Feeling overwhelmed, heartbroken, angry, or spiritually exhausted by the state of the world right now? You’re not alone.  

In this week’s episode I’m calling us in, speaking honestly about the grief, moral exhaustion, and collective heaviness so many sensitive souls are carrying.  

I don’t have any answers, but I do believe there is power in naming what is real, calling in steadiness as a community, and finding a way to stay human without shutting down, to care deeply without collapsing.  

We also close with a short but powerful guided exercise to help you call back your energy, reconnect with yourself and return to your own “one guided next step” from within.  

🩵If you want to come back just for the exercise later, it begins around 31:34.

Episode Transcript:

Hey, beautiful soul, welcome back for another episode of spirit speakeasy. I want to be really honest with you today. This is not one of those episodes where I come in with five perfect reasons or answers or a neat spiritual bow tie around everything that's going on. I don't have that today. What I have is a full heart, a heavy spirit, a lot of thoughts, a lot of feelings and a real sense that many of us are trying to live our quote, unquote, normal lives with everything that's expected of us also, while witnessing an abnormal amount of cruelty and chaos and deception and grief and suffering all at once, and I don't hear many spiritual leaders or teachers talking that honestly and openly about this, not really. And I have been starting to hear criticism of why are more spiritual leaders and teachers not talking about this. And it's true, I haven't really heard many talking about all the things going on in our current day world, certainly from a United States perspective, not in a way that feels human enough, not in a way that feels grounded to me, not in a way that makes room for the heartbreak, the rage, the fear, the moral exhaustion, all living in the same body in the same moment at the same time. So today, as usual, I don't want to spiritually bypass anything. I don't want to pretend that if we just raise our vibration, hard enough, none of this touches us. That's not true. I don't believe that being spiritual or a spiritual being means being untouched by the world. I think being spiritual in a time like this means making it our responsibility to stay awake, to stay honest, to stay compassionate, to stay discerning as much as possible, and to return to our own self without pretending the world is okay when it clearly is not. So, if you've been feeling overwhelmed, if you have been feeling angry, if you've been feeling emotionally flooded, if you've been trying to function while your heart is breaking over what you are seeing and experiencing if you've been struggling to know how to care deeply without completely collapsing. This episode is for you. I am calling us in, into this space together, into the spirit speakeasy together, because I may not have answers, but I do know the power of being in community, and that was always my intention with this podcast, was to create a safe community. Lately, I've been sitting with a lot, and I've been feeling many of you have too. There is so much happening in the world right now that it can feel hard to even know where to put your heart first. And today we're going to talk a little bit about it, and then I am going to guide you through an exercise later in the episode, I'll let you know when that's coming, so that if you need to pause and return for the exercise, you can because I've really been sitting with it, with my Soul, with my guides. And I think the reason I haven't been talking about things is, one, I have a lot of personal feelings and opinions about it, and I don't want anyone to feel excluded, and I don't want to create a debate space here. And two, I don't have answers, and so I feel like that makes it really hard and overwhelming to talk about, because I don't have a lot of answers, but what came to me through my recent meditations is I do have tools, and I do have a safe space that I can offer, and so that's where I'm starting from today. And again, there's so much happening in our world right now that it could feel very hard to know where to put our heart first. We're witnessing escalating war and civilian suffering abroad, especially in North Africa, up into Lebanon, Palestine, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Israel. Of course, we're witnessing renewed outrage and deep concern around immigration enforcement, if you want to call it that here in the United States, I have some other color for words that I would rather call it, but I won't. And there's deep concern happening within a lot of us who are seeing what's going on, including reports of findings that have intensified public concern here in the United States around repeated illegal detentions of human beings, including children. No human is illegal, as many of us say. And we're also watching continued public distrust around accountability, transparency, the handling of powerful people. People and horrific abuse cases both, you know, in this war that's happening with the ice, the immigration enforcement that's happening here in the US, with these Epstein files, the E files, let's call them, I don't want to get banned anywhere. We're not going to go into detail there, because the other thing is, yes, all of these things are happening, but as sensitive souls and as souls that have had experiences in the world, we also need to acknowledge that this can be lighting up previous trauma for us, if you've someone that, if you're someone that's ever been traumatized in a physical abuse way, looking at the Epstein files or hearing the details or reading about them is probably triggering you or taking you out at the knees, emotionally in a way that maybe you can't even quite put your own finger on. So with everything going on, and I know I haven't even listed all of it, I'm going to spare you. You know what it is. I know what it is if you felt distracted or raw or even angry or exhausted, if you've been unable to focus, feeling unable to create, unable to pray or do your own personal spiritual practices in the same way, or unable to just keep scrolling and smiling and moving on like none of this is happening. I want to say very clearly that makes perfect sense. So I think a lot of sensitive people, particularly empaths, healers, intuitives, highly sensitives and deeply caring human beings, are just carrying a lot more than they realize. Right now, you are caring a lot more than you realize right now.
