Texas Holistic Educators

Day 21: Quest for Connection

CELEBRATING FLOW

Congratulations, you made it to the final day of our quest! Today is a day to celebrate. Celebrate yourself, your commitment, and the natural world around you! Continue your earthing practice today and consider reinforcing this new habit by sustaining it. Sit quietly outdoors and find your sense of awe at the beauty of this natural world we share and at your own place within it. Reflect upon the inner connections you've strengthened these past three weeks and how available they've always been for you.

“Give yourself a gift of five minutes of contemplation in awe of everything you see around you. Go outside and turn your attention to the many miracles around you. This five-minute-a-day regimen of appreciation and gratitude will help you to focus your life in awe.” Wayne Dyer

Journaling/Dreaming Bonus: When is the last time I was captivated by a sense of awe? What role did nature play in that feeling? If you’re feeling truly bold, you might ask the universe to enrapture you with its awe.

Photo credit: "Awe" by Brooke Summers-Perry

Day 20: Quest for Connection

CELEBRATING FLOW

Today, we focus on the element of ether. To conceptualize this element, it can be helpful to think of the void... a localized, yet non-local emptiness. The space of no air, no water, no earth, no fire... the space "in-between" all other elements.

As you sit or stand upon the earth, imagine the cellular structures of all life forms within your sight.. be they stone, plant, animal, or human. Next, imagine the space in between those cells.. then, the space within the cells. Direct your attention within your own form and repeat this process... sense the space between your body's cells.. the space within them.

Allow your attention to flow back and forth to the space within, the space without. Can you imagine dissolving into this void, this space of no-thingness? Allow your imagination to take over and witness the process.

“Presence is a state of inner spaciousness.” Eckart Tolle

Journaling/Dreaming Bonus: In what area(s) of my life would I like to experience a greater sense of ether, or "spaciousness"?

Photo credit: "Transcend" by Brooke Summers-Perry

Day 19: Quest for Connection

CELEBRATING FLOW

Today's practice is to GET DIRTY.. hope you really "dig" it. 😉. Tap into the essence of your inner child and play with the element of earth. Go out to your garden, a random dirt spot in your yard or other nature area and play. With absolutely no intention whatsoever but to play, allow yourself to explore with bare hands and/or feet. Make mudpies, if you want! Just play.

“The opposite of play is not work; it’s depression.” Stuart Brown

Journaling/Dreaming Bonus: What area in my life could benefit from more play and a willingness to be a little "messy"?

Photo credit: "Taking Root" by Brooke Summers-Perry

Day 18: Quest for Connection

CELEBRATING FLOW

Today's practice focuses on the element of air, particularly as it moves through our bodies in the process of breathing. Our inspiration comes from animal friends, and it's meant to inspire curiosity, play, and fun!

Have you ever noticed a cat's breath pattern when she's hissing, or a dog's when he's panting, or a bird's when she's singing? Along with the communication is a specific release style of energy, whether they be emotions or excessive heat.
As you sit or stand barefoot upon the earth, try hissing like a cat, panting like a dog, and whistling like a bird. Notice the inward and outward movement of air as it flows through you. Pay attention to any subtle shifts in your emotional body.

Undomesticated animals generally do not store emotions; they release them.

“If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.” Toni Morrison

Journaling/Dreaming Bonus: How can I work more intentionally with the element of air and the process of breath to allow emotions to flow more easily through me?

Photo credit: "Emotions Emerging" by Brooke Summers-Perry

Day 17: Quest for Connection

CELEBRATING FLOW

Today's practice is focused on the element of fire. You will work with a candle for this practice, unless you are able to safely build a small campfire. Simply watch the flame(s) as it dances, crackles, and flows with heat. As you gaze into the flame, transfer attention to your own body and ponder the ways in which the element of fire flows all throughout it. Through the heart, veins, small intestines, and tongue, fire affects metabolism and our ability to balance rest, work, and play. Exercise your imagination to ponder how this balance of fire feels in your body.

“This is now. Now is all there is. Don’t wait for then, strike the spark light the fire.” Rumi

Journaling/Dreaming Bonus: Do I have an excess of fire in my body? Need greater fire? Allow curiosity to flow into the page as you ponder the balanced flow of fire within your heart, body, and mind.

Photo credit: Brooke Summers-Perry

Day 16: Quest for Connection

CELEBRATING FLOW

As we experience and contemplate the nature of flow, we'll focus on how each of the five elements play within the physical forms of our bodies and Earth's body. It's recommended to continue this week's exercises outdoors coupled with your earthing practice.

Let's begin with water. You may want to have a glass of drinking water available. If possible, sit with a body of water... even a small body, such as a puddle, will do. If none are available, work with the image above. Notice how the water "plays" with the element of earth... where one seems to begin and end at the boundaries of the other... the places in which one is definitively water and the other is definitively earth. As you contemplate this perception of boundaries, bring awareness to the flow of water as it meets the "container of earth".

