“The habitual tendency when things get tough is that we protect ourselves, we get hard, we get rigid. But…that’s the time to soften and see how we might play or dance with the situation.”
- Jeff Bridges
There is no doubt that the last nine months have brought monumental challenges to each of our lives and impacted each one of us in very different ways. Most of us are experiencing profound grief and loss in some way, shape or form and likely in ways you’ve never encountered before. Perhaps you’ve lost a job, your routine, your financial stability, relationships, loved ones, your health, dreams, your home, social justice, climate change, hope…the list is seemingly endless right now. The losses are plentiful and heavy, and each requires our full attention, just as losing something meaningful should.
Video and photography by Zeke (@zeke__neubauer) and Ali Kaukas ( @allliiibaba)
I know what you’re thinking though.
“But this just won’t end! The hits keep coming. I can’t even catch my breath long enough to allow for the healing to occur.”
What if, however, there was a way to grieve, to feel the full impact of each loss and still create and hold space for our healing through the process of continuing to live? What if you still planned to run that race that was cancelled from Covid, dedicated yourself to a training regimen and showed up on race day, even if to complete the “race” alone? What if you still climbed that mountain even if the person you always climbed mountains with is not physically at your side any longer? What if you set aside 30 min a day from rushing through the “To Do” list to instead walk in the woods, touch the trees, breathe in the leaves and allow the fall chilled breeze to wrap you up in its embrace? What if you felt and acknowledged the sometimes crippling depression calling you back to bed but instead you called a friend and allowed them to take your hand, pull you out in the fresh air even if just to sit in silence together? What if instead of closing in and becoming rigid we actively chose to hold space for our losses by honoring our grief, while simultaneously choosing to actively participate in what returns us to innocence and heals us from the inside out. Life doesn’t have to come to a grinding halt right now if we instead choose to ebb and flow like a river, dancing along the rocky (often jarring) paths that continuously assist in the redirection of our energies.
Now more than ever may be an opening for clarity; an opportunity to put into stark focus a way of living that allows for grieving, concurrently. The chance to create a new healing mixture of love and loss and yes, especially life. A recipe that acts a calming salve to the wounds we are all nursing right now, while still actively fostering life - living, coming alive, shedding layers, growing new feathers, loving – in all our newly challenging circumstances and constantly changing landscapes.
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Mana Threads
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XS
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S
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M
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L
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XL
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0-2
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4-6
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8-10
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12-14
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16
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||
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Bust
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32 - 33
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34 - 35
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36 - 37
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38 - 39
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41-43
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Waist
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25-26
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27-28
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29-30
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29-30
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31-32
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Hip
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34.5 - 35.5
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36.5 - 37.5
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38.5 - 39.5
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40.5 - 41.5
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43
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Alaina Holliday
Author