Or Listen On:

Show Notes

In this episode, I’m recording outside in Alaska during a bright late-March day — walking alongside a creek and letting the environment shape the conversation. From here, I explore the idea of feeling ready — and how readiness is often a nervous system state, not a prerequisite.

I share how I moved from feeling tired and foggy into a state where I could record, using small steps like voice noting a friend and going for a walk. This opens into a larger conversation about why we wait to feel ready, how energy is often created through action, and why starting small isn’t a compromise — it’s the strategy.

We also explore the tension between the parts of us that want to move forward and the parts that don’t, and how to work with both through a gentle, somatic lens. The episode closes with a short guided practice to help you find a more supportive way to begin.

This episode is an invitation to rethink readiness and take one small step forward.

Timestamps

00:00 — Walking + orienting to the moment
02:30 — Feeling ready as a nervous system state
05:20 — Seasonal transitions + birthday reflections
08:30 — Summer Strong + timing across seasons
11:45 — Waiting to feel ready
12:50 — Not feeling ready (personal example)
14:30 — Warm-ups + scaffolding
17:00 — Titration: small steps + check-ins
19:50 — Readiness isn’t required
24:30 — Mis-measuring the gap
28:30 — Energy comes after starting
30:00 — Starting small is the strategy
33:20 — Titration + pendulation
36:30 — Trusting yourself without full readiness
39:45 — Transition into practice
42:45 — Guided practice begins
47:45 — “Ready” vs “not ready” parts
52:00 — Supporting the “not ready” part
53:00 — Bringing parts into relationship
55:30 — Closing

Submit your questions for the Q&A [here]

Photos and links from this episode:
www.mindandmountain.co/podcast

Transcript

Sarah 0:02
Hello there. It's really pretty out. I'm trying to find a spot where I can walk with you, close to the water so you can hear the lovely sounds of this little creek that I'm walking past. Let's see if this works. I

Speaker 1 0:33
and while you're listening, I'll take a photo. I'm

Sarah 0:47
the light is really pretty right now, and the snow, it's just Alaska in March, is really incredible. I and we are having great snow year, and it's just really beautiful out the light feels like a miracle, and I'm so grateful for the really nice winter we've had this year, especially hearing lots of places in the US, barely had any winter this year, which is so weird. So it's putting it in perspective how special winter is, and honestly, what a bomb it is for my nervous system that really appreciates living in a cyclical way in, you know, In the annual cycle, and also in a monthly cycle though perimenopause, okay, also a life cycle, because perimenopause is a phase inside of the annual life cycle, and it has similar qualities to fall and winter and also the potential of a spring. I've heard of post menopause as the idea of second spring, which I love, and I've been feeling inklings of that recently, though I'm in, probably more like early perimenopause, but there are ways I'm having, like a rebound right now of athleticism and coming into, like a new stage of my athletic life. And it has kind of a spring like quality, and it feels really good. So definitely want to talk about that in a different episode today. I have an episode for you around feeling ready and what some different ways we might think about that state. Think of it as a nervous system state, rather than a feeling, which means there's ways we play with our and support our different nervous system states. Oh my gosh, it's so nice out you guys. I really wish you were here in real time with me. It's just, it's like my fingers are cold, but it's pretty warm

Sarah 3:56
in the sun. Okay, I'm like, having trouble maintaining my train of thought because it's so beautiful. Hopefully this isn't really annoying to listen to because of that, but we're gonna go with it, maybe that the light carries through, and you get a little bit of like, opportunity to co regulate with me and my delight with this walk I'm having right now and sharing it with you.

Sarah 4:34
Yeah, if there's a way, if you want to bring that into the body, see if there's a way that you notice your sensations changing at all.

Sarah 4:57
I've got like, some extra uplift. And space in my chest and upper back, it feels really nice too.

Sarah 5:10
And I feel like some weight in my feet too, and then especially when we feel the sense of like connectedness. I

