Reflections and practices will be offered each day. Journalling the thoughts, images, dreams, emotions, sensations and experiences that arise throughout the entire week can deepen your journey and the process of healing and transformation.

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INVITATION

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Offered by Shelley Ostroff

 

DAY TWO

 

Rest in Loving senses – Reflections and practices - an invitation

 

1. Awakening the senses: Spend time reconnecting with your primary senses - exploring as if for the first time the sense of touch, and taste and smell and sound and sight. You may want to give yourself at least 5 minutes if not much more with each of these senses, imaging that you have just discovered them with the curiosity of a child. Think of an animal and imagine what it would be like to experience the senses from the perspective of this animal.

 

2. Following sensations: Spend time sensing into the inner sensations in your body. Finding a comfortable position lying down or sitting quietly allow yourself to notice the internal sensations, following the energy moving inside you. Just notice and follow with curiosity - no doing, only following what is. Surrender to the experience of sensations, following them with curiosity as you begin to remember the primary language of life.

 

3. Sensing nature: Go for a walk in nature and spend time noticing each of your senses activated in the natural environment. What do you notice as you connect more deeply to each of your senses in nature?

 

4. Loving intuition: On your walk in nature, slow down your walk and become still for a moment. Breathe and notice what you are drawn to… as if your body knows exactly where to go - without thinking about it just follow your intuition until you naturally stop to greet some some part of the environment.  What have you stopped to greet? What is it revealing to you? What is it telling you about itself? Allow yourself to discover that part of nature within yourself. Thank what you have encountered for sharing its wisdom.

 

5. Nourishing intuition Sense into what color fruit or vegetable your body is drawn to. Spend time asking your body what would be most nourishing for it in the moment. Before choosing what to eat - imagine eating the food and what your body will feel like after eating it.  What is the story of the fruit or vegetable? What are its colors and textures, and how does it grow and what can all of these tell you about how it may interact with you and in what ways it may nourish you?

 

6. Mutual nourishment: Spend time nourishing yourself by giving yourself something that will enrich you. When you feel you have received what you need, sense into how you can nourish someone you care about.  

 

7. Smile at a stranger and offer help to someone who you don’t know.

 

8.  Animal lessons: Notice an animal in your environment. Watch its behavior.  What can you learn from it? What does it need in order to thrive? What can you do to support an environment in which it can thrive. Thank it for what it has shown you.

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9.  Tuning in: Slow down inviting yourself to be more in tune with your body wisdom and intuition - sensing into how you would behave differently if you followed these more in your everyday life.

 

May your practice offer the solid and fertile foundations for the rest of the 7 Day of Rest Journey. Thank you for your contribution to this field of healing and replenishment for all!