And I also just want to say you're probably not just tired. You probably feel exhausted, but it's probably not just a human tired. It probably feels like a soul tired. And you're probably not just stressed. You're probably grieving, grieving for different shades and versions of maybe what we thought we were all in agreement with in this world, or where we thought we all wanted things to go, or many of us did, and grieving the tragedies and travesties we're seeing. You're not just frustrated. You are morally exhausted from witnessing cruelty normalized in real time. We're all under this this system that is trying to flood us. We keep hearing this term, flood the zone, flood us with so much chaos, so much misinformation, so much depravity, that we are numb and desensitized, and so if you are feeling kind of taken down by this, or the opposite, if you're feeling incredibly sensitized, right, just know that that is a normal response, and this is an abnormal, unusual situation that we're Living in. Most of us are trying to keep our routines going, live up to our obligations in the world, keep our businesses going or the places we work, keep our families Okay, keep showing up for clients or kids or family or partner or community, while inwardly feeling like something is just deeply off and no one is paying attention to fix it. And that makes sense, too. I think one of the hardest things about times like this is that we can start to question ourselves. We can start to let questions wrestle with our soul, inside of ourselves, almost, things like, why am I so affected by this? Or, why can I just not compartmentalize this and keep it pushing right? Why does this feel so personal? Why can I not just focus on my own life? And I want to offer this, maybe the fact that you cannot fully disconnect is not a problem. I think it's a testament to who you are as a sensitive soul and how much you care for your fellow human beings. Maybe the fact that your heart responds to suffering is not a weakness. Maybe being disturbed by lies or exploitation or violence or corruption, abuse, displacement, sheer inhumanity. Maybe that doesn't mean that you're too sensitive. Maybe it means that your humanity is still intact, and that matters. That matters more than I think we all can recognize from our current vantage point. I think we won't really know until looking back many years from now, the power of those who still had their humanity intact, because there are times in history when numbness becomes socially rewarded, when apathy starts to pass for maturity, when cynicism starts to pass for wisdom, when silence starts to pass for being above it all. Or somehow spiritually evolved. But there's a difference between protecting your energy and abandoning your humanity. There's a difference between grounding and numbing. There's a difference between spiritual steadiness and emotional disconnection. And I think most of us are trying to figure out how to stay open hearted without being swallowed alive by the sheer volume of what is happening. That is the tension. How do I care without collapsing? How do I stay informed without becoming consumed? How do I remain compassionate without becoming energetically shredded to pieces? How do I keep my spiritual connection alive when the world feels so brutal and unstable? I don't have a perfect formula for any of that, so that's what I have to tell you today. But I do think it begins with telling the truth, and the truth is that many people are carrying a kind of grief that does not have a formal place to go. It's a grief for what is happening to people, to our fellow human beings, even if you don't know them personally. We can admit, no matter what side of any political line that we're on, that treating humans unhuman like is not okay. I hope we're all on that page.