Sarah 5:24
Okay, so I want, now I want to do an announcement. So this timing of this episode, it is late the 20 in the 20s in March when I'm recording this. It's my it's birthday week where I'm from. My brother's birthday was a couple days ago, and mine is on Thursday when this episode comes out. And I love March and this time of year so much. It often coincides with when this ski route comes in here that's called Arctic to Indian where, like a back country nordic ski route that we like to do, and it often falls on birthdays. And it fell on my brother's birthday over the weekend, and it was gorgeous, and there was no wind, even the snow is so good, I was in a tank top for part of the day. And it's really, it's really unique kind of back in Nordic, back country ski adventure kind of thing. Particular type of skiing, which is pretty awesome and ephemeral, you're kind of only get to do it a few times a year. So yeah, I try to do this route once a year if I can. But it didn't come in at all last year. Anyways, super fun. We saw a bunch of people, really big community, kind of feeling in a really nice way, super friendly people. And Ben was wearing a crown for some of the day. So lots of people told him happy birthday, which is like a fun way to experience just like happy birthdays from strangers throughout and people you know, throughout the day. It gives, like, really nice sense of community. Okay, so the announcement is that it is weirdly spring is such a weird time in seasonally, because here in Alaska, we're having, like, ski season, and my co worker, Raine, on my team, is in Colorado, where it's 90 and she's like in the heat, heat, and it's all that like inside of the spring season, we have such a variety of thing like temperatures and ecosystem experiences, environmental experiences. So the starting up of summer strong, my fitness training program that is nervous system support and strength and functional fitness and the cross training that helps you do the summer, fun, adventure, play, mountain time the way you want, or just be functional In your life and feel good in your body. Could be not in the mountains too, and that training program starts up in three weeks, April 13. But some people have already started it because it's like full on summer where you are already that's not Alaska schedule typically, because we're still doing winter sports now for a little while, but some of you are like rolling on summer, and it is my dream that this program ripple out beyond Alaska, though I do think it's like really nice for Alaskans, well oriented around our super functional lifestyle, but the applications outside of Alaska are also really big. So I would love just setting an intention here. I do want summer strong to grow, and I think it's like such a good program for so many of us in these stages of life that I think about for people here. So anyways, I could give a whole spiel on summer strong, but it is one of my like big creations in my life, and it's felt like a work of art in some ways, and this season, I'm pouring some new things into it that relate to what we've been. Talking about here on CO regulation conversations, teaching workouts with more of a somatic lens, super fun, and some new, recorded, pre recorded and produced workouts with mobility truck models. And I want to know I'm going to weave some nervous system, something else in in the early season, and I don't know what it is yet. So if there's something you've been wanting to learn, maybe we do like the somatics of the mindset modules like weakest link syndrome and workout perfectionism and comparison traps like all that stuff, that could be pretty fun. I think so. Playing around with some ideas. What if you want to learn something specific inside of summer strong with me this year, let me know while I'm here, ideating, okay, so we have an on ramp for summer strong right now, if you want to just jump in and get started, You can do that. And whenever you jump in, we'll just like, give you free access until our summer Strong Start date on the 13th of April, for those that are like, ready to go. And, yeah, you can do whatever in there. You could start somewhere strong earlier. You could just, like, tool around, do some other things. The idea here, this is a transition now, because I've been thinking about what would support people rolling into summer strong this year, 2026 and I get this sense that the idea or the feeling of like, feeling ready, or feeling like you have space or energy in your life to do something, to like, make a change at this time of year is something that many of us are struggling with, because a lot of us are at capacity and feeling maxed out already, and we're waiting for this feeling of like readiness or capacity. So that's what I want to spend some time talking and thinking about here together. I

