Centered in the Heart

September is Self-Care Awareness Month. ♡

Which feels like a good time to remember that self-care doesn't have to be elaborate, expensive, or one more thing to accomplish.

Sometimes it's five quiet minutes before the day begins. Going to bed a little earlier. Eating a meal without multitasking. Stepping outside. Calling someone who nourishes your spirit. Taking six slow, complete breaths.

Last year I made a little September Self-Care Bingo card as a playful way to notice some of these ordinary ways we can care for ourselves.

I gave it a refresh for this year, with 25 invitations for tending body, mind, heart, and spirit. And I added a second page with some ways we can practice together this September, too.

Want a copy? Comment BINGO below or send me a message and I'll send it your way. ♡

You can also follow on Instagram to see more.

Nicole Becker | The Resourced Life

Grounding has become shorthand for all kinds of practices: feeling your feet, taking a walk, breathing slowly, moving your body, orienting to your surroundings, settling your nervous system.

All of these can be grounding. But I don't think any one of them is grounding itself.

Grounding is what we practice. Being grounded is a capacity we cultivate.

For me, that capacity has at least three dimensions:

👁️‍🗨️Attention — the ability to gather ourselves into the present.
🧘‍♀️Embodiment — the ability to inhabit our bodies and stay in relationship with our experience.
💖Connection — the ability to experience ourselves in relationship with heart, other people, nature, meaning, and something larger than ourselves.

This is why I don't think being grounded is simply another word for being calm.

We can be grounded and still be grieving.
Grounded and uncertain.
Grounded and energized.
Grounded while having a difficult conversation or making an important decision.

Being grounded means we are here for what is here.

And the more we practice returning, the more available we become to our own lives.

This is the deeper territory we'll be exploring in Rooted in the Heart, my 12-day Grounding Meditation Journey beginning September 19.

♡ 15 minutes each morning
♡ Live online + same-day replay
♡ September 19–30

Details at the link in my bio.

Did you miss last week's newsletter? It's up on my website.

What If Paying Attention Didn't Have to Be So Hard? I often say that yoga is a laboratory.More specifically, it is a laboratory for attention.Most of us were taught that paying attention means concentrating. We narrow our focus, try harder, and mentally grip whatever is in front of us. There are certainly moments when that kind of effort is useful. D...

In yoga philosophy, there is a concept called tapas. It is often translated as discipline, but I think a more human way to understand it is as the willingness to keep returning to what nourishes us.

Not through force or perfection. Through relationship.

Little by little, practice becomes less about motivation and more about staying connected to ourselves. And that influences the quality of our attention, our nervous system, our relationships, and the overall tone of how we move through the day.

This is part of what the Grounding Circle offers. A simple structure for returning again and again to what helps us feel more steady, clear, and resourced.

Staying connected to ourselves influences the quality of our attention, our nervous system, our relationships, and the overall tone of how we move through the day.

🙏

Our month-long Grounding Circle begins Monday, June 1. We meet live three mornings a week for short, simple grounding practices designed for real life.

Join live if you can, or practice later from the recording delivered directly to your inbox the same day.

Built-in accountability. Potent and accessible practices. Minimal excuses.

I’d love to have you with us.

“The feeling I experience is so deep and definitely has changed the way I go through my day.” -- Janet L.