Grief is probably such a part of our day to day right now that we might not even be able to recognize it separately. But I believe we all have grief for what's being exposed, grief for what we can feel under the surface of what is not yet been exposed. Grief for how long some of these things have been hidden, for the manipulation involved, for all of us, grief for how often power protects itself and not the innocent. Grief for children, grief for families, grief for people being treated as disposable. Grief for the erosion of our trust as a society, grief for the feeling that so many systems are not protecting the vulnerable the way that they should or not reining in power the way that they need to absolute power corrupts absolutely and to layer on top of all of this is this powerlessness that I definitely feel as a regular old citizen, and probably you do to some degree as well. It's a painful feeling of I can see this, I can feel this. I know this matters. I know this is wrong, but I cannot personally fix all of it, and I don't feel like any contribution that I can give as one little human is going to make much of a difference, and I don't know what to do. That's a hard thing for any human being to sit with, especially if you are in the pot squad, right as someone who cares deeply, a sensitive someone who wants to help. Many of you have reached out to me at different times through email or responded to surveys or in the workshops, and you feel that part of your calling in this world is to help others, to support others, and when we are oriented that way as a soul, of course, all of this feels impossibly hard and impossibly powerless. From our perspective, it's a hard thing for for any of us. So I want to gently say something important here. Your pain is not proof that you are failing spiritually. Your overwhelm is not proof that you're weak. Your anger is not proof that you are unhealed in some way. Your heartbreak is not proof that you are dramatic or too much. And sometimes our feelings are evidence that we are perceiving reality accurately. Sometimes our souls not asking us to feel less. Sometimes it's asking us to hold what we feel more wisely, because if we don't, one of two things can often happen, either we can get swallowed by the overwhelm and pain and start collapsing into despair and helplessness. I will be honest and let you know I've had several days kind of paralyzed on my couch right have felt unable to create or work or do the things I need to do, like we were just talking about, and I think that's a totally normal response to this level of trauma and chaos that we're involved in. So we could either kind of get swallowed by that pain and start collapsing, or we can detach so aggressively that we lose touch with the tenderness and the caring that makes us who we are as human beings. Neither one of those is the goal. I don't think the goal is to not feel anything, and I don't think the goal is to feel everything all at once with no boundaries. I've tried both of those on all of our behalf, and neither. Are working. So what is the solution? Then? Again, I told you, I don't really have a lot of solutions today, but I do think the goal is to become a steadier vessel, a truer vessel, maybe more clear, more grounded, a person who could say, Yes, I see what's happening. Yes, it affects me. Yes, I care. Yes, I have grief that I'm processing. I have outrage and no, I will not let this disconnect me from my own soul, from my own inner voice. That is the sacred work here for those of us that are sensitives and intuitives and light workers, which you all are, if you're listening, whether you know it or not, because when everything feels intense, many people don't need another polished teaching about detachment or taking our spiritual position in the world. We need permission to be human. I feel like we need someone to say, of course this is affecting you. Of course you're tired, of course your heart hurts. Of course, you're struggling to make sense of all this, and also, you don't need to give your whole life force to panic. You don't have to let helplessness narrate your future or feed that anxious voice in the back of your mind. You don't have to carry every tragedy in your body at full volume all day long in order to prove that you care. That's just not sustainable. It's not healthy for you or your nervous system, and it doesn't help anyone else either. There's a difference between compassion and self destruction. There's a difference between witnessing and allowing that to collapse us internally, to come on board, into our emotions fully. There's a difference between staying informed and feeling your nervous system a non stop stream of terror until you can no longer access your own wisdom. So what do we do? I hear and the truth is, I really honor all ways of doing it. I have heard from spiritual practitioners and light workers on one side of the spectrum who are like, I'm not watching any news. I don't want to see anything. I don't want to know anything. I don't want to be
disrupted in my emotions at all. I personally don't think that's the solution, but I don't have a judgment about people who need to do that to protect themselves. We're going to talk more about this as we go and on the other side of the spectrum, I know people who have really sprung into activism and who are for better or worse, some in a healthy way, and some in an unhealthy way, consuming every bit and puzzling as much as they can. And it almost reminds me of those crime shows that we've all seen with the whiteboard with the pictures and the evidence and then the red strings everywhere. So I think there is a middle you guys know, I don't necessarily believe in balance, and I don't know how we find our balance in all of this, but what can we do? I think first, we stop asking ourselves to be machines, and we stop asking each other to be machines. We are not a machine. We are a human who is a soul having a human experience. We're not a content processor. We're not a spiritual robot who's supposed to metabolize war and corruption and abuse and propaganda and cruelty and grief and fear with no consequences. You're a human being. You're a soul, having a human experience, a tender human being, a discerning human being, and that