Sarah 12:50
Okay, so I like to start teaching a concept by telling a story about it. So here I'm actually kind of living this one in real time right now, because I had recording this podcast on my to do list today. But I've been really tired because we did that big ski day yesterday, and I don't think I hydrated it as well as I should have our fueled. And I don't know it does feel like being in perimenopause requires different levels of that kind of stuff for me, like, if I don't take care of very good care of myself, I will, like, pay the price in a different way than used to be true, it feels like one of the lessons of perimenopause is to, like, take a really Fucking good care of yourself, or else, which is honestly kind of hilarious to me, because it feels like, if like, all the work that I've been doing to learn how to do that well, is like, Now is my time to shine in one in some ways, and if I don't, there's consequences. So it's really making me up my game, though. I do love this stuff. So anyways, it kind of also feels like my life work to figure out how to take really good care of myself and teach it. So anyways, I've been really tired today and like, kind of brain foggy and like, I don't really feel like recording podcast in this place. And I want to do it on this topic. And I was realizing I needed to, like, follow my own medicine to try to get to the state, okay, so I'm feeling the not ready, feeling or like I don't have capacity to do the thing I want to do well. And if I'm going to do it, I want to do it well, I want to, like, share something meaningful with you all who are listening. And so I have got some standards, even though some of what I'm also practicing here is being really organic and authentic too. But I. I, you know, I want both of those things to be true as much as possible. So I wrote up what I wanted to like, the topics I wanted to cover today, and like an outline is usually what I do for these episodes. And then I try to kind of gather my thoughts and follow an outline. Ish, while I'm out of my locks. And okay, so I wrote that all up. And then I was like, still not feeling, quote, unquote ready, like I could do that, do it well. But then I had looked, I looked at the list of strategies to support it. And one of the strategies is to, just like in a workout, realize that you might need, like a warm up and some scaffolding to get yourself to the thing that you eventually might want to do. And when we measure from like coming out off of my desk or off of the couch or whatever, and think about doing going straight to the thing. It's really hard to do that so that there's like a gap between your state that you're in when you come off the couch, nervous system state, or out of your desk, or, like, out of a work project, and to the place where you're going to do something different, like maybe a workout or record or like a creative thing, like record a podcast. So one of the strategies is to do a warm up, just like when I'm coaching people about their actual exercise regimen routines, and we're not feeling it. We're not feeling up for it, or like we're ready. I One of the things I coach is to just do the warm up and to take, you know, look, give yourself permission if you don't feel like it after the warm up to bow out. But sometimes after we get a little bit of momentum going, it feels different in our body, and then it feels like we can go one more step. And really, all you need to do is, like, follow your body into the next right step, one step at a time, and so that can really and the goal isn't necessarily to keep going. It's just to, like, do a little experiment, which, by the way, is a nervous system strategy that we call titration, which is, you just do a little bit, and then you check in, and maybe you need a break, or maybe you do want to do another little bit, and you can, like, your body wants another little wave. So I'm getting into the whole strategy here that I want to teach and offer you today. But the main part of the story here first is that I decided I could just do one step at a time, which means I started with voice noting a friend, just to get, like, some of the pleasure of like vocalizing and saying what needs to be said in my body, moving, moving things out of my mind, through my throat, out into the world, and voice noting a friend is one of my favorite ways to do that, because it's so freeing. And I can send a little note whenever, and it does feel like I'm being heard for a little bit before I'm teaching something. So I get a little anyways, lots of mechanisms happening there that are more important on site, on the like, if you want to hear me talk about this, using this stuff for business, which I know some of you do, I'm planning an episode on that soon. But the point is that it got some juices flowing, and then I also the next little scaffolding step I took was to put on my coat and step outside and go on a walk. And now here I am, because I'm out on a walk, and I found my way into my pleasure and into the flow of sharing and thinking and enjoying that process too, and now I'm having a great time. I'm gonna walk recording a podcast with you, so I'm kind of living a success of this process right now. And so let me teach. Let me share some of the strategies and the ideas about how I think of this.

Speaker 2 19:42
I Okay,

Sarah 19:55
so that might have been a longer pause than I meant to. I'm pulled up my i. I pulled up my outline, so we're talking about why feeling ready is a state of your nervous system, which means that it's not a prerequisite for doing a thing, but instead it's something that happens inside of a certain position that our nervous system can take. And it's something you know, inside of this time of year, I think there's something like really seasonal about this moment too, though, of course, this happens other time of the year, but inside of spring, we're in this big uptick of energy in the ecosystem as the sun is here so much more. Of course, this is maybe particular to Alaska, but maybe not. Lots of sun, lots of uplift of energy we're coming out of the winter season really at a big clip right now. And I think our bodies feel that on some to some degree. This is the fastest change in the amount of light that is coming in, because it's a bell curve, you know, it starts slow and it ends slow, and it ends slow, and right here in the middle, it's going really fast. So we might feel that there's a time when there's there's so much more light, but our bodies might not have caught up yet, which means you might be feeling hopeful and energized, weird mismatch, weird match, because it's like, hopeful and tired, or there's energy, and then it, like, falls flat, at least, that's how I've been feeling. Oh, and here's a moose across the way, but it's actually really cute. It's got snow on its nose, because it's probably been like, munching on the alders and the willows that are just melting out of the snow right now. So, yeah, all that, oh my gosh. Here's another moose. This one's close. Hold on a photo. And then I think I want to turn around.

