Movement

Step 1: Establishing the sky and ground for a landscape.

Our human bodies are rather amazing. Our nervous system is subdivided into the sympathetic commonly known as the fight or flight mode, and the parasympathetic, which is the rest and digest mode. Today, we know that there is a third sympathetic response known as freeze. We’ve probably all seen some small animal engage in this behavior when they’ve become aware of a threat in their environment.

Problem is, our human brains haven’t evolved fast enough to distinguish between the bear that is chasing us or the need to bear with an angry person or email. We enter full sympathetic nervous system response with the flooding of adrenaline and cortisol, tensing up of muscles, a faster beating heart, and lungs pumping air in and out at a rapid rate. That’s why someone might try to give you the helpful advice to sit down and take a couple of deep breathes, and a pat of the shoulder with the kind words of “it will be okay.” Your brain might be screaming “that’s not helping”, yet the calming effects of the deep breathes are telling your body otherwise.

So why am I starting today’s letter with all of this information? Because I want to talk about the freeze modality, which tends to be the response I often engage in when stressed by events in my life. I had intended to talk about this concept last week earlier in the whole new year/new you mode, but then the fires happened. Now three weeks into 2025, I want to discuss moving whether it be forward, backward, or side to side.

Step 2: addition of some plants in the landscape.

I’ve been feeling stuck for a while now. I turned to online content centered around resolutions, goal setting, decluttering, list making, prioritizing, which if I’m honest was overwhelming, yet there were kernels of wisdom that resounded with me. One of which is: I don’t have to do it all at once - I can take it in tiny increments. A little bit of action can go a long way in helping to boost the mood and get stuff done.

In the spirit of honesty and full disclosure, I’ve become totally overwhelmed by the clutter in my life, constantly telling myself I must get organized. For years I’ve been seeking the perfect system. I’ve read the books. I’ve watched the videos. I’ve bought the planners and the containers. Guess what? None of it seemed to really work. Why? Because I finally figured out that they were someone else’s system, and not my own. It was up to me to figure out a system that would work for me and that I could maintain long term.

Over the past three weeks, I’ve packed up the Christmas decorations I no longer use, and gave them away. I’ve gone through the utensil drawer and got rid of the duplicates. I put the almost new sneakers that I bought a half size too big that never feel right when I walk in them, into a bag for donation. The junk drawer where half of the stuff went into the trash where it should have gone in the first place. These small steps have resulted in my feeling a bit lighter and calmer for having committing to taking these actions.

It isn’t only the physical space that I’ve been working on, it’s also been the mental/emotional spaces of my mind that have been having a bit of a decluttering. Old ideas, beliefs, or fears that I’ve been carrying around have found themselves being inspected and re-evaluated. “Do they spark joy or not?” These are sometimes harder to get rid of, but if you find yourself ruminating over something maybe it is time to ask yourself why? Do you really need to waste the energy worrying about something that may never come to pass?

Now the reality of life is that even though we are taking what we think are steps forward, we may in fact need to back up and move laterally in order to get around the roadblocks that have been thrown in our way. Don’t despair if this is the case because you are still moving. Moving is better than staying still and stuck. That’s why we might find ourselves tackling an easier task before doing the harder ones because the results might be satisfyingly visible. Procrasti-cleaning (look it up it is a thing), may be a delaying tactic that I employ, but I have such a feeling of success when I am done. Of course all the pundits will tell you to do the hard things first, but I’m going to tell you if you are frozen and the little things are easier to do then do them. You need to thaw first before you can tackle the hard things. Know that you might get overwhelmed again, but now you have the knowledge to get yourself going again.

Some of life’s challenges may lead us to having to start all over from the beginning and rebuild. Sometimes it isn’t safe to make visible movement is certain situations. That’s when the tiniest preparatory steps can be made in secret until the day comes when visible motion can be taken.

Step 4: added more details to give depth. Not done yet, but it is getting there.

The lesson for me was to get myself unstuck. Not only have I begun to declutter, make lists, and prioritize the hard things that I’ve been putting off, I’ve made the decision to step away from social media for a while. Too much doom scrolling is another freeze behavior that I’ve identified in myself. I’m also taking a break from some platforms as an act of resistance. Movement is also an act of resistance. We are in control of the direction in which we wish to move. I certainly want to move away from the shoulds that are imposed by society. Do I really need to have all the things that are being advertised to me, or follow this eating/exercise plan, think these ideas, accept these behaviors, or any of the myriad of ideas that are posted? The answer is no. No, I don’t have to do anything that doesn’t resonate with my heart. And it’s okay if you don’t resonate with what I have shared in the post. What I do hope for you, is that there might be a kernel of truth somewhere in all these words that might be of use to you.

Take care of yourself and those you love in the week ahead. I hope you make movement in your life whether it be forward, backward or side to side.

Maryanne

P.S. The photos show the small steps that go into the creation of a piece of artwork. I’m not done working on it, but this is where I’ve taken it so far.