No Is Yes To Another Question
a list of new yeses and a fresh parenting circle idea
Hey, you might have heard I am quitting instagram this week. My therapist told me, No is just yes to another question. I have been wanting to quit for such a long time and haven’t felt like I could for so many reasons, especially for the success of my business. But instagram doesn’t even bring me work like it used to because I cannot make myself make reels of my face talking every day and put them to music and so the algorithm banishes me. Which I am grateful for honestly because it helps free me to be done with it and find new ways to commune and communicate.
Anyway, Friday will be my last day there, and I am feeling weird about it! I am feeling like, who do you think you are kind of vibes and also will I miss everything important kind of vibes etc etc. So I needed to remind myself of my list of what I am saying yes to when I say no to instagram, here it is.
~
I say yes to the cultivation of my sensory experience. Freeing up my senses including my mind, to re-sensitize to my bodily experience in the present. To notice the news of what is happening my body in its location in this moment. Trusting this act will lead me to a life of sustainable service, devotion, care, joy.
I say yes to my children seeing me do anything other than be on my phone, more often.
I say yes to a feeling of mental simplicity - my next task is what I need to do in this moment, not the constant confusing feeling I am forgetting to check something on my social media.
I say yes to finding media outlets I want to consume news through, and being intentional about when and how I consume news outside of my immediate irl experience.
I say yes to spending more time in my garden.
I say yes to texting my friends more, and asking to see them in person more.
I say yes to taking evening walks more.
I say yes to feeling the feelings of my life more.
I say yes to cultivating faith that feeling my feelings is a worthy endeavor.
I say yes to faith and feelings because I believe re-sensitizing myself to my whole corporeal experience is the first task at hand in saving this planet, my body planet, my planet which is beyond my body, our planet that my children live on and as.
I say yes to praying more.
I say yes to lighting candles and writing on paper more.
I say yes to increasing my tolerance for a longer distance between writing something and sharing it with others, so that my writing might develop in interesting and useful ways.
I say yes to being in community with others who know social media as it is currently designed is not supportive for our health or connections and are finding creative ways to not be resigned to it, to do other things and find new ways instead. I do not accept that I have to give away my life and soul because of zuck’s vision of profit over life. I choose another way I have not figured out yet, but still I choose this way.
I’m sure there’s lots of other yeses but this is what I’ve got at the moment while I’m still in covid fog.
~
RE Cosmic Bodies, parenting circles! Something that has been happening is very many people have been registering for the circles and very few people have been actually showing up to them. So please register if you are planning to actually attend, and if you can’t attend live and want to see the recording, write to me and tell me that and I will send it to you to!
Also I am going to mix it up for July’s parenting circle and do something a little different to keep it fresh. I will be giving a short astrology talk for parents on Mercury. This will be about what Mercury is in the chart and what it means for a child, how it shows up in adults and children and how it can help you parent with more compassion and presence for yourself and your child! So the circle will go like this: a guided meditation, a talk from me on Mercury in the context of parenting a child, then we will have some time to write reflections and have a conversation in response to my talk. If this sounds useful to you then please join us! And again, if you can’t attend live but want to hear it, write to me and don’t register. (It’s okay if you register and can’t make it, just tell me that beforehand because it helps me make a plan for the time depending on how many people will show up.)
The next circle is Friday July 27 10:30am-12pm pst. I so hope I get to be with you in that circle where we consider the incredible forms of our minds, Mercury!
All the love and Summer (or winter) flourishing to your precious body either way!
Sarah