Spent the weekend at the ocean.
Yesterday went in and out of the ocean three times, a record for me. That meant three quick rinse-off showers and clothing changes.
Early morning swim and body surfing.
Mid-morning, boogey-boarding.
Mid-afternoon, more boogey-boarding and beach time.
Quick nap and then dinner out at a great tequileria.
I’ve mentioned this before but the Mental Health All-Stars is a real thing. The time in the ocean cleansed my mind and my soul and body and my mind and my mind and my mind.
It feels like a giant sea anemone just took it’s soft tentacles and washed over all the rough edges of my brain, sucked out the gunk and left it softer, cleaner, happier, with all the neurons moving faster and in the right grooves again.
We forget sometimes that our brains are organs. They are not thoughts. Our brain is not a thought. It’s an organ like our heart, our eyes, our stomach. There are things our brain needs for our mind to work well if that makes sense.
Our brain needs oxygen. Blood. Rest. Less focus. More energy.
When we take care of our brain and also our body, our mind become clearer, less cluttered, less anxious, less paranoid, sad, whatever.
When we try and fix our brains with only more thinking and even feeling, it can be a bit like the cart before the horse.
Can you see that?
Take care of your brain that’s a part of your body and maybe the therapy work won’t be so hard or take quite so long.
You’re also establishing healthy patterns and rhythms that will serve you well long after your therapy is wrapped up or at least major progress has been made.
Connection (with others, ourselves, plants, animals) is what heals our nervous system @somaticwitch
I’ve needed to do therapy to rewire my brain and learn what to do w/ all this trauma.
Actually healing and becoming a healthy person presents as something very different than just neutralizing trauma and understanding trauma and what happened to me and why I react the way I do.
You need a new way of living when you step away from trauma.
You need to feel strong again, confident in your body, capable of doing new things and connecting with yourself and others.
The more I do things like play in the ocean, the healthier I feel, more centered, more balanced, more connected to the creator.
I had an email from my step-sister that focusing on the latest topics related to our parents. I started to compile this long email w/ pro/con arguments, lots of padding, blah blah blah.
I ended up emailing her and saying this is complicated, let’s just chat by phone this week.
The ocean took away my desire to have a big back/forth discussion and helped me get it into a proper framework of importance.
That’s what I’m talking about. That’s called resillience. It’s called maturity. It’s called strength and health.
I didn’t need to talk w/ my therapist about it; I just did it. I healed myself through a connection w/ nature and helping my body be relaxed enough to think more clearly.
Amazing.
My therapist pulled me out of a dark, dark place, but I’m taking myself to a beautiful new life in the future.
Encinitas, CA