09/07/2026
Verb of the week:
brush
This week’s verb comes courtesy of my granddaughter’s current favorite veggie tales tune, “Oh, Where Is My Hairbrush”.
Brush as a verb means to clean, smooth, paint, or touch something lightly.
Brush could mean to clean or groom one’s self, as in using a tool like a hairbrush or toothbrush. Or brushing away leaves on a bench so a friend has a place to sit with us. Or we might need to brush the dust off our yoga mat if we haven’t used it in a while.
It might mean to touch lightly, passing gently against someone or something. Maybe you’ve felt a soft breeze brush your cheek.
In a more creative way, to brush could be to apply a liquid like a sauce on a casserole. Maybe we brush paint on a canvas to make happy little trees. If we bake, we could brush egg wash to brown a pastry.
We often brush aside our gut feelings and find that we should have listened to our instincts. When we dismiss what our body is trying to communicate to us, it will speak louder.
With practice, we can learn to brush off negative comments and minor offenses. This becomes a skill that can serve us well, separating the opinions of others from constructive critique. We begin to give less attention to people and situations that irritate and annoy us. We are able to choose to be unbothered.
We might find we need to brush up on a skill we’ve let go or review knowledge we forgot. That skill could actually be named “brush” - the action of bringing the ball of the foot across the floor to make a sound in Tap Dance.
Hopefully we can avoid a brush with law, but we might look forward to a brush with celebrity.
We hope that this week you’ll brush off your mat and brush up on all the skills that support your nervous system.