Unknown Speaker 22:22
I Okay,

Sarah 22:27
a little moose break. I did take a little video there. If you want to see it, it'll be on the podcast page. Sometimes I post them on Instagram, but Okay, now I'm walking away from the moose

Sarah 22:47
and just feeling my feet a little bit and taking my time to come back to the topic, because that's some of what I am trying to do here, too, is to just model how I'm navigating nervous system waves in real time. That one was a little surprising to have a moose that close, and my nervous system amped up for a little bit on kind of a stressful way, and before, I had been like, excited sharing things with you, and then it jumped to, like, excitement and surprise and all that's like some tension in my shoulders and brain and eyes and spine throughout so belly a jittery kind of feeling, and now it is still kind of there, but it's feeling like it's closer to that excitement place than it before, like it's broadening my shoulders a little bit, and the energy is still there, but it's like broader, rather than in that tight, kind of scared feeling surprised. Okay, so talking you through that in real time, and yeah, I'm gonna pull up my outline again.

Sarah 24:32
Okay, so we're back to this feeling ready as a nervous system state concept and Okay, so I want to talk cognitively for a little bit about why we wait, why we're waiting to feel ready and okay, one of the things that I see here is this mis measurement and. Yeah, the thing that happens when we're thinking about doing a thing, this is going to be like a workouts are going to be a really good metaphor here. But maybe you're also waiting for readiness to take on a creative project, start a podcast or a business, or take on a advocacy challenge of some sort. I mean, go on a date. I don't know. There's, like, lots of applications. Yeah, someday I'd love to hear how you're applying this stuff, honestly too. That would be really useful for me to have some examples, but in a workout form, it's what I just named before. It's comparing how we feel when we're coming off the couch or out of our computer brain to and then being like, do I want to do a workout? And we're thinking about ourselves now and then we're thinking about the max interval or the hardest part of the workout, and we're like, God, no, that's a long ways from where I feel like right now, I can't so we're measuring our now to the heart of the time and feeling the gap and saying, No, that feels bad. I don't want to jump to that place and we miss the opportunity to feel into the scaffolding and the transitions along the way. So, yeah, that's, that's like, the story. That's like some of what I was explaining in my like tired to podcasting, transition state change. We got to change the states gradually by noticing what state you're in and then looking at the gap and the different thinking about different scaffolding stages to play with between the two.

Sarah 27:09
Because, you know, change takes energy and the body, okay, this is, like an interesting thing about nervous systems and bodies, is that our body is going to prioritize, keep staying in the same state, or, like preserving the state. Because bodies, like they don't change, takes energy, and bodies are generally going to try to conserve energy, so even if it's the same as we don't like, so it's like the known thing that you're in, even if it's like you don't like, it is the known thing is going to feel better inside the nervous system than The unknown. It's just easier. So any type of shifting does require there's a little bit of friction there, right? We Yes, we feel this. So okay, so that's one thing, and then there is often this thing we do, too, where we're waiting for more like energy to do something, or space, or the feeling of more capacity. But this actually happens in more of a reverse way. It's usually the it's actually the feeling. It's like the energy comes after you start the thing, and hey, the the energy is generated through doing the thing, so we have to kind of take a leap of faith there and trust that the energy will come. This happens with workouts. For sure. You know, like you go in feeling like really tired or flat, and then by the end, you often feel more energized, at least, that's the type of work that I like to do. They leave you feeling better afterward. And I think there is something that happens there inside of a creative process, too. If you're sitting on a creative idea that actually takes energy, and the getting rolling with it is generative, if it's the right project. Not that there won't be some like energy required and stretching and discomfort sometimes along the way, but there is also a life force that's freed up when you are in the flow with your with your work and with your art, with your creative self. So here's the thing, this is like my big takeaway line, starting. Small is the strategy, and it's not a compromise. It's actually what you need to do to get rolling with with anything. And that's because starting small shifts the system in steps that are not too big, steps that are doable for the system. And okay, so this like falls into how to explain this. Let's see how starting small shifts the system. One way to think of this is that we are collecting evidence the body and and the brain, so there's cognitive evidence that's created that happens when we start small, and there's somatic evidence, which is a way of another way of saying capacity. So let's do workouts again as an example. If we're feeling really blah and you decide, okay, I probably do want to move then, and we try the just do the warm up strategy. And you do, you work your way through the warm up. And at the end of the warm up, you get a chance to check in again and see how you're feeling. And that is a little test, little bit of a state change to test and see if, if we change the state slightly, do we end up in a different place in our bodies. And then we get to see so the cognitive learning there is like, Okay, I did a warm up. Does this injury that I'm worried about feel like it's okay to keep going, or does it feel worse? And there you get some evidence about if your ideas about what might happen are true, and if you realize actually my body feels kind of okay now, like it can do a little bit more, then that's evidence that you you know you have some new information to work with. And then on the somatic side, very similar right, you're doing, you're you're giving your body a different state to feel into, and then maybe when it's there, it feels good enough, and actually maybe wants to move a little bit more. Okay, I got a little distracted, because I'm walking with my back to the sun right now, and it's really warm on my legs, which have been feeling kind of cold, and the warmth in the legs is really, really nice. Oh, so taking a moment to enjoy that, and maybe that's a state change that will support me too. Here I'm

