Honor Your Complexity

Welcome to Your Daily Shine. It's Tuesday, July 5th. This is your space to connect with yourself, your growth, and what you need to shine today. (no audio) Joy here. How's your day going? It's easy to answer that question with a good or bad and so often our level of productivity is tied to which answer we choose. If we're getting a lot done, we're good. But if we feel behind, we're not so great. We say this a lot at Shine but it's worth repeating every time. We are so much more than what we do or don't get done. We have friends, family, passions, hobbies, dreams, and spiritual practices and we have values that we try to live by. All of this contributes to who we are and how we move through our day. So what if instead of good or bad we started to look at our days more holistically? Today, we're going to practice just that. We're going to expand our minds and open our hearts to all that each day brings. (no audio) Gently close your eyes if you can. (no audio) Find a comfortable position and begin to breathe slow even breaths in. (no audio) And out. (no audio) On your next inhale, bring your attention inward. (no audio) Become aware of your presence in the space you are in. (no audio) Notice your skin. Feel the boundaries of yourself. (no audio) On each inhale, imagine sending your breath into your body. Oxygen circulating. Nourishing. (no audio) On each exhale, see your breath clearing out what doesn't serve you. Clearing stress. Releasing tension. If you want, allow your exhales to become audible with a sigh or a hum. (no audio) (no audio) Draw attention to the whoosh of air leaving your body and let the waves of sound center you. I'll give you some time. (no audio) (no audio) (no audio) (no audio) Beautiful job. Now imagine you are sitting in a quiet room, alone and there's a box in front of you. You take the box, open it, and dump the contents onto the floor and find you're staring at a pile of puzzle pieces. This puzzle is your life. All the things you do, the roles you fill, the passions you have, you can find them in the pieces in front of you. (no audio) As you put the puzzle together, what patterns do you notice? Which pieces do you reach for quickly? Which are most recognizable? Maybe you reach for work or caretaking. (no audio) Take a moment to find the pieces that make you curious. Where in your puzzle are places to learn, to wonder, to dream? (no audio) (no audio) Do you have puzzle pieces that feed your soul? Spiritual practices, meditations, even walks in nature? (no audio) (no audio) Where is your body in this puzzle? How do you tend to your physical self? (no audio) (no audio) And finally, what other pieces are just yours? What...