ponder
meandering and exploring the sticky bits
held is a monthly newsletter centred around yoga + movement, and introspection + feeling. blending embodied practice with therapeutic self-exploration, we dive into different themes, ideas and respond to the world around us.
if you’d like to practice together online ~ the next class is Sunday 24th November ~ a class centred around flowing, ongoing movement, with space to play, rest and explore. for all bodies and all minds.
bring a pal + you come for free ~ read more further down…
what it means to ponder
We are often encouraged when in therapy to sit with something, to explore it through a different lens, different experiences, different chapters of our lives. That isn’t to say that staying with something is always right. As a form of self-protection, quite rightly, we might seek to avoid sitting with a thought or feeling. We need the right container to explore, the right fellow traveller to go on that quest with. It’s not always a solo expedition even when diving into yourself and your own lived experience.
When we dawdled together, we spent time noticing ~ staying open to what comes in and out. We did less to notice more. When we ponder, we allow ourselves to spend time with a particular thought or notion. If we feel safe and held, we stay with it. It might feel sticky, tricky, strange and unknown, but we stay. It’s like going travelling; knowing there will be different parts of the journey, unexpected terrains, changeable weather, and new views and perspectives; and that we will still be able to find our way home again.
“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” Carl Jung
But, like preparing for any adventure, we need to pack supplies. We need to pack a bit of time. And the trick is not seeing it as heaps of time. Think of the time you might have spent daydreaming as a kid. Or for more active thinkers, the time you might have spent exploring, collecting, reading. How do we find that time in our adult life? Maybe it’s on the walk at the beginning of a commute. Maybe it’s the small amount of time you get in the morning or evening, when the house is settled and quieter. A snippet is all you need.
We might pack some writing supplies. For some, simply sitting with thoughts and allowing the deep-dive to happen internally feels good enough. Maybe you grab your phone and write a note to yourself. Maybe a way of getting the thoughts out, is getting them down on paper. Like morning pages, maybe you allow a stream of consciousness to come to life on the page. Perhaps the extraction of the thinking is more meaningful when written on a page. Maybe give the opposite a go ~ what do you normally do and what could you try that is different?
Next, you’ll want to pack yourself some nourishment. Can I offer a cuppa and biscuit? Maybe even an upgrade to a crumpet. Something comforting, that brings about the feeling of safety. Go for that.
Finally, if you are somewhere where you can be still, get comfy. Layers, blankets, candles ~ it doesn’t have to be fussy but it does have to create something that supports you. For it to engender a feeling like a deep breath. I like sitting in bed. I like padding my back with pillows, lighting a candle, and allowing myself to sink in.
So start with something that you’ve been turning over your mind lately. Give yourself a few minutes. Follow it on its path and see what you arrive at in the time you have. And then come back to it, at another time, in another way, and see what surfaces then. And on you go.
pondering in motion
Moving with intention sounds like a stock jargon yoga phrase when I say it out loud but in reality it just means to move your body and to allow your focus to exist in the experience. That you are present and aware of the sensations in your body and their influence on your mind.
We are going to move together, through a seated sequence which you can repeat, remix, spice up in whatever way you choose. It is designed to create space and give you time in each movement to feel around and into your body. The repetition gives your body the chance to lock in the motion, so you have space to explore something on your mind ~ a thought, a feeling a notion.
Let’s begin…
How did that feel for you? What did it allow for you to explore? And what did you do to make it feel more supportive, explorative, spacious for you ~ did you feel able to give yourself permission to follow your own needs + wants?
pondering through our minds
If your mind is anything like mine at the moment, it’s whirling and whizzing and full of thoughts about the outside world. That in itself brings up things within me that I’d benefit from spending some time thinking about, in a way that feels safely held and explorative, without the heaviness doomscrolling brings and catastrophizing feels.
We are going to work together through a guided reflective practice, one that you can spend as little or as much time with as you want or need. It might be a good beginning to a conversation you want to take to therapy, or something you want to chat through afterwards with a friend or someone close. It might feel helpful to have a way of recording what you are thinking or feeling during or afterwards ~ that could be a voicenote to yourself, scribbles on a notepad, your notes app ~ whatever is most helpful and aligns with you.
Let’s begin…
How did it feel to spend your time this way and what did you notice? What were you left with as your reflections and where might you take them?
let’s pour
We furled together in October and in November we will be pouring.
We’ll orientate the practice around a sense of flow, continuous and ongoing, with space to truly spend time with an intention or place of curiosity. Like this idea of pondering, we will be staying with an idea throughout the practice and exploring it together.
The practice will be intentional movement and can dialled up and down, depending on what you need from our time together.
We will meet at 7pm on Sunday 24th November on Zoom for 90 minutes. Get comfy friends; comfy clothes, blankets, cushions.
Open to all with options always to allow you to do your own thing. Sign up here.
bring a pal + you come for free 🫶
This is especially for those mates who don’t fancy a studio. There’s something magic about being at home, in a space that feels safe and held.
Maybe you feel that way in another home ~ at a mate’s, with family ~ either way, head to where feels all of the feels and let’s practice together.
If you get a pal to sign up for our pouring class then you will have a freebie class in the bank. That might be this month or next month ~ you get to come for free.
All you need to do is sign your pal up and drop me a note to let me know it was you.
Easy as that lads!
want to be more held?
From December, paid subscriptions will be turned on. A paid subscription of £5 per month will include (as well as the free newsletter each month):
one newsletter with a movement and introspection practice, sometimes just me, sometimes working with other artists, creatives and movement practitioners to give you something new to dive into.
one live online class that will be recorded and shared for you to enjoy outside of the live setting if you can’t make it. this class will be available for free subscribers to pay for (like furling, there will be a sliding scale £5-10).