part 1 — refuge in nature, breathing with mother earth.

As a young kid, I remember being keenly aware that being outside - in the woods by my house, or in our little backyard - it was a place of ease, a place where the world made sense to me. Playing outside, recalling the flowers, the landscape as it changed over the seasons- are some of my favorite childhood memories. A felt sense of connection, beauty, truth, relating with the natural world we are part of. A sense of home.

I also knew from watching adults (who I was very curious about) that it looked easy to lose connection from the wellspring of nature and beauty, from divine grace. I had a sense that life may become more complex, and that there would always be a deep resource here in connecting with nature.

In the last many years, I have I come back to trust and connect with this wisdom of my younger self, and to allow myself each day to take refuge in the breathing, alive belly of the great mother that holds us all. I’ve created, and will support you in creating a beautiful altar in your home with all of the earth elements, so as to have this beauty nearby to take in. So we can resource the refuge, profound beauty and joy that the natural world offers us.

Many of the people I am drawn to, and that are drawn to me, share a similar depth and connection with nature. It’s a really beautiful, fun, and profound common ground. This is a big part of the daily practice.

We resource the elements of nature, through visualization, felt sense, and working with the natural rhythms of the day and our energy.

part 2 — somatic practices to feel the body, work with the mind.

Mindful loving awareness, and resting into the love, goodness, peace and stillness that is already here is a big part of what I connect to in mindfulness practice. Resourcing ourselves is absolutely fundamental to all healing practices.

Somatic practices have also come front and center for me, as a way to come more into contact with the body. The foundational resourcing nourishes the heart, and sometimes the mind too.

Somatic practices work specifically with the body to :

• Help us to work with the body’s tendency towards anxiety, depression, and numbness. We come more into contact with sensations in our body, in a slow, loving and gentle way.

• Get to know what it feels like to be more embodied - to know the vast terrain of the body, physically. Back to front, side to side, top to bottom, organs, blood, tissue, muscles, joint, etc. The more we practice generating awareness of our body, the easier it is to be present in the moment, AND receive messages from our body.

• What are somatic practices? They are really incredibly simple, the magic is in the practice. Hence… the Daily Practice. We must do them everyday to truly develop a relationship with our body.

• Somatic practices include things like different kinds of body scans, feeling the weight of gravity on your whole body, sensing your body in relationship to your environment.

WHY somatic practice? We entertain, and maybe even have had the experience or curiosity that our bodies are intelligent. Our first language, before words, were sensations. Our bodies are communicating with us through sensations all the time, which is our deepest form of intuition.

Also because trauma, of any kind, disconnects us from our body and our environment. We time travel back to previous times and we live in the values or behaviors we learned then. When we can practice really being in our body, and our environment, now, it’s a GAMECHANGER!

Why Meditation? Once we are more landed and here in our body, we will close practice with breathwork and guided meditation to practice residing in stillness, and with loving awareness, watching the mind move, and softening with compassion. Over and over again! It’s powerful stuff.

part 3 — SHARED VALUES

As a student of yoga and healing arts, I have also come to feel a common thread I share with many people, particularly with women, are the values of:

• Taking time each day to remember ourselves as divine, radiant, connected to and honoring our heart, mind, body and soul.

• Being true to ourselves. The only person there is to be true to. Reclaiming our sense of inner connection and power.

• Being clear on what are intentions are with spiritual practice.

• Of cultivating a truly beautiful, loving connection with our body, heart and mind.

• Reparenting ourselves, knowing our boundaries and feeling our edges, so we can stay connected to our center.

From my own experience, and from what I notice, and hear in my teaching and friendships, some of our challenges are —

1. Focusing our attention in one place. The female nervous system is designed to multitask, to hold various ideas, people, and possibilities. We are masterful at this, and for many of us it is a gift we use in all areas of our life. What we often struggle with is simply a sense of focus.

   At the core of the daily practice is honoring our focus and attention.

2. Feeling relaxed, connected and alert in our bodies. Most of us are either in go mode, or rest mode. Both are very useful and necessary times, we need both for healthy balance. This practice helps us to flow in and out of effort and relaxation easily, as well as helping us develop another mode, which is a steady, connected, relaxed alertness.

   In Daily Practice, we move slowly, hold postures, and sit in meditation. We practice cultivating a loving, relaxed, yet alert connection with body, heart and mind.

   We work with the natural cycle of the day, upon waking, to reconnect to ourselves.

3. Wanting to feel MORE. More depth, more connection, more love. Our lives and all we DO are a natural extension of this. However, like all things, there is a balance. The balance of yin energy, of receiving, of being in a mode to receive all of the love and grace that is offered to us each day is the balance.

   I know you’ve experienced this — when you feel nurtured and cared for, things flow. One of our practice themes will be being in receiving mode each day.

part 4 — community

This part maybe should of gone first, but I am choosing to put it here because I think we need to know if what we are endeavoring in will ultimately support US, individually.

However, one of the biggest challenges I feel myself, and feel around me, is our deep longing to support each other, and to feel supported.

I think one of the core tenants of spiritual community and practice is to resource ourselves, together.

The Daily Practice is a space to support us all in various life phases to tune-in, reset, and take really good care of you.

Together, in community.

For thousands of years humans lived together, in community. Not just in cities but next to each other, but in rhythm with the cycles of nature. Morning rituals of breathing, making tea, gathering water, prayer, song. This has long been part of our human journey.

We are all here to live on purpose, with purpose, and truly to help each other.

To presence together.

To focus our attention.

To attune to our bodies.

To live into our inner radiance, grace, peace and power.

And equally, a space to arrive each day even when our hearts may be broken, or our mind pulsing with .. intensity, excitement, or just the same old chatter.

Each day we will practice simple attunement, and practice working with what IS, as well as cultivating our deep inner space.

In this practice you will serve yourself, as this time for you, and you will be connected to a community of women who are on the path of cultivating a level of love and presence that moves the whole world, truly.

I look forward to seeing you for the next round of the Daily Practice in July.

With love,

Julie