Sarah 33:25
in nervous system terms, all of that work is, is titration and pendulation. It's doing these little tests or these little stretches. It's a small movement, and then taking a break to check in, doing a thing, and then taking a little break to notice the impact of that and potentially opt out of the rest, or opt in to a little bit more. You

Sarah 34:05
Yeah, so, right, that means starting small is the strategy, and it's not a compromise. It's actually what we all need to be doing, not that it we only stay small, but if you start small and you have permission to take a break or opt out after that first little stretch, then the pressure is off, and really you're just feeling your way through what size of the challenge feels right at this moment, and you might feel ready to do more after you begin, which we often do. Okay, so then I want to talk for a little bit about the. This is a similar application of this idea, but for times when we are like taking on something big, like for a trip, for instance, or making a big move with your work in the world, like launching this podcast, for example, or I have some other, like, big kind of nervous system dreams that I am just doing the very early stages work on. And it feels big and exciting, but also very ambitious and gutsy and requires like will require a lot for me. So all of those things, for those types of things, I have come to believe that it is impossible to feel 100% ready. So if we're waiting for this feeling of ready, I think that that might not exist for I don't know, some people have really high tolerance for that kind of thing. It's a risk is the thing. And so for waiting to feel like something is risk free, then I don't think that that's accurate for those kind of situations. And some people have high risk tolerances, and that seems to have a lot to do with positionality, with your identities, with your social conditioning, and how you were raised, and if you've had trauma, and all of these things. So some of what we might be trying to build here is the muscle of being able to do something when we're not 100% ready, and take on some of that risk and actually think that one of the keys to feeling okay, taking risks and doing it without doing it from like a very fearful, scared place, is the experience the skill of trusting yourself, trusting your body and yourself and your people and your resources, but trusting your nervous system and that if something does go wrong, you can figure it out. You can navigate that. That is one of the Think of that actually as one of the essences of my work, and what I what I want to help people learn, is how to come into that trusting place inside yourself that seems to free up a lot. Definitely helps us do these kind of stretches that I'm talking about here. So if it's impossible to feel 100% ready, the deal is that, like okay for physical things, for example, we're always falling short of our training goals. I don't think you can follow like an ambitious training plan 100% there's always times where you're going to fall short fall off the plan. It's not a problem plans, typically, if they're well built, they're built for you to fall off them and to be able to jump back in and they're they have some wiggle room, but, but anyways, the deal is you have to, in those times, be able to lean back on what you have done. That's the strategy I often call a measure up from zero, meaning, don't measure yourself down from 100% perfect, but instead, look at the stuff that you have done more than nothing, and then the the trust in the body. And I have a mantra that I often bring in, which is I've been training for this to to help us remember that we've done good work. And we have to sometimes lean back on and trust that when we are not feeling 100% ready, and it's also still time. It's good enough, it's time to move forward with the thing. All right, so for all of these situations, weather, this is kind of fun. There's these little snow creatures on top of stumps as they melt out, they're kind of all over, right now,

Sarah 39:38
all right. There's another video should you want it about these little snow creatures that are melting out on little stumps right now? So here is where I'm going to we're going to land this plane here soon, and leave you with this way I'd consider working with this playing. Around with this myself. Of course, I did talk you through one of my main strategies, which is to layer in state changes, smaller ones, which we could call scaffolding, so little steps to shift your nervous system bit by bit toward something, and then you get chances to check in along the way. You know, if it still feels good to like try a little something more, just do the warm up. And then here's the other one, and this is, this is the idea that I think many of us can resonate with, which is that often we have multiple impulses happening at the same time. Or another way to say that using like parts language would be that part of you wants one thing and part of you doesn't, so part of you might feel ready, and then another part not so ready. And what can be hard about that is that these parts end up feeling like they're in conflict, and only one of them can get their way, which doesn't feel good. And so what we would, we it'd be great to play with that. There are some really nice ways to do that. Finding the way that is just right for your system is part of this art form, and I'm going to talk you through an approach to that that I might try. This is, honestly, this is a co regulation practice, and might be best done in company, like with another person, maybe with me here on the podcast. Is a is enough to like play with this together in like audio format. Here, I'm going to offer you that if it feels available, and I'm not sure you know, you might also want to do it with a friend or essentially, this is a co regulation practice with you and these different parts of yourself, or with your body, with your actual somatic self and the experiences that that is different parts of you are having inside. Okay, so that might sound weird or not make any sense, but we can just follow you. Can follow me into this practice, if you want. You could just listen and see what it seems like. And then if it feels like something you want to do after you know about it, you can go back and listen to it again and try playing with the embodied aspect of it. So we're playing with some pendulation here, and somatic tending to these different parts of ourselves.

