a cloud that opens up as it exits. What comes out of the cloud depends on the moment, the needs or intentions of what I am trying to release and why. Most of the time, it is a cloud that opens up to become a part of the flow of the outside world, simply air dancing around in the trees, moving through the ripples in the water, etc. I get detailed with how I picture it to help me focus my energy, to truly be present in this process. To embrace that it does not have to have deep meaning or revelations, it does not have to fix my problems or provide me with answers, it does not have to be defined or even make sense. It is a practice, a ritual to help me Calm my Sea Within.

Our attachment to things: expectations or needing answers, clarity right away is often our survival mode’s voice. Patience in the process is where we will discover and develop our spirit. From there is how we learn to do our spirit, root and core, energy work of learning how to be in sync with our rhythms of nature and nurturing the needs of our flow of life. This looks different from moment to moment, day to day, and person to person, because we are Life in Motion. Even though many of our roots and rhythms may remain or appear the same, when we really dig deep, seek beyond, and zoom in on all the details in the in between, we will notice or get more of a sense of life in its fullness. The nature of transformation and how stories are written, moment by moment. Of course, there are times where our survival voice and instincts are necessary and engaging those muscles can be critical, but the goal of doing the energy work in all the ways we can when we can is to help the spirit of our humanity exist in those moments. It is to bring the consciousness closer to the surface to make it more accessible to Write our Story in Everything we Do, from the little moments to the big, while holding or creating space for others, the unexpected, the work in progress, and the list goes on.