Moving into a new path
qigong in Prospect Park
Recently, I was blessed to spend 9 days with my son who lives in Brooklyn.
It took some umph to get there. I love him and love to visit him. Yet when I’ve been travelling less, I find it harder to get back to travelling > oh and there’s that flying on a plane now too 😬🤣
My parents didn’t want to leave a one hour (or less) travel radius of their home. Sometimes these familial tendencies have influenced me.
Before Covid, I travelled a lot. Since then, I travel a lot less. I feel the pull in my body to close in and the resistance I must move through to travel outside my comfort zone.
As I get older however, I want to widen, broaden, and deepen my world… not let it contract. So as Aila (my life coach) used to remind me: Just do the next thing and the next thing… and step by step I am on a plane and I go!
On the last day of the visit, I decided to have a private Qigong session - since lessons at a nearby yoga studio were starting the Saturday after I left. Drat!
I’d been wanting to practice qigong and decided to ask if the teacher would meet with me individually. She agreed, and we met on a drizzly Monday - last Monday - in Prospect Park under the trees.
That experience, combined with other insights from my trip, has transformed my path a bit.
For the past few years, I’ve been focusing a lot of my free time on drawing, painting, and creativity. This is something I love to do! But there are two problems related to my creative practice:
I have the habit of wanting to turn my creativity into “something.” The “something” is usually along the lines of » getting an agent, publishing a book, etc. But for whatever reasons, that’s just not flowed.
Drawing, illustrating, and writing is all sedentary and bending over a desk - which reinforces my poor posture and slouching.
At this point in my life, I still devote a goodly number of hours to my therapy practice. So creating books is not something I can focus a lot of time on. And that means I focus even less time on my physical health care.
My time in New York brought forth the idea that it’s time for a shift.
I feel more deeply inspired to spend more of my free time » walking, planning and cooking healthier meals, and practicing qigong. I need to drink a lot more water too!
My creativity practice will always be important to me. And, my body needs something new - more movement, more flexibility… not to mention I’m not doing any weight-bearing exercise except yoga - which is minimal, but I’ll count it for now!
As the time passes in my life, I am seeking clearer vision.
What does my body call for?
What does my mind call for?
What does my spirit call for?
My whole life, this body I live in hasn’t been the biggest priority. I’m very fortunate it’s served me this well! And, now I hear the call of how caring for it more is going to help my mind and spirit too :)
Creativity is always going to be a part of who I am. And, by switching things up a bit and making movement and nutrition a priority » I’ll be able to create a lot longer, in a more healthy body with hopefully better posture!
I’d love to know:
Do you make taking care of your body a priority?
As you get older, are you finding more clarity of your priorities - in a soulful, less ego-focused, way?
Do you feel the tendency to let your world shrink or not?
And, do you also want your world to feel more expansive? How are you encouraging this?