Practice 1

Weeks 1–2: Honing Your Body Technology

“and i said to my body. softly. ‘i want to be your friend.’ it took a long breath. and replied ‘i have been waiting my whole life for this.”

—Nayyirah Waheed

Your body is alight with wisdom. Right this minute it is communicating its sacred knowledge to you. Practice 1 is an invitation to tune in to the divine information being conveyed through bone, breath, belly. Over the next two weeks, give yourself permission to be more intimate with your body than perhaps you ever have been, to listen and respond with the fullness of your being. The beginning steps of a life of radical permission requires your willingness to hear and honor your body memories, your sacred and temporary home, and the profound magic therein.

Note: We have provided space for you to journal in response to our questions, but you might need more room! Feel free to use other physical or digital journal space to write until you feel complete. Another option is to answer these prompts outside of this journal so that you can use it over and over.

DAY 1

Assessment and Commitment

Let your body answer the question “Why did this journey call to me?”

The next twelve weeks will be a chance to practice more deeply becoming yourself. Create an aspirational statement for yourself, something you can say to remind yourself who you are becoming. (This practice of articulating a statement affirming who you are becoming is inspired by the model of commitment setting from generative somatics.)

DAY 2

Surrender

What in my body longs for radical permission?

DAY 3

Surrender

Where in my body do I feel my resistance to change? What am I resisting?

DAY 4

Surrender

Where in my body can I feel the desire to run, dance, flow?

What am I running from or toward? What is the source of my flow?

DAY 5

Curiosity

What do others not see in me that I want seen?

DAY 6

Curiosity

What old ideas of myself am I ready to release?

Where in my body am I holding these ideas?

DAY 7

Curiosity

What is ripe for change in me? How does my body know this?

DAY 8

Grace

What is my relationship to unexpected changes?

DAY 9

Grace

What feels graceful in my bones? My muscles?

DAY 10

Grace

Where could I offer myself more grace? How can I partner with my body to do this?

DAY 11

Satisfaction

What is one time I remember being satisfied? (It can be a small example or a very large one.) How did my body know?

DAY 12

Satisfaction

What would it feel like to let my body be enough, as it is?

DAY 13

Satisfaction

What does enough feel like—what does satisfaction feel like in my body?

DAY 14

Reflection

What does it feel like from within when I am in my body?

When I come across a limitation in my body, what wisdom is my body communicating? How can I honor the message (or requests) that my body is communicating?

How can I forgive myself for the times that I have not honored those messages?

What is it I long to experience and feel in this lifetime?