Transfer attention to your glass of water. Notice these same boundaries of container and water. Take a sip and follow the flow of water from the back of your throat, down your esophagus, into your stomach. Imagine the boundaries that contain the water's flow through your body, eventually through the intestines, blood stream, and tissues. Ponder how this sip of water flows through and eventually back out of your body and into the world around you... the ease with which this natural process occurs.

“Once we open up to the flow of energy within our body, we can also open up to the flow of energy in the universe.” Wilhelm Reich.

Journaling/Dreaming Bonus: Where is flow naturally occurring in my life and how do I experience this ease in my body, heart, and mind?

Photo credit: "Let Go" by Brooke Summers-Perry

Day 15: Quest for Connection

CELEBRATING FLOW

This week, we turn attention to the experience of flow. Flow expands our meaning and purpose in life and the intentionality we bring to it. If it’s coherent with sensory experiences and rhythm, we are unfolding into flow.

Today's practice is to simply be in an outdoor location surrounded by as much nature as possible. Sit or stand barefoot in silence. Set an intention to observe inner and outer flow. As thoughts rise and fall, or move inward and outward, notice their natural flow. Notice bodily sensations without judgment and bring curiosity to the intricate, complex flows of energy through your respiratory, circulatory, and endocrine systems. Allow a sense of awe to arise at the miraculous being that you are.

“Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.” John Muir

Journaling/Dreaming Bonus: In what area(s) of my life would I like to experience a greater sense of flow?

Photo credit: "Flow" by Brooke Summers-Perry

Day 14: Quest for Connection

CELEBRATING RHYTHM

The science of studying the timing of seasonal changes and natural life cycle events is called phenology. As you practice "earthing" today, pay attention to temperature changes, movements of the wind, animal or insect behaviors, etc. and ponder how they change as we move into the season of springtime. How do you feel these changes in your own body?

“Earth laughs in flowers.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Journaling/Dreaming Bonus: What awareness blossoms within me as this new season cycles into being? Where have I recognized growth, and how does this new strength show itself?

Photo credit: "Poppies" by Brooke Summers-Perry

Day 13: Quest for Connection

CELEBRATING RHYTHM

Ultradian rhythm is the cycle of activity and rest we experience multiple times throughout a day. It occurs in our sleep and as we move throughout our day. As we become aware of these patterns, we can learn to work with them rather than against.

As you move through your workday, notice the times when your attention begins to wane. This may happen 45-60 minutes after prolonged focus. Rather than "pushing through", go outside and take a quick earthing break. Notice how this feels as you return to your work. Repeat this process. Pay more attention to how your body / brain feels in order to cue your next earthing break, rather than allowing the clock to inform your break time.

“Don’t push the river. It flows by itself.” Chinese Proverb

Journaling/Dreaming Bonus: Where do I tend to push myself and what is it costing me? How can I relax into a more natural rhythm in my work life?

Photo credit: "Playground" by Brooke Summers-Perry

Day 12: Quest for Connection

CELEBRATING RHYTHM

Take your yoga, tai chi, or chi gong practice outside! Find a spot that feels beautiful to you, and remove your foot coverings. We often use the term "flow" when speaking of these practices, yet can you feel the inherent rhythm within each movement? Sense the rhythm of your pulse, your breath, and the other nature bodies with whom you share the space. Experience yourself moving into your own natural rhythm.

“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm, and harmony.” Thomas Merton

Journaling/Dreaming Bonus: What is my next step towards creating a more natural rhythm in the aspect of life I identified yesterday?

Photo credit: "Enough" by Brooke Summers-Perry

Day 11: Quest for Connection

CELEBRATING RHYTHM

Find an outdoor space that attracts birds and other creatures and sit or lie upon the earth. Listen as the bird sings. Is there a rhythm to its song? Can you feel the field or space from which the sound rises and falls? Shift your listening from the sounds of birdsong to the space from which it's emerged. Shift it back to the birdsong. Allow your own rhythm to form as you shift awareness back and forth in this way, at your own tempo and pace.

“A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.” Maya Angelou

Journaling/Dreaming Bonus: What aspect(s) of my life could benefit from a more natural, unrushed rhythm? Imagine how that rhythm feels in the heart and body/mind.

Photo credit: Brooke Summers-Perry

DAY 10: Quest for Connection

CELEBRATING RHYTHM

Find a special place in nature where you can comfortably lie upon the earth. Place your hands over your heart and feel the rhythm of your heartbeat as your chest rises and falls with breath. As you notice the pace of your heartbeat, attempt to also hold in your awareness the rhythm of your breath. Can you feel the earth holding you in its awareness? Hold this focus as long as possible. When it releases, simply lie there and relax as long as you like. Notice the feelings that arise.

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” Lao Tzu

Journaling/Dreaming Bonus: As I ponder the resonance between my heart's rhythmic beats and the Earth's, what curiosities and/or feelings arise?

Photo credit: "Meditating with the Mother" by Brooke Summers-Perry