means you need a rhythm to your life, and this chaos is really throwing off the rhythm. We all need rest. We all need pauses. We all need to do our own spiritual hygiene, your own spiritual practice. My first mentor used to call things like grounding and running your energy changing your spiritual underpants. Shout out to Heather Renee. We do need emotional honesty with ourselves and with people we can trust our sacred, safe communities. We need boundaries around what enters our field and how often. We need moments where we can exhale and kind of give our system a break, because, if not, our intuition can get buried under all the noise, all the chaos, and when things are so chaotic outside of ourselves, it's easy to feel like we are standing in the ocean being pummeled by stormy waves from every direction and knocked down, and keep trying to stand up and get our breath and then another wave of chaos hits us. So we do need pauses from all this, because not only does our intuition get buried under all that emotional noise when we're constantly looking outside of ourselves. But our body gets flooded. Our immune system gets weakened, our hormonal systems, you know that fight, flight, freeze gets triggered, our cortisol goes a little bit bananas. There are so many physiological aspects we get exhausted. Exhausted and fatigued, and then we feel like we need to push through. And we feel like, why am I not achieving and pushing through the way I normally do? Why do I feel like I'm not, you know, meeting my goals? And then everything starts to feel equally urgent, equally terrifying, equally hopeless, and we're wishing for future predictions. No one can predict the future, definitively, there's lots of potentials, because part of the work right now is refusing to lose your center, not because everything's okay, not because you don't care or you want to tune out the outside world, but because your center is where your clarity actually lives, that core of your being, your center, your intuition is where your discernment lives. It's where the next right steps become visible. And again, we talk about this a lot here, not the whole path. You might not be able to see 10 steps ahead. You might not be able to know, well, in a few months if this is happening and this is happening and this is not happening, then so stop trying to do future math in your head. It's just not going to work, and it's going to keep you in that chaos loop inside of yourself. It's why we need to be able to ground and find our center, because that's where we get the next few steps, the small steps, right, and then we build from there. And I think many people are secretly waiting to feel hopeful again before we feel like we can take the next right step. But hope is not always the first thing that comes back. Sometimes the first thing that comes back is our ability to breathe. It's our ability to see our own next step clearly. It's sometimes the ability to have enough steadiness to say, Okay, I can't do everything, but I can do this. I can do I can go grocery shopping for my family. I can sit and read a book with my kiddo. I can do a five minute meditation and just give my nervous system a break. There are small things we can do, and that matters more than most people realize, because when the world's chaotic, the next right step is sacred. A phone call can be sacred. A donation can be sacred. A boundary can be sacred. A prayer or sending your love or healing energy can be sacred. A nap can be sacred. Logging offline can be sacred. Telling the truth can be sacred, protecting your peace for one hour so you can hear your own inner guidance again. That can be sacred. We don't always need a grand plan to return to ourselves, and sometimes we need to be honest as an act of reconnection, right, not gaslighting ourselves that everything's fine, you're fine. You're not seeing what you're seeing. Keep it moving. That is just going to gaslight us. It's spiritual bypassing, and it's going to make us feel more and more disconnected from ourselves as sensitives, and then we feel like these sensitive souls lost in this wave tossing ocean without even that feeling of connection to ourselves, and that's kind of the opposite of the direction we want to go with this. But again, being spiritual does not mean being neutral in the face of harm. I want to name this. I know that in some spiritual circles, it's kind of the let them theory of it all, and we will talk about that in another episode, if you want. I don't love to disparage or give my negative opinions of other people's work, but I think just letting everyone do whatever they want and having no boundaries, that doesn't feel like the answer either. Compassion doesn't require passivity. Love doesn't require denial. Consciousness does not require pretending like everything is morally okay or morally equivalent
being awake. Awakeness does not
require our silence. We can be deeply spiritual and still say this is wrong, this is cruel, this is dishonest, this is dehumanizing, this is unacceptable. This is breaking my heart. Is what I feel like I've been saying a lot lately. That doesn't make you less spiritual. It may actually make you more spiritual and more spiritually honest, at least because spirit's not asking us to become numb and witness suffering, spirit might be asking us to become clearer, braver, steadier, participants in this moment, not perfect, not all knowing, certainly not free of emotion, but awake to what is happening, paying attention and present, giving our presence to what is happening, not shoving our head in the sand. You can take breaks, though. Remember, please don't think I'm like trying to say someone reached out to me recently and just kind of it was more of like an evangelical type vibe to the message that just basically said all light workers need to be evangelized and need to be forcing people to come out and support in different ways. And I just don't think that's true. I think we all have a different way of letting. Our support. I know, for me personally, part of what has felt heavy is that I don't have some master key for all of this. I don't have all the answers. I don't know how long all these terrible things are going to last, or if any sense of justice is going to come out. On