the first week of March is now behind us.
today i am reminded of how wonderFULL life is in the midst of all of its chaos and struggle. my youngest boy turned 8 years old today and has spent the majority of the day assembling robots. soon i'll be standing on top of a mountain with over 100 people watching two people declare their love for one another and sealing it with a kiss. and let's not forget that today began easily with a giant stretch and the sun creeping in my window. and i say all of this in the midst of things not feeling good or even okay. i'm thankFULL for joy being contagious... even if it takes time. this past sunday MTL began the monthly gathering for high school students and i am still smiling because of their positive energy and insight. one thing they shared got me all excited and i wanted to share it with you for possible experimentation during the rest of March. we all talked about the positive and negative impacts of technology on our lives. while we marveled at the gifts and conveniences technology offers us, we also felt the sting of how it can deplete us of our time and energy. we realized that none of us... truly none of us in the room that evening... turn off our phones. they are always on except for the occasional turn off/turn on to fix a glitch. and so we asked the following: what if that "always on" mentality is telling our bodies something? what if a phone being left on and sitting next to our beds at night is communicating in some way to our bodies? here's my proposal... power down. turn off your phone at night. see if that doesn't help you sleep and rest. and if you can't make that big of a jump yet, then charge your phone at night outside of your bedroom or further away than your bedside table. try it. remember, this is a month to experiment and see if we can talk to our bodies in ways that are helpful. i hope that your day and evening are filled with rest and wonder and JOY... the contagious sort : )
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FAT TUESDAY came and went... now it's March.
I said that March would be a month of ideas and experimentation about "communicating better with our bodies"... bodyTALK. And just so we're clear, what I mean is literally listening and conversing with our bodies. So here are my first two experiments that I will be conducting throughout the month of March. Feel free to try them too... 1. Almost caffeine free. Hahaha! I will only have one caffeinated drink a day AND at different times. I read somewhere that a healthy caffeine addiction is actually good for our bodies. Obviously I am no scientist so I genuinely have no clue if that is indeed true. What I do know is that I personally like caffeine but too much makes me jittery. So I going to listen to my body and drink less, and honestly less is more anyway. That same source I read mentioned how changing up the time we consume caffeine every day will allow it to work better for us. I guess a regular routine with caffeine diminishes its effect on us and can actually teach our body to expect it and depend on it to merely bring us up to status quo. So less caffeine and consumed at various times of day... just not right before bed obviously. 2. A morning stretch with natural light. Last month, I also read that the smartest and best thing we can do for our bodies is to begin our days with a full body stretch, preferably in bed. The stretch tells our body that it is time to wake up. And not immediately looking at a screen or turning on a light will also allow our bodies to wake up naturally. I'm planning on a 5-10 minute ritual of easing into my days with stretching and no electricity. So there you have it... the first two additions to my days. I hope you'll join me and see what happens when we try to communicate better with our bodies. |
These posts offer further reflection on topics we tackle during MTL nights.
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