Hello friends, 

I write to you from Colorado, where I am with my parents, at the end of my first week of summer vacation. I have one more week to go. 

I'm so grateful for these longer breaks, and for the deeply essential practices of love and mindfulness that support me to actually enjoy the time off. For me, I find it so important to take time off and practice enjoying doing less. 

 

This is one of my favorite quotes I come back to from time to time, especially in times when life is more spacious and I am really conscious again of my thoughts, how I'm relating to my body, the people in my life, etc. 

 “Let what comes come.
Let what goes go.
Find out what remains.”

― Ramana Maharshi

 

This week so much has come and gone. Moments of love and connection.

Moments of familiar constricted old patterns alongside new levels of compassion and patience. 

Kid breakdowns, the beauty of nature, fear around losing one of these people I love so much, curiosity and thoughts about next phases of life, dreaming, and emotions from joy, elation, wonder, peace, sadness and worry (4th of July in the USA), grief and then returning to the present. 

 

When I inquire to find out what remains among all the unfolding and moments of this past week, I get.. 

 

Love. For myself, my sensitivities, my gifts, my challenges. 

Skillful presence. The care and curiosity I have with myself and others. 

My now very familiar practice I have of contacting my emotions, whatever is arising, and meeting them with curiosity, compassion and care. 

 

This doesn't mean I don't struggle. 

It means I've gotten sooo much better at meeting struggle with love. Like 10x better or feels like maybe more. And not through reading books or making myself be 10x better. 

 

I don't say this to brag. I say it because I really didn't know life could as filled with love and peace as it is filled with suffering.

Because no doubt there is tons of suffering, everywhere. And, as the Buddha famously realized, life is filled with suffering, and pain is optional. How much more pain we create from the suffering versus compassion, space, love and care can literally change an entire moment, and an entire life.

  

I credit these main pillars in my life for supporting so much of my growth.

  • The Hakomi mindfulness somatic therapy training I have been in the last 4 years. The way this practice has helped me to learn how to relate with my emotions and my body, in the presence of a caring practitioner, and another human. It's a form of therapy, and therapy is quite in intimate and vulnerable and powerful practice.

  • Being a client and student of Hakomi work has deepened my connection to my body and it's intelligence, my emotions, and overall my felt sense of what it is to be human.

  • My mindfulness practices. I meditate most days in the mornings, some days listening to my teachers recordings, some days in silence. These practices are a steady anchor for me to come home to myself.

  • My friendships, especially, have become so much more rich. I am more here, present, in my body, in my heart, knowing I am an amazing and flawed authentic human.

 

Between my teachers, my partner, and my friendships I feel I have deep, deep well on non-judgemental, truly loving and wise people and practices to lean into. 

The somatic work and practices are incredible. But what this therapy has allowed for is the real gold: The friendships, the friendships are truly a deep well of love that remains.

I know in my bones that Hakomi therapeutic work has helped me authentically relate so much more with myself, and truly has allowed my relationships to open and deepen in ways I didn't before know was possible. 

 

It is my deep prayer that through these times of great undulation, uncertainty, and remembering what is means to be a sentient (feeling) human being, that we can engage with this life with more ease, more connection and more love. 

 

Sending you love, patience, and lots of care.

 

Julie