Friends,
Happy New Year! From the Eastern medicine perspective, we’re still deep in the Water Element’s winter dreamscape, to be transformed into action with the seasonal shift to spring. In the interest of continuing to germinate through the spring, I like to take an expansive approach to the energy of new beginnings. An invitation follows.
With the understanding that the personal always becomes the transpersonal, that each of our simple actions ripples out to affect the whole:
I’d like to invite you to choose one thing: start or stop doing only one thing that, if you were to change it, would profoundly transform your life and the lives of everyone around you.
And then I’d like for you to do it, and to sit in meditation daily, every day for an entire year.
It’s likely you already know what this thing is, because you’ve encountered it in yourself before—it's something that you’ve known you should stop or start for years, but haven’t been ready to do. Do you need to stop engaging with a pattern, for real this time; speak to you partner more honestly or more kindly; drop something that obviously hasn’t been working and insist on a behavior that is more aligned with your values and hold yourself gently to it? Only you know the answer to this, but a trusted friend might be a good resource as you deeply contemplate the way in which your behavior might impact your world more intentionally.
This was originally presented to me by my teacher, Lonny Jarrett, in his Eastern Medicine Clinical Integration Fellowship. My intention is to let this principle guide my life and our work together. If it speaks to you, I would be delighted if you’d
book a free 20-minute conversation here. (Because the conversations are short, I’m offering these to only returning patients whose histories I know, but if we know each other personally, feel free to book one.)
When engaged with sincerely, a commitment like this can change your life. Since this invitation was presented to me, I’ve shared it with some of you in your treatments. My own commitment to living in a new way is shifting my life in ways I didn’t know how to get to before—I can see the edges of a profound change, and the ripples forming outward. It has changed my perspective on my own agency, and on our ability to impact our communities with our deepening commitments. And so, I invite you to join me.
I wish you a really beautiful 2024, and hope to connect with you sometime soon.
With deep respect, and in awe of your brilliance,
Tori