to deserve your place in the world.
ways back to yourself
for a crowded mind
Turn off the strongest light in the room and keep only a smaller, softer one. Sometimes the mind begins to quiet down through the eyes first.
for heaviness in the body
Raise your arms slowly, as if asking your body for a little more sky. Then let them fall, resolutely, like someone putting down a weight they were never meant to carry for so long.
for learning simplicity again
Cuddle an animal, if you can. Their lives are made of warmth, hunger, sleep, affection, and they know how to belong completely to a single moment withouth apologising.
for little sadness
Choose the prettiest cup you own and make something warm. Wrap yourself in a blanket or a cardigan with a little weight to it.
the slower things
Place your phone far away. Unless something truly urgent calls (and it rarely does), switch it off for as long as possible.
Sit by a window for a few minutes and watch outside, without trying to fill the moment. The modern mind has almost forgotten the usefulness of fertile boredom.Shake out your arms, hands, and shoulders, as if the day had settled there like dust.
Smell a scent you love: coffee, a fruit, clean fabric, old paper... The sense of smell can heal us more than we think.
Light a scented candle, and nourish your skin with your favourite cream with slow movements.
Hug a soft, chubby plushie. There are kinds of innocence worth protecting from the dull machinery of adult life.
small mercies for today
Shinrin yoku
For a few seconds, I close my eyes and imagine a forest patient enough to want nothing from me. I notice the smell of wet grass, the way the leaves on the trees move slowly, the dim green hush beneath the branches, how the light filters through the branches.
When I open my eyes, I look for a green colour nearby and let my gaze rest there for a few breaths.