the other end, I just have a lot of feelings. I have a lot of opinions, I have a lot of heartbreak, I have a lot of concern, and I also have a real desire not to add to the numbness. And maybe some of you feel that way too. Maybe part of why this hurts is because we can feel how much is at stake, and we don't want to turn away from what's happening in this moment, because sometimes I just recently had a plumbing issue in my kitchen sink. And I live in kind of a tall building. It's not quite 20 floors, just under that, and I thought it was my garbage disposal, even though I don't put much down there. But it was really gunk that was building up from above me in the building, in the old, 100 year old plumbing that is there, and it kind of reminds me of this moment, right? Just continuing to ignore the sludge, ignore the clog, is not going to fix everything. Sometimes that muck, that sludge, that gross intention, needs to come out, so that we can look at it, so that we can change the systems, so that we can close the loopholes of power. I won't go into it because I have a lot of feelings, but I do think sometimes certain things need to happen so that we can make changes, so that we can make reform, and that this is kind of where I want to offer a little bit of a reframe. We don't have to solve everything in order to be part of healing at this time. Sometimes being part of the healing looks like refusing to lie to ourselves. Sometimes it looks like staying in a soft place when the world is very hard, and keeping our compassion. Sometimes it looks like protecting one vulnerable person. Sometimes it looks like helping your own nervous system come back online so you can think clearly, so you can hold calm, clear, grounded space for others. Sometimes it looks like resting without guilt, please, let me say that again, resting without guilt. If you need a rest, take it if it's at all possible or the soonest time when it's possible. Sometimes it looks like staying in integrity when lying would be easier, or spiritually bypassing. Sometimes it looks like remaining compassionate when the world is trying to train us into indifference. Please hear me when I say indifference is not the same as peace, numbness is not the same as wisdom, collapse is not the same as compassion and hopelessness is not the whole truth. It may be part of what you feel. It's certainly part of what I feel. It may be something that's visiting you heavily right now, the way it is for me, but it's not the whole truth, because even at times like this, love still exists, Courage still exists, decency still exists, care still exists, resistance and resilience and prayer and sending energy, healing and integrity actually still exists. Acts of protection and tiny sacred choices and people stepping up as individuals to help one another still exists. And maybe that is what hope looks like right now, not pretending everything is fine, not forcing optimism, not bypassing the pain, but choosing again and again, not to abandon ourselves, our emotions, our soul, just because the world is acting soulless, without soul right now. And that's a different kind of hope. It says, I see what's happening, I feel what's happening, maybe even I feel all of this and admitting that you're affected by what's happening and you'll still protect the light within yourself. You'll still listen for what is yours to do from within, within within. I still tend to my humanity. I hope you will too. I still refuse to become cruel and hardened. I will still refuse to let despair become my religion. I'm not going to do it, and I hope you won't do it either, and maybe that is the invitation right now not to become less caring, not to become less aware, not to become less engaged, but to become steadier inside your care, wiser, inside your awareness, more intentional, inside your engagement, to stop asking your nervous system to absorb the whole world, and to stop shaming yourself for being affected, and instead begin to ask. What is mine to hold today? What's mine to do today? What's mine to release today? And what would help me return to myself so I can keep showing up with truth, compassion and clarity. Because this is not about surviving the news cycle. This is about protecting your spirit, your personal intentions in the world, protecting yourself as a sensitive soul and all the inner children within you in an in an era of like complete overwhelm, this is about keeping your soul intact, the humanity of who you are intact in a time when people can become very fragmented, this is about remembering that your sensitivity is not a liability to be crushed. It's a sacred instrument. It's a secret superpower, actually. But like any sacred instrument, it needs tending. It needs care. It needs tuning. It needs rest. It needs reverence. So maybe this is the moment to stop asking, How do I stop feeling so much, and instead ask, How do I care for myself? Wisely enough to keep feeling without breaking. I'm gonna say that again. How do we care for ourselves wisely enough to keep from feeling without breaking that is a sacred question. So what I want to give you is a very simple practice in just a minute here, if you're driving or course or running or cleaning, just pause. I'll tell you when I'm going to start, but you can just pause and you can just pause and you can revisit it and get the exercise at a time when you can do it, because we do need to be coming back into ourselves. We do need to give our nervous system a chance to calm down. We do need to look within, even though it's also important to be looking outside of ourselves and paying attention. We need to be looking it within for stillness. And I'm going to give you a bit of a simple sacred practice. And if you're not in a place where you can do so, that is fine, but if you are, we're going to start now. So just pause wherever you are, if you could take a moment to sit down, if you are on a break and you can just let your eyes rest closed. That would be ideal if you're in a place that's safe to do that, if not again, pause and come back later, and as you start to gently let your eyes rest closed, just imagine bringing all of your attention, all of your awareness, right into the center of your head
and just take some comfortable breaths.
