Transmuting stress into spaciousness
Welcome to May, my friend, and your monthly alchemical attunement.
An alchemical attunement is the process of...
✨ Using our own wisdom and evolution as a tuning fork, bringing us into vibration with our highest Self.
✨ Bridging the mystical and the mundane, the spiritual and practical, spirit and soul, joy and grief.
✨ Transmuting our "base materials" into gold... turning pain into power, wounds into wisdom, and grief into grace.
Todays attunement is about transmuting stress into spaciousness.
I write this month’s attunement from the majestic mountainside of Urubamba, in the sacred valley of Peru. I’ve been here for 11 days now, on retreat with a group of leaders, creators, visionaries and life-artists.
The beauty is exquisite, the food is extraordinary, the flowers are abundant and the energy of this place is pure magic.
After a full week of luxurious vacation vibes, it suddenly dawned on me that the ball of nervous, anxious energy in my gut had finally dissipated. A full WEEK, my friend. Maybe that isn’t even long, but I was taken aback by the time required by my body to settle into a slower rhythm.
What’s clear to me is that my body has its own rhythm completely separate from my personal desired timeline.
What’s also clear to me is that I arrived here in emotional burnout.
It’s humble to admit it, Kate. I like to believe that I’m Wonder Woman, that I have a nervous system of solid gold which cannot be touched by the toils of daily life.
Nope.
Can you relate?
On the plane ride here, I started listening to the audio version of the book “Burnout: the secret to unlocking the stress cycle” by Amelia and Emily Nagoski (btw I love sisters co-authoring books). I’m still working through it, but I’m already in awe. My basic understanding thus far is this…
Stress is not the problem. Stress is to be expected, and a normal aspect of being human in this current iteration of Planet Earth.
The problem is our failure to ‘complete the stress cycle’ which has very specific physical requirements, allowing our body to come back into homeostasis.
When we fail to complete our stress cycles on a daily basis — which may be big or small, triggered by a major scare or a minor emotional fray — that energy builds up inside us, and becomes stuck. This stuck energy then has major consequences on us, emotionally, mentally and physically. Enter burnout.
According to the authors, burnout is defined as:
“Emotional exhaustion — the fatigue that comes from caring too much, for too long. Depersonalization — the depletion of empathy, caring, and compassion. Decreased sense of accomplishment — an unconquerable sense of futility or feeling that nothing you do makes any difference.”
With this definition, it's easy to see how we can fall unknowingly into burnout.
Whether you’re a parent observing the neverending tide of school shootings in the news, a medical student swallowing years of pressure for high performance, or a facilitator holding space for folks navigating turmoil and trauma… heck, even if you’re a perfectionist, holding yourself to impossible standards…
These are all recipes for burnout.
I don't know about you, but I’m facing a crucial choice point.
How long will I continue to live like this?
Friend, this trip marks a pivot for me.
I refuse to scrape by in burnout.
I choose to thrive, despite a world where chaos reigns.
And while it can seem nearly incomprehensible to crawl out of the dark hole of stress and emotional exhaustion at times, I choose to believe there is another way.
This is the way of
S P A C I O U S N E S S
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I hereby choose to encode my reality with the gift of spaciousness.
And who better to learn about spaciousness from than the majestic Andean condor?
The condor is a sacred totem in the Andean cosmovision, representing Hanaq Pacha, the sky realms of ether and the world of the heavens and cosmos.
If you visit Peru or acquaint yourself with its cosmology, you'll quickly recognize the repeating theme of serpent (underworld realm of Uku Pacha), puma (earthly realm of Kai Pacha) and condor (sky realm of Hanaq Pacha). These 3 realms represent the quantum reality across time and space — pacha literally translates to “time and space” in Quechua, the language of the Andes.
I was blessed to actually see Condor flying with my own eyes on this trip! It took my breath away. They are H U G E creatures! They can stand on average over 4 feet tall, weigh over 30 pounds and have a maximum wingspan of 10.5 feet!
