Friday Musings— Toolkits

What's new with me

The other day I got a pedicure with a Peruvian beautician I’ve known for over two years now. As always, we chatted a bit in Italian and a bit in Spanish. She often tells me about her daughter, and she likes to discuss politics too. I don’t mind that, but she has a tendency to see doom and gloom everywhere, so I end up being more positive than I normally would, just to counterbalance all that heaviness.

Given the current state of the world (trade wars, actual wars, everything feeling uncertain), you can imagine how upbeat she was feeling. At one point, she said we’d either die because of World War III or because we wouldn’t be able to afford food anymore (or both). My first internal reaction was, “I just want to get a pedi and relax for one hour, leave me alone!”. But I could tell she was genuinely scared. I tried to reassure her as best I could, then gently steered the conversation elsewhere.

I’m definitely not enjoying the general state of the world either, but I also don’t want to spend my already limited energy worrying about things I can’t control. That doesn’t mean I’m not aware of what’s going on—some stress is unavoidable, especially when it gets layered on top of whatever else we’re already dealing with in our personal lives. Which is why I think it’s more important than ever to build our own little toolkits to help us stay centered.

My current grounding practices

I’ve probably mentioned most of these before, but here’s what’s working for me lately, in no particular order:

• Earthing
• Blue mind activation
• A minute or two of mindful breathing when I wake up
• Setting an intention for the day ahead
• Yoga poses like twists and tree pose
• Yoga Nidra and sound baths

Last week I also got back into pilates, which I had abandoned six years ago in favor of yoga. I just suddenly felt the need to work on my core and posture again. My body and mind were asking for it, and I decided to listen. I had actually forgotten how much I loved pilates! But I don't regret my yoga detour at all, it's helped me so much these past few years.

I also have a more pressing and personal reason to learn about stress management and grounding techniques. I’ve been in amenorrhea for the past few months, and since the first tests ruled out PCOS and early menopause (and my weight and diet are fine), stress is the likely culprit (the health issues and the family worries… it all adds up). We’ll do more tests, but in the meantime I’ve stopped exercising first thing in the morning and switched to gentle movement before breakfast (I'm currently in love with this lymphatic drainage routine and this dance meditation), as research now seems to indicate that exercising in a fasted state is probably not a good idea for women's hormonal health.

Your situation is probably very different from mine, but I do think we can all benefit from grounding practices and from staying curious about what might actually support us in a specific moment of our lives, instead of clinging to what we think should work.

Quote of the week ✍️ 

"You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather".  (Pema Chödrön)

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you have any suggestions or insights, feel free to share them in the comments. And if you know someone who might enjoy my musings, please pass this along to help grow the community.

Until next time,

ML