All The Things We Did Not Learn
I was recently laying on my hammock, at 2pm on a Thursday. I had already had a full day of work, leading a mind-body skills group for 7th graders, recording a podcast episode, cleaning up my emails. And by 2pm, my body was asking to relax for a minute before I went to get the kids for the 2nd part of my day.
I just was going to gaze at the sky for a bit, let my mind wander, and just BE. The sacred art of doing nothing.
As some of you may already know from your life, this is NOT always easy.
When you go to sit to “ do nothing” you may notice your mind wanders away, quickly!
Bouncing from thought to thought. AND you may notice emotions bubble to the surface that are not so awesome.
And then a wave of discomfort or grief or fear of the unknown…Is this just me?
On this random Thursday, like so many times before, I just kept watching the mind. I kept following the breath.
And then I had a flashback to an earlier time in my life, when I moved and did and worked so hard, all the time. ALL THE TIME.
Striving and proving and doing, doing, doing, oh man, I was addicted to that sense of busy -worthy-ness.
And now, here I am laying here “ doing nothing.”
And this is when my real practice begins to open up, bc I can feel this wave of “ not enough” wash over me.
Not working hard enough, not helping enough people, not making enough money, blah- blah-blah.
And I watch her have a little tantrum. I soften my inner gaze and I brought her really close.
And then, I skillfully ask her, “ IS THAT TRUE?” And my fierce little ambitious over achiever thinks for a moment.. “ NOPE. not true.”
“ Sweetie,” I said to her, “I love you so much. We are okay. We are more than okay. Look at the life that we designed. We created this. This is joy. RELAX and feel it. It’s okay to feel joy. It’s okay to rest. It’s okay to not push so hard. It’s okay to be.” And I could feel my whole body exhale on the hammock and a huge smile came over me. THIS IS IT. My actual life in the present moment.
The divine integration of masculine and feminine energy alive in my body, RIGHT NOW. Flowing between productivity and relaxation, doing and being, expanding and contracting, honoring BOTH modes of operating in each day- as a devotional practice to my health, in service of my family and community, and a way to honor what it means to be human.
The life I have spent so many years building, here it is. RIGHT HERE. No where to go, nothing to do but just FEEL IT. NOTICE IT. LOVE IT. I don’t have to run away from it or be scared of feeling joy. I can be awake to this precious moment of nothingness. And so I did.
You can see a visual of this in the PDF below.
I think a lot about what children do and do not learn in school.
I think a lot about what humans are taught and not taught at home.
Obviously, there are a VARIETY of reasons for this some include: over working, being too stressed out, not enough information, not being able to sit with discomfort, lack of energy, motivation, drinking, food, other addictions…
and I often ponder what WOULD our world look like if people DID self- inquiry and lived life from a place of deep strength, courage and purpose? Would things change? What if learning the 4 Agreements, Enneagram, Ayurveda and The WORK was mandatory for all humans? How would our relationships change? Our priorities?
Even now, the contrast of the busy version of me and the hammock version of me, oh man- it’s like night and day. I wonder what your life could be like with some of these tools?
What I love about teaching people these ways of thinking and being is that sometimes the external life DOES NOT CHANGE AT ALL.
It’s the internal perspective that shifts and makes all the difference in how the person lives, loves and feels their life.
YOU can learn these tools. YOU can have access to this way of living. This is not just for the chosen ones, or a select few. It’s for all of us.
Here are a few things we use in all our LOLA work:
WHAT MODALITIES DOES Pleasance use in LOLA?
I use the traditions of Ayurveda/Yoga/ Eastern Philosophy, Law of Attraction and Human Possibility/ Potential right along with Mind- Body Medicine research and skills and of course, Positive Psychology. I use a variety of tools and techniques based on what is presenting in the client/group- since I don’t believe in one size fits- all.
Here are a variety of areas that we cover depending on your goals/ desires/blocks.
1. Healing: energy work, emotional release, rewiring harmful/unhealthy beliefs and patterns.
2. Coaching: mindset, values and alignment work, inspired action plans, accountability.
3. Practice: emotional intelligence, intuition, courageous communication and conflict resolution, boundaries and balance.
4. Creativity & Spirituality : devotional practices, embodiment work, conscious creation and service.