Honor what your body wants. Maybe you need deep breaths, maybe you need shallow breaths. Just however your body wants to breathe is fine, and with each exhale, just allow your physical body to soften just a little bit more good right where you are. Just take a gentle breath, if possible, in through the nose, and exhale through your mouth if possible. As I'm recording this, I also know it's cold and flu season, so if you cannot breathe through your nose. That is perfectly fine as well. And just keeping yourself in a little bit of amusement, a little bit of lightness. And again, one more breath gently in comfortably and exhale as you come all the way into the center of your personal space bubble. And now, if it feels okay, see if you can just gently place one hand on your heart or the center of your chest and one hand on your lower abdomen, your belly just below your belly button, or even just above your belly button, on your solar plexus, wherever feels comfortable on your abdomen? Good? So one hand heart or center of chest, one hand somewhere comfortable on your abdomen, either just above or below your belly button, and continue to breathe. This is a closed loop of energy now you're just receiving energy from yourself back into yourself good. And just notice, notice the seat beneath you, notice your feet. Feel the tips of your toes, if you're lucky enough to have all of them,
good. Notice that in this moment, you
are here,
you're present,
you're fully available. And
let's just do a couple affirmations from this space where you're really just giving that validation and acknowledgement to your heart space and. Your abdomen space, these abdomen chakras really process a lot of our emotions too. So just silently or aloud with each exhale, repeat after me,
what I feel is real good,
what I feel might sometimes feel heavy,
good, and I don't have to carry all of it alone.
I don't have to carry all of it alone, good. And then, as you continue to breathe, just see if you can notice or allow your shoulders to just relax a little to unclench a little good. See if, With your next breath, you can notice if your stomach area, your abdomen can relax even just 5% Good, nothing dramatic, nothing forced, just a little softening, good. Now with the next breath, we're going to do another affirmation you can repeat silently or aloud. I release the pressure to fix everything in this moment.
Good, releasing that pressure now, good.
And let's just call back our energy. Imagine a big, beautiful, white, fluffy rose out in front of you about the size of a watermelon, you can imagine it just floating there or sitting in your lap, and just imagine repeating silently or aloud, I call back all of my energy now. I call back all of my energy from panic, from stress, from helplessness, all of my energy returns to me now, and you might sense or feel or know that energy collecting in this rose right out in front of you and this rose will also purify This energy and make it entirely your own again, good.
