JC guides a Self Care Sunday practice inspired by Franciscan monks, inviting listeners into the thin space between past and future through meditative storytelling and a breathing exercise drawn from sauna-based Thermaculture sessions.
Sunday morning is Self Care Sunday. JC: To kick off the day, we spent some time in the thin space, the space in between everything that has been and everything that will be. He says anytime you attempt to slow down or stop, you're going to feel the change. JC says that's when everything gets clear.
Hey there, Cadre. How are we doing? How are we? It is Sunday morning, December something, and my name is JC And I'm sitting in my Mazda where you will always find me. For the Sunday morning livestream to kick off Self Care Sunday. What's going on today? As you look at your day, are you seeing yourself kind of look back, seeing yourself look forward? Are you stressing out about everything you have coming up this week or maybe the rest of the year? So often we exist in the thinking back and the thinking forward.
It's very human, but it's also very the way that we have accustomed ourselves to be. So on Sunday mornings, to kick off the day, we spent some time in the thin space, the space in between everything that has been and everything that will be. This is an exercise derived by Franciscan monks where they would find the space between day and night and light and dark and good and bad and beginnings and ends and seasons and seasons within this space. That's where they would try to carve out so they could meditate, they could be still so they could think and connect and communicate from that thin space in between.
I love this exercise and I love being able to come up with different ways to help people journey into that space. So let me tell you about a time this week that I had the opportunity to do that. There is an event in the Minneapolis area called thermaculture. Minneapolis in St. Paul has a very large sauna kind of culture that's been growing more and more and more again. And Thermaculture is a sauna kind of meditative story experience on the rooftop of a converted warehouse into a hotel with the most beautiful view of downtown Minneapolis.
So I lead this Thermaculture event every once in a while. And this experience takes three trips through the sauna and then onto the pool deck where there's a hot tub and cold buckets and beautiful views and all the things you'd want for a space of being soft and present. We do that, that cycle three times. Sauna I guide with some story and some meditation, and then they have free time out on the pool deck. We do that three times 7 to 9pm people go on their way now each time in the, in the, in the sauna, I spend time flexing their mental muscles around first the past, second time we come in the future and the third time in that thin space.
And I tell you, you don't know what I find every single time I lead this experience. Just like if you're in an automobile and you're going, let's say 55 miles an hour and then there's a stop sign in front of you. No matter how prepared you are, no matter how much lead way you have before the stop sign, you're still going to feel this, you're going to feel deceleration. And normally in deceleration, even if you see it coming, there's a little bit of anxiety of like, oh my gosh, we need to stop, we need to stop, we need to stop.
And then we've stopped or slowing down. If it's, you know, I just drove down a road where it goes from 55 to 35 and I have to slow down, temper my speed. It's an invitation for you today to know that anytime you attempt to slow down or stop, you're going to feel the change, you're going to feel the deceleration. And along with that, that's when your mind's gonna get complicated. That's when you're gonna get anxious, that's when you're gonna get maybe like, I don't wanna do this, I don't wanna do this.
This Thursday night was an example. There's like 20 people in the, in the journey with me on Thursday through this thermal culture and the first time in the sauna, like five people reactively left the sauna. They had to get out. I always say it's like, hey, you can go ahead and move down levels in the sauna and it'll get cooler and cooler. You can drink water, you, you can open mouth, exhale, release some heat, all these things. But that first round is normally the time when people go, no, I need to get out of here.
If any time you're taking some self care time, some thin space time, some restful time, please know, please remember, please remind one another that you will feel the deceleration and it's often going to feel like distraction or anger or anxiety. That's not only normal, that's sensical. So if you've ever heard the idea like, oh, meditation's about clearing your mind, or I go, nah, actually my mind is least clear when I'm meditating. Why? Because that's when everything gets to move and play. In that deceleration, we let things happen.
So please let those things happen, y'all. We'll see you later, have a good one.
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