Condors are vultures, scavengers who feed on the dead. Therefore, there is never a lack in their food source, because they are masters of the life and death cycle. Scarcity is non-existent if you rely on death as a source of nourishment. With infinite patience, they rest assured that their food source will always be abundant.
When I think of the condor, I see a master of spaciousness. Condor knows how to take up space with those majestic gigantic wings, how to navigate space while flying through the air, and how to co-exist as space while moving gracefully through the ethers.
While hiking the ancient pilgrimage of the Inca Trail on this trip — our route was an 8-hour trek from the base of the mountains through the back door of Machu Picchu —- our wise guide Valerio taught us that the condor is seen as a teacher for creating more balance in our lives, as seen by their ability to easily shift with the air currents and remain graceful in flight despite living in the Andes mountain range.
This teaching brought a smile to my face and feels like a balm to my heart.
Condor and I have already been on a journey together for over a decade. A friend of mine played the song ‘El Condor Pasa’ on guitar as I walked down the aisle on my wedding day, and it is one of my life anthems and favorite songs to sing. I am blessed to have a white condor feather in my shamanic tool basket, which I use for clearing and cleansing in rituals and ceremonies. This deep love of Condor medicine is not new, but newly awakened in my body and soul.
What if Condor could become my new teacher for creating more peace, ease and spaciousness in my life?
And what if, inside of that spaciousness, I could learn to complete my stress cycles on a regular basis, bringing my body, mind and heart into harmony?
This, my friend, is the new invitation I am bringing home for myself, and today I share it with you.
Will you join Condor and me as we fly beyond the limits of poor boundaries, beyond the fear of falling or failing, and transcend the paradigm of constriction?
If your answer is yes, my love, read on.
Let’s fly.
✨ 3 Alchemical Inquiries ✨
1. What resistance arises when I truly consider choosing to give myself permission to create more spaciousness in my daily life?
2. Expand your creativity, and brainstorm 3 ways you could create 3 additional windows of time (10-30 minutes each) to rest, reflect and replenish during your day.
3. What would more spaciousness in your daily life allow you to feel, experience and create? What might be possible if you gave yourself this gift?
✨ Alchemical Attunement ✨
Condor Contemplation
Go outside. Remove your shoes and socks, and stand on the earth. Find a grassy knoll or a hill if you can, where you’ve got an unobstructed view of a beautiful, majestic landscape.
Close your eyes, and take 3 deep breaths, savoring the quality of air in your lungs.
After you feel yourself more grounded to the earth, raise and extend your arms to create your widest wingspan. Spread your hands wide, noticing the air between your fingers.
Begin to breathe more fully and deeply into your heart center as you feel this expand to each side.
Slowly, begin to move your arms as if you’re flying though the sky. Imagine you are riding the air currents, and envision the balance required to shift from left to right, front to back, up and down, in order to maintain your equilibrium and ease.
Allow yourself to bring to mind a situation where you feel unbalanced and stressed in your life. Intentionally throw yourself off balance, then bring yourself back with the wisdom of your body.
Allow your imagination to work and invite forth a creative solution for how you might bring this sense of embodied balance to that situation. Ask Condor for guidance. Ask the Earth, Kai Pacha, and the ethers, Hanaq Pacha, for help. Clear your mind and listen.
When you feel complete, slowly bring your hands over your heart, sealing in your flight and your inner journey with Condor.
✨ Alchemical Mantra ✨
I expand in Prosperity, Productivity, and Spaciousness simultaneously.
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May these codes of S P A C I O U S N E S S ruffle your feathers in the best way possible, then smooth them out in preparation for your most pleasurable flight yet.
I’d love to hear how this landed in your heart, Kate.
Hit reply and let me know.
Also, if you haven't checked out my free ‘Optimize your Energy’ training, I recommend it. It’s all about balancing what I call sun and moon energy, and feels deeply relevant to this conversation on transmuting our stress into spaciousness.
May we fly together, transcending and transmuting a culture of stress into something much more nourishing.
Nature knows. Let’s follow her lead.
To the soft breeze lifting you upward,
Britta
