Emerging Form

+ 30 Days of Self Care Practices

Summer certainly brings different rhythms.

Every season does when we pay attention – I don’t think you needed me to write that, I just like to be reminded that I get to shift my rhythms with the wisdom of the natural world around me. I realize every season opens the doorway for something different inside and asks for a different kind of tending.

I wonder in time as my kids grow up, potentially moving away from our nest and the days of high school travel behind us how summer will continue to evolve and change form. This also brings to my heart how this is happening in our world with the climate crises, each season will continue to shift and change and we will need to adapt and consider more deeply our responsibility and relationship with our environment while we’re here.

I’ve been working a lot this summer, a little busier than normal, which I feel the contrast to the spaciousness of my boys within our intimate living space. I’m trying to continue with my responsibilities within the work I love, yet also enjoy these lazy days of summer before fall routines reappear in our lives.

It’s certainly been the dance of my summer.

I also recently returned from a powerful few days at Brooksong, my first time co-facilitating a full weekend retreat. It was powerful, and an incredible honour, a deeply personal and intimate few days.

Being a witness at these retreats changes me, in unexpected ways every time I make the journey.

Emerging Form
Shift
Internal excavation
In the maze you will not find what you are looking for
It’s in the untamed forest
That lives within your body
Under fallen trees
Where the death and decay of old life
Has nourished the soil
In its disintegration
Feeding the earth of your body
With what no longer supports life now
But is needed
Reforming
Emerging from the depths
Nourished by the quiet, deep in the darkness
Alchemy asks for time
Patience
For careful and gentle tending
To move into the shadows and breathe
Feeling how here too
You are held
Layers deep within
Every breath stretches the scars
Tearing tissues
Every opening
Urging new life
Form Emerging
From spaces forgotten
Spaces unknown
Until Now

-Amber Young

Before I close I wanted to share the 30 days of self care practices I created for the Brooksong summer fundraiser, it’s been an amazing process. This was my second year taking part in this initiative. My offering holds the intention of extending my hand as a form of community support and along the way includes streams from my own lived experience with cancer, and a tribute to a community and a place that has provided me and countless others with incredible opportunities for healing.

The links to 30 short self care practices are below for you (ranging from 3 – 17 minutes), I made them as a free gift for community, and you my love, are part of my community.

If you choose to move through this self care journey with me (through these recordings), may you find support, inspiration, and a reminder that you’re not navigating this human journey alone. Exploring songs, poems, breath practices, guided rest, reflective practices, and movement – weaving the threads of a beautiful tapestry together.

With so much love

Amber

Day 1Grounding and settling in together

Day 2 A breath practice

Day 3 I am connected – Song

Day 4 Grounding with movement

Day 5 A reflection – reading by David Whyte

Day 6 Tree of life meditation

Day 7 Welcoming in the thread of community

Day 8 Bumblebee breath

Day 9 We are created by sound – Song

Day 10 Movement within the community of your body