no 25

Have you accidentally looked into the sun or bright light and then looked away, and the image burned into your eyelids? That’s an afterimage.

Last week, I shared how linguistic fluency doesn’t guarantee cultural fluency and how language and culture aren’t to be understood but worn. Here's what I saw, heard, or sensed that’s stayed with me in the past week. Let’s begin.

Message from My Body: Full On

Workload can be gauged in many ways. The most common is how much white space you see on a calendar. How messy or how many empty coffee-stained cups take up space on a desk might be for some.

I gauge my workload in my body. It’s a physical sense. There’s a certain cadence to meetings and the space in between each. It combines how many meetings are over a certain period and a stress or caffeine factor. Mainly, I can identify how stressed I am.

I think it might look like this:

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Looking at my felt sense of work in this way has helped me to create more spaciousness. I've been cutting back on caffeine and taking more time for self-care between meetings and coaching sessions. I look at how much time I allow for everything. Maybe I didn't need a formula to know this, but it was one way of breaking it down.

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Message from Heavenly Bodies: Mercury Retrograde and Slowing Down

I don’t believe in astrology. Well, at least not religiously. I’m selective. I believe the good bits I read about the upcoming month. As for the forboding parts, I think of astrology as a mental model.

It’s Mercury Retrograde until early October. Mercury is the Roman god of speed and messages, travel/ers, commerce, and trade. So when Retrograde happens, dealings in these areas are said to slow down or go a bit wonky. People from your past (including exes) reappear, and it’s considered a time to research electronics and devices, but not buy them.

Instead of taking Retrograde literally, I consider it a much-needed permission slip to step back from the go motion that work demands and step into slow motion. I allow myself to pause, reflect, and consider past learnings before I set off into forward motion. I offer myself room to breathe and observe. Retrograde occurs a few times a year, and the heavens (and astrologers) provide an excellent opportunity to slow down. I find myself checking in with the Quad Check from the Hoffman Institute.

Checking in over some time with your Body, Mind, Heart, and Essence and writing it down is a self-portrait in motion.

While this wasn't a message from my own Body, I figured I could consider celestial bodies the same as my own, especially if Neil Degrasse Tyson says,

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​Question for You: There’s some wisdom in everything that’s made fun of. Do you have some guilty pleasure that gives you some insight?! Share it with me; I'd love to hear from you.

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