Friday, February 12
lightward.com/newsletter

Wellness for you and me

I love the breath. I’m constantly learning and becoming more aware of it, of its movement, its dynamic. (This is another reminder to read Breath, by James Nestor, if you’re interested in this stuff.)

Nasal breathing is a specifically and surprisingly awesome thing: 

“We breathe anywhere from 20,000-25,000 times a day. Make sure that these breaths are as optimal as possible. We absorb less oxygen when breathing through our mouths. As air comes in through our nose, it is pressurized and moistened by the nasal cavity, making our body more capable of absorbing that oxygen - 18-20% more. … When you breathe through your mouth (using mainly your chest and neck muscles), the body equates these short, shallow and stressful breaths to a fight-or-flight response. Now imagine..you are signalling to your body that you are stressed, with everything single breath, every single day. Over time, this can cause chronic stress and inflammation.” @spreadwhealth

So, friends, let’s take a moment to breathe through our nose. For real! I’m doing it right now as I write, just slowly inhaling and exhaling through my nose. Maybe that’s automatic for you, maybe not, but when you’re watching Netflix or on a walk or working, practice simply breathing through your nose, and practice feeling it. Our bodies don’t like being stressed, so give it a little bit of a break, by just breathing through your nose.

Celebrate where you are

We sometimes forget how far we’ve come. I’m constantly reminding my clients, celebrating with them how far they've come since that first call. It’s easy to dismiss the work we’ve put in, easy to not even realize that we are at a totally better place than we might even think.

Sometimes we think we are experiencing stagnation when in reality, we actually are just moving slowly towards our goals. It’s still movement, but the slowness of it can feel like failure. I think that comes from simply forgetting that the journey is never ending. A moment that feels like stagnation now looks like what I dreamed about five years ago. My weight, for example. I’ve been at the same weight the last two years of my #abeminus100 journey. Over the last two years, I’ve hovered at 60-75 pounds lost. My goal is to hit 100 pounds lost, and I can view these two years as a failure or simply as part of the greater journey that is unfolding. Instead of focusing on such a limiting-feeling thought as stagnation, I’m purposefully focused on continuing to develop my nutrition habits, build techniques for elevating my mood and decreasing stress, and I’m constantly getting PRs in the gym. What I could consider stagnation today was something I literally thought I could never do 5 years ago.

Now, what’s one of the key ingredients to combat quitting or real stagnation?

Celebration.

Focus on the things that are going right. Celebrate them! Absolutely notice things that you can improve on but also don’t stay hyper focused on what’s going wrong—focusing on the negative doesn’t lead to productive, sustainable results. Celebrating what’s going right will build the momentum you actually need to improve the areas in which you desire growth.

There’s no point in beating yourself up for things you haven’t gotten “right” in this current moment. Negativity begets negativity, begets pessimism begets apathy begets you not reaching your goals. Instead, celebrate how far you’ve come and all that you’re doing right now, in this moment. And these things that we are celebrating don’t need to be getting a raise or buying a new house or finding a new partner (though congrats if you are celebrating those!)—it can be simply getting out of bed during a pandemic, or washing the dishes, or resting, hydrating, SMILING! Don’t take any of these moments that you’re alive for granted—see them, celebrate them.

An opt-in exercise for you: write down what you are celebrating right now. Think about where you’ve been and how far you’ve come. Look around you. Look inside. Dig deep. Find something to celebrate about your epic journey. Focus on it. Cheers and/or pat yourself on the back. You’re doing it. Keep going. And don’t forget to celebrate where you are.

I believe in you,

Abe

Okay, so, let’s celebrate then

• On Wednesday night, Lightward confirmed its fourth full-time hire. (Or sixth, if you count Abe and me as employees, which the IRS does.) Phenomenal match, in skillset, mindset, and energyset (that’s a thing, right?). Timing was perfect, path to introduction natural, and I’m really joyfully digging the way our team composition is evolving. Celebrating celebrating celebrating.

• Abe and I are skipping our paycheck for this round, redirecting those funds to a business investment in something that I am deeply curious about. That’s a first! Celebrating all kinds of things around that.

• I’m getting very, very good at acceptance, letting things be what they are. Moving on when a thing has closed. Celebrating the things that are demonstrating their alive-ness, and carrying them with me. I’m getting good at breathing easy. :)

• Mechanic processed five million runs the other day, in a single day, which is the same volume we hit during Black Friday a couple months ago. Things are haaaaappening.

• I discovered that you can totally have a tiny fireplace on your desk, by way of things like this little concrete cylinder (not an ad I just like it) and a bottle of isopropyl alcohol. I’m astonished that this isn’t more of a thing.

• Celebrating the proving of trust in the goodness of an unfolding desire. That sentence is dense (sorry) but accurate—we found a new want that we didn’t fully understand, and successfully held a posture of trust, that any naturally-emerging thing would lead to something good when given time to breathe and express and be understood. And it did! I’m being super, super vague here, but the core thing I’m celebrating is that held onto trust, were surprised by the ultimate outcome (it expanded awareness in a way we did not expect), and it was indeed good.

• I love these days. I feel at home, in myself, in our physical home, in the cadence we’ve found here. It just all feels really, really good. :)

Wishing you good days, and warm light,

-Isaac

Things we are making

Lightward Together

Only a few more sleeps until our next Lightward Together group session and we’re feeling sparkly and excited! This shared time on our group calls has been an energizing way to stay connected with like-minded humans from all over the world— even amidst this unique time of physical distance. It’s a recharge, a reminder to stay close to our agency, close to our breath, close to that sense of inner knowing that’s always there. 

And there’s still time to join before our next group session on Monday, February 15th at 5pm MST! Once you sign up, you’ll gain access to our private Slack channel for ongoing support as well as our library of past sessions so you can take a deep dive into what we’ve covered so far. 

Sign up at lightward.com/together!

Empowered Human Academy

Our guest this week is talented photographer and self-described deep feeler, Megan Kantor. Megan and her husband Nate run their own wedding photography business, @cedarandpines, and we are major fans of their work. While Megan is typically on the road traveling for weddings, due to the pandemic she’s been putting down roots and finding slower rhythms at their new home in Joshua Tree.

Throughout this conversation we explore discovering contentment, what it means to trust yourself, and mindfully limiting external stimulation so you can begin to create work that feels different and unique to you. In a lot of ways, this conversation is about existing in that liminal space before you know what you’re going to create next. It’s an exploration of how to stay in tune with yourself as you create a life that feels interesting to you. We loved this window into Megan’s life that feels especially resonant and timely as we’re all navigating this uncharted moment in time together.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

easy, easy now, it’s all coming