Home is where my body is. Where is home for you?

I’m currently roadtripping, camping amongst the rainforests and coastline 🌊 between Sydney and Melbourne, packing up and repitching our tent every 3-4 nights.

It got me thinking about where and what home is. 

For me, home is a feeling. 

Do you know that feeling of being in a plane 🛬 at the end of a long journey away, as it slowly descends and comes to land on the tarmac of your home city?

Or perhaps that moment when you’re on holiday 🏖️ and you finally feel yourself fully let go… your shoulders drop, you stop thinking about work and you truly relax.

Or when you get home after a busy day 😌, change into your comfy clothes and can take your bra off? 🙌😉

That’s what connecting with myself feels like. My body is my home.

Here’s a process you might like to use to find home in your body. Lying on your back, on a blanket on the floor or ground…

Take a few moments to get comfortable, making any little adjustments necessary, repositioning a bit like parking a car.

Then tune in, scanning your whole self to see what’s there. Like a slow motion photocopier, take a snapshot of the way your body is making  contact with the surface beneath you. 

Notice where your attention is naturally going to in your body - perhaps spots of tension, and let your attention radiate out from that spot to the rest of you, softening that tension in the process.

Listen to your body and breath with curiosity and without judgement, like closing your eyes and quietly listening for sounds of birds, the wind and anything else that’s there whilst out in nature.

Allow your thoughts and breath to slow down, like a light feather gently drifting down and coming to land on the earth.

Let me know in the comments how you go and what the experience is like 💙

The other day I finally remember

Why have I been drawn to this work

Of emotional awareness and mindfulness

The question I have always wanted to answer to is:

How do we invoke people’s compassion?

How do we stop bad things from happening?

How do we remind them that there is a side inside of them that is compassion, loving and emphatic?

Because I know there is kindness in each of us

We are all born kind, loving and caring.

Look at babies and young children.

It’s only when pain, suffering (and maybe mortgages) come into our life, 

We get too busy to feel or find joy again,

We feel numb

And we become cruel.

My work, a lot of times, is to help people reconnect with their emotions

To bring awareness to what they have been avoiding to feel to the point of numbness

To bring light to the darker side

To be a guide to their inner landscape

Because

When you finally face the emotions that you have been avoiding to feel

you also can feel joy

And when you are connected to your emotions,

You begin to generate compassion to yourself

That is how you can begin to empathise with others

And for an animal lover like me

That means a more conscious world

With more kindness towards each other, animals and all beings

More conscious and sustainable way of living 

Less suffering, less loneliness, less cruelty

That is my hidden agenda

*****

I feel that it's kind of cheesy, will shorten it before I post on Instagram. But it's been a long time since I wrote a post so any start is a good start.

@Devora Gila Berkowitz

This week's newsletter: 

I have a calendar suggestion for you. This is especially relevant if you're new to clinical practice.

Here's the tip: Have regular clinic hours.

This sounds very obvious. And, a lot of people aren't doing it. 

When you don't have many clients, it's easy to think: "I'll see the clients whenever suits them. Monday at 7 pm? Sure. Tuesday at noon? No problem. Friday at 3 pm? Yep, works for me."

You'll have individual visits scattered randomly across your calendar. This makes it hard to have big blocks of time to attend to other pieces of your life: thinking deeply, going for a long hike, taking a full day off.

Not only is this chaotic scheduling mentally challenging, it also creates a scattered and sporadic energy within your practice.

Instead, designate a handful of half-days as your regular clinic hours. For example: block out Tuesday afternoons/evenings and Thursday mornings for clients.

Once these blocks start getting full, you can add another half day.

If someone can't make it during your scheduled hours, you can always work out an alternate time on a case-by-case basis.

You'll be surprised by how many people can make it during your regular hours, and by how much freedom and mental space this opens up in your week ❤️

Take care, 

Camille 

@Anastasia Salichou

Lately, I've been pondering the idea of presence and what it means to be truly alive, open and awake to the NOW. 
 

My late Ah-Ma (Chinese Grandma) taught me a valuable lesson about living in the moment. She loved traveling and rollercoasters 🎢, so we once visited the Gold Coast for some theme park adventures.

Watching rollercoaster riders, I noticed three distinct types of people: those who reluctantly ride, eyes shut, wishing to be anywhere else; those who brace themselves, clench their teeth and endure the ride; and those who lean into every twist and turn, hands in the air, savouring the experience 🙌.

Not clinging to the safety of the past. 

Not racing to the end.

But being alive and present to what is right in front of you, right now.

As a Capricorn, I'm always working towards something, but I've found that loosening my grip on plans and goals can lead to delightful, serendipitous moments 🌟 In these instances, I truly feel alive and present.

Share a moment when you felt truly present in the comments below, and let's explore what it would mean to experience more of that in our lives 💫.

[You can read and comment on this on my FB page here]

Personal Development is a Life Long Journey

I created this piece of artwork on the weekend, while it’s not “magnificent”, I have finally gotten to the place where I realise that I don’t have to compare my result (my 2nd attempt at something like this) to my teacher’s (umpteen years of experience).

Of course I DID actually compare it, and I was disappointed that mine didn’t look as good as hers - after all I used what she was doing as inspiration, mainly because I hadn’t had the time to get out and get my own plant material to use as a guide, BUT I was able to recognise what I was doing, pull myself back and then look at the components of the artwork and what I could have done differently - and I made notes on the back of the drawing.

This way my pieces of art become a story of my journey.

Each piece can be approached with “an empty cup” (or a blank canvas)/

Each piece is a new opportunity for experimenting, trying something different, using my prompts from previous pieces to work on improving. Not aiming for perfection. Just improvement, something different.

And each piece will be a new learning experience - no doubt some good with some “bad” or opportunities for new learning experiences.

And so it is with life.

Don’t wait until you’ve “got it right”.

You’ve cleared all your limiting beliefs, rewritten your story until you start creating the life you love.

Start here. Right now. With what you have.

And use those tools along the journey. 

Focus on what you want, and I can guarantee you that those blocks and beliefs will surface straight away.

Deal with them.

Keep focusing forward, and taking inspired action.

Rinse and repeat.

Aim for progress, not perfection. 

Enjoy the journey.

As you progress, you will realise that you start recognising when those beliefs pop up again and you can deal with them quicker.

You don’t let them railroad you like you used to. 

Start creating the life that you want today. 

@Michael Williams