After 5 years in solo private practice, 

I started a group practice called Interlace Mental Health 

and I am working with the amazing Jamie Manwaring, PhD.

She is accepting new clients in Colorado and over 40 PSYCHPACT States.

I can't wait for you to get to know this amazing human!

I recently listened to Elizabeth Gilbert on the 10% Happier podcast with Dan Harris and she shared her belief that it is her “full time job” to regulate her nervous system. She spends “3 to 4 hours a day” doing things to regulate her nervous system, be it meditation, journaling, or something she called 2-way prayer.

Woah.

 

My first thought was, “I have to tell my clients and my colleagues!” 

 

A conversation I frequently find myself having, in both sessions and professional circles, is this idea of judgement around nervous system regulation needs. It often sounds something like this:

 

“I have to do so many ‘self-care type things’ just to function in my life. 

What the hell is wrong with me? 

Why am I so high maintenance?”

If you have been lucky enough to learn that you need to regulate your nervous system (something I didn’t really figure out until a few years ago- thanks for nothing grad school), you probably also know that regulation is like going to work or working out or learning a language: it is something you have to DO, not once, but often, daily even, and over and over and over again. 

 

And if you have been even luckier still to have found things that actually work for you (yay!), then the next thought is usually a big pile of judgement. 

 

At least, that is what it sounds like in my head…

when my head is being a jerk, which my head is known to do.

Then my next thought was admittedly not so generous to Elizabeth Gilbert. 

 

Her “job job” is a writer, which, while I can appreciate how hard that is, it’s flexible in a way that most of our lives are not.

She made gobs of money on Eat, Pray, Love.

She bought an old church to turn into an artist's retreat just to have a quiet place to work.

Well, isn't that good for YOU?!

I mean, great for Elizabeth Gilbert, but it doesn’t make it feel super attainable for the rest of us. 

 

 

Normal people.

Juggling real life.

And often the crisis and chaos that goes along with all that “normal” and “real” and “life”.

 

Those of us for whom 3 to 4 hours a day of dedicated nervous system regulation is just not realistic. 

 

Here’s my thought: 

 

 

It doesn’t sound like much, but when was the last time you sat, very still, got super quiet and just noticed your breathing? 

Or became aware of your thoughts? 

Or got curious about the feelings in your body? 

 

Just for 3 or 4 minutes.

 

(Trust me, it will feel like a lifetime.)

Nope Rose, just 3 to 4 minutes.

Then think about making it a habit. 

 

Could you start your day this way, after you brush your teeth before your coffee?

Could you end your day like this, after you put on your PJs before you crawl into bed?

Could you find a few moments, at work between meetings or in the car in the driveway before you walk into your house, to just be still with yourself? 

 

Just for 3 or 4 minutes.

 

 

Dan Harris shared in that same podcast that the english translation of enlightenment is “a clearing away and bringing forth”. 

 

I am far from enlightened, but I love the idea of using 3 to 4 minutes each day to “clear away”. 

 

Who knows we could “bring forth” into the world after just that? 

 

It might not be a book that sold over 18 million copies worldwide and was turned into a Julia Roberts movie starring (a very handsome) Javier Bardem, but it could be each of 

our own versions of a fuller, more present, connected life. 

Javier believes in you.

 

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