Rest. Beneath the Waves.

Dear One, you made it! I celebrate you. Are you waiting to exhale?... I love you for that! So very normal and human...

Now, this is your invitation to rest.

Be as you are, the WHOLE sum of you.

I am grateful you took that first step into this cove, found this place. Beneath the waves is a still and quiet space. You are meant to be here; it is okay to rest. In fact, without your stillness, there would be no movement!

[Check out "Stillness Is the Move" by musical artist Dirty Projectors. Pulling out a mat or a cushion and pillows, or relaxing on the grass and enjoying a song (headphones optional) can be a respite for Highly Sensitive People like we are. Maybe that is YOUR place of vital rest from which you can re-emerge, inspired, ready to get back to "humaning". ]

My name is Phoenix Naga Wren, and like yourself, I am a spiritual being having a human experience. With all my heart, I am looking forward to sharing with you, dear one. I intend that my work and writing calls in readers like YOU... We are the sensitive ones, the empaths, the ones who sometimes feel that we are on fire when there is a forest fire. We are told sometimes that we are "too much" and at the time may feel that we are "not enough." I have stories to share, intimately, with rawness and naked vulnerability. Come along with me.

"Don't tell me this town ain't got no heart...Just gotta poke around" ~Shakedown Street, The Grateful Dead

This is my mission: to bring out the peaceful warrior in the highly sensitive person. I have stories to share that normalize the shadow-side of human experience, so that we can make peace with living as our WHOLE selves, and we can let go of striving to live as our "best" selves. Do you know what I mean?

Do you have gifts to offer the world but often feel overwhelmed and frozen? I feel you.

Swept off your feet so often that it is tempting to give up? Been there.

Let's just normalize this right now; let us normalize the impulse to "give up" and call it a need for "rest". Waves have beginnings and endings -- Call it learning to surf. Call it starting where you are. Now. Go on a little journey with me... Play with me, "what if"...

What if you are an entire Universe being born and also dying every moment?! What if your inhale is on some level a birth, as we take a breath in at our emergence from the womb. Every exhale is a completion, like the last breath in an incarnation. What if breathing weaves the fabric of your very existence, the golden thread that weaves the tapestry of your colorful life. What if you can be a miner for the gold of your life with the sluice box of "stop, rest and breathe"! Some call this meditation practice, but my dear, you can call it anything you want to.

Meditation practice comes in many forms and there is no type of meditation that is better than any other. I am here as a mirror, to tell you that the method for which YOU find your place of stillness under the waves is up to YOU, and is encoded in you from the moment you are born. It has been said by Alice Walker, Byron Katie and many more wise souls (because it's so darn good):"We are the ones we have been waiting for".

Personally, after over two decades of doing my struggle dance--teaching yoga and learning about many practices of meditation, I have found that moving meditation is most in tune with my innate frequency, and at this juncture, seated meditation, as taught by the Buddha, is more of a valuable secondary practice to mindful dance and moving meditative activities.

The Experiment, The Temple of Myself

I enjoy many types of movement in daily life. I call this way of living moment to moment with self-empowered choices: The ExperimenTemple of Myself. I view moving meditation as any practice that allows for relaxing into movement of my physical body while paying close attention to what my body (or my "meat suit" as Ram Dass calls it) is doing. These practices can help us "over-thinkers" to experience ourselves as a still place beneath the waves.

Whatever you choose, be it a practice of mindful movement or mindful stillness (or a combination) you just may develop more respect and gratitude for the simple act of taking a breath, as I have. You can cultivate self-love daily by giving yourself the gift of paying attention! Paying attention to the breath, the heartbeat, and all that sustains and supports you. You get to choose to focus on that which supports you rather than what takes you into the maelstrom of discombobulating thought! You truly have that choice and can strengthen that habit like you pump up a muscle at the gym. I promise.

Yes?

If you are ready to rest, recharge, and always move from your flow (and let that old story go), check out my list at the end of this article for some ideas of MINDFUL MOVING MEDITATIVE PRACTICES to try!

Now, dear one, I invite you to take a sacred pause.

Your first "NOW, Mini Challenge":

• Inhale (Watch the short, shallow breath...or perhaps a long, deep inhale. That is perfect.)
• Notice a little pause. ahhhh. Yes.
• Exhale (Feel your body release the breath. No right or wrong way to do this.)
• Bingo! There's a tiny pause. You are free! You can begin again now with your next inhale.

You are worth it, because you are here. You are successful because you have living cells and life-force moving. Even as you sit completely still, you are rich with the gold of breath.

When I take a sacred pause, I feel like a deep-diving ocean being! Do you? Are you a mermaid, a merperson? Octopus? [You might pause to relax and take in the documentary film "My Octopus Teacher" on Netflix. I've heard it described as life-changing!]

With a pause, a rest, and a mindful breath, you have found a treasure chest of gold at the bottom of the sea, beneath the waves of activity and headiness. The fascinating movement of your rib cage is a cave of wonders. Remember, your spark is needed in this world and I know life is challenging in more than a "mini-challenge" way... It is okay to take rest. Some days if all you do is breathe, you are enough. Your presence is essential.

One breath is a lifetime in the span of a few moments. A RESTART BUTTON.

The words of the song by Trevor Hall "The Old Story" come to me: "Oh no no no, you just gotta let that old story go..."

Every moment we have a choice to live from all the heady stories of the past or to begin again, right NOW. Being human is not easy, but because of our humanness we have potential to help uplift our entire world just by coming home to ourselves. A choice to to be the change you want to see is a gift to humanity! You can quote me on this; "It is enough to abide, to be peace, to be the pause between breaths where every possibility arises from." But don't quote me. I'll let Buddha and The Dude take credit there!!

I personally thank you, dear reader, from the bottom of my heart, and the treasure-strewn floor of my own sacred pause.

x0 Phoenix Naga Wren

MINDFUL MOVING MEDITATIVE PRACTICES:

Dance:

• 5Rhythms
• JourneyDance
• Shake your Soul
• Ecstatic Dance
• CoCrea Partner Dance
• Dance your Yoga
• ...and I am always looking for more! *

Moving meditation:

• Qigong
• Energy Medicine by Donna Eden
• Energy Medicine Yoga with Lauren Walker
• Tai Chi
• Yoga asana - the physical practice of yoga poses
• Walking meditation
• slacklining
• Gardening
• Bowling (a Big Lebowski fan, I am)
• ...Please let me know if you find something else that works for you!*

I want to take the pulse of my community, find out what you are seeking fresh insight on... Beings of integrity- please follow me/*DM me on IG Phoenix_Naga_Wren!