And just imagine this rose
floating towards you with all of this energy that belongs to you, being restored, cleared, returned to you, good. And imagine allowing this energy to enter either your heart space or that solar plexus, reclaiming all of your power, all of your energy, good. And let's pause here and just gently hold the question, the idea, the intention, somewhere below that heart space, what is just one loving, honest, grounded thing you could do next for yourself in this day or this week? Not 10 things, one thing. What is one loving, honest, grounded thing I can do next, and just pause here. Let that question land. Hold it in your heart as you continue to breathe, the answer might bubble up or it might come to your awareness a little bit later. Maybe it's rest is the answer? Maybe it's prayer or sending love. Maybe it's turning your ringer off for an hour or checking on someone you care about. Maybe it's making a $5 donation to a cause, or more if you can afford it. Maybe it's speaking up on behalf of yourself or someone else. Maybe it's preparing and registering to vote and lending your voice that way. Maybe it's journaling. Maybe it's just offering some healing and love to your own body so that you can discharge some of what you've been holding. Maybe it's crying or drinking water, whatever comes up for you, just allow yourself to hold on to that one loving thing that you can do for yourself, next good and then just out in front of you, imagine a big, beautiful, golden orb and from your heart, from behind Your heart, even from your toes, imagine sending love compassion.
Imagine sending the
truth that you care,
that you're witnessing the pain of others, and you're sending love into this bubble, good and just for a few minutes here, allow that. Love to emanate from you, and it's maybe something very small we can do, but it's something nonetheless. And as this bubble continues to fill with golden light and the love from within, you, just imagine sending that bubble out into the ethers so that it can be received as healing or love or a moment of breath or compassion for someone who desperately needs it right now. And if you want to do a practice again later, you could send another bubble, or you can send love or energy to a specific person, a specific situation a specific area, those are all wonderful actions to do good and release that bubble coming all the way back to yourself and with each breath. Now finally, let's just intend that we are willing to give ourselves compassion as we show up and be present. You're willing to breathe it in and let it out slowly, good, just like the weather, feeling those emotions, but not getting stuck in them, good and with each breath, now just starting to feel that energy in your body again, you might feel your toe tips or your fingertips gently inhaling and exhaling good. And when you're ready, you can gently blink or open your eyes coming all the way back to me, I hope that that that little exercise gave you even the smallest exhale, and as we come all the way back in, you can imagine filling yourself with a rich, warm, golden light your body deserves moments of breath, moments of pause, moments of returning to yourself from the outside world so that you can be awake and attentive and present and holding this energy with the rest of the collective your nervous system deserves moments of breath and exhale. Your soul deserves moments where you're not being asked to carry everything all at once. And I think this is part of the practice for all of us now, returning again and again, not perfectly, but repeatedly, returning to our breath, our discernment, our compassion, the core of our beings. And you can take moments of pause and send bits of love or prayer or energy, returning yourself to the part of you that knows how to stay human in inhumane times, and if this episode met you in a tender place today, I just want to say this. You're not weak for being affected. You're not broken for feeling overwhelmed. You're not falling apart because your heart hurts, you are not less spiritual because you have grief or anger or opinions or deep discomfort with what we're witnessing in our world right now. It means you're alive, you're aware, you're present, you're paying attention, you're giving your sacred attention to other people in need, and your tenderness, your conscience and even your refusal to go numb, may be part of what keeps your soul grounded in a time like this. Please be gentle with yourself. Please be honest with yourself, not only about what's going on in the world, but about what you can hold in any given moment. Please protect your energy. And what I mean by that is being gentle with yourself without shutting down your humanity. Let yourself care, but do not ask yourself to carry the whole world in one human nervous system. Come back to your body, your breath, release energy that feels built up in your body. That is what we can do today, and maybe that's where hope begins again, not in certainty, not in perfect answers, not in pretending, but in one honest breath and in our togetherness, holding this truth with one another, even if we don't have answers, even if we don't have a solution to offer just standing together, witnessing, being present, not in certainty, not in perfect answers, but in just grounded truth and choice and doing the small acts for ourself and for others as we can. I just encourage you to keep holding the light, refuse to abandon the light within you, and refuse to ignore the light that we know lives in others. That is what I have to offer today, just this moment of togetherness around this and this moment of breath and coming back to. Our bodies. So thank you for being here with me today. Thank you for caring about what is going on. Even the fact that you're thinking about it or worried about it, or feeling a lot about it, shows that you genuinely care. I'm sending you so much love, so much of my light going out to you, because we might not have solutions, but if all of our lights come together in one container, how much brighter and more supported could we all shine? That's the intention I have for us. So however you are coping and managing, if you have learned some new coping skills, please feel free to share them in the comments. I love when we can come into community together and share what we know in the meantime, Big hugs, lots of love and bye for now, from inside spirit speakeasy