Sarah 42:46
So I wonder, first, if you can, just like anchor yourself into something a little bit enjoyable. I'm slowing myself down on my walk and feeling my feet. Maybe you're getting extra comfortable, or finding some visual or texture or sound kind of cues, smells, something that's enjoyable for your body to be in contact with, be noticing

Sarah 43:39
and just Yeah, giving the body a few moments to land that feeling and notice if it has an impact, what that impact might Be, and then just savoring anything that's nice about that. Hmm,

Sarah 44:06
yeah, oh, it feels good when my chest softens. You know, you can kind of like delight in it.

Sarah 44:22
Yeah, and then let's check in here with these different parts. Remember, you're in control of this timing too. So if you need a little bit more time with that first part, hit pause and help make this group practice that I'm talking through fit for the timing that your nervous system needs. We all need different pacing with this kind of thing. And if I was in person with you, or in real one on one space, I could time it more precisely to what your system needs. Or we could together. I. Yeah, and so here you have to have more of that responsibility and use the pause button as you need. So then let's see. We want to see if it's what it's like to come into relationship, come into contact with the part of yourself, the the impulse inside you that does feel ready, that like wants to do this thing, whatever it is that you're playing with here, whether it's a workout or an outdoor adventure or a creative project, change making work of some sort, relational work, it could be anything, and see what It's like to notice the part of you that feels pulled toward this project, kind of lit up by it.

Sarah 46:20
Where does it feel like that is located, especially if it's somewhere inside of you, like where these sensations are? I

Sarah 46:46
You may or may not have language for this. If you can just sense it, that's great. Sometimes it can be nice to name the location, name the sensation. Is it warm, temperature? What's the texture? Does it have an image along with it?

Sarah 47:11
Although those are just ideas to add dimensionality to the experience, which you may or may not, you know, sometimes people have really easy access to that, or have practiced at it, and sometimes it's just the idea of something so just whatever your version of that is, is, we're just totally trust that that's all good.

Sarah 47:47
And then let's see about when it feels right, when you feel ready. Let's see about shifting our attention over to the part that does not feel ready. So just notice what it's like in your body when you think about the thing and you think about the way that part of you just doesn't want to you.

Unknown Speaker 48:23
That's a no to that.

Sarah 48:30
And again, let's see about if it's available. See what the body, where the body is holding that No, I don't want to, or the I'm not ready, maybe you have your own words. You

Sarah 49:03
Yeah, and you could, you could map this out similarly to the other side, like, is there a texture to the sensation? Is there a quality to it, or color or anything? If this gets overwhelming, because sometimes these this side of things can, we can take a break. You can, like, open your eyes and orient. You can pause me. You know you can. You can step, take a step back from the work, from the from the body experience or the emotion, you can move your body a little bit, maybe get up and walk around, or bring on your arms and your legs by pressing your feet into the ground and moving your wrists you.

Sarah 50:03
Yeah. And one thing I'm curious about here, if it feels okay, is to see if that part of you like, if that were a person, if it had like a persona, it I wonder what it would like, what it would it need. Does it want like a hug, or does it just want you to listen and to feel heard and seen? Does it want you to repeat back what you know it once. Does it want? Like an imaginary safe place where it can go, where it doesn't have to work very hard, right? Now, I

Speaker 1 51:03
see if you get any ideas. No problem if you don't.

Sarah 51:10
We're just playing here in the imagination realm, which can really be supportive for nervous system. I'm Yeah.

Sarah 51:25
And then you can use that, your imagination realm where anything is possible, to see that persona, that part, if you've got one, see see it, and see what it's like to let it get that thing that it's that it wants, that would feel supportive. You can imagine giving it a hug or letting it move to a location that feels more comfortable for it.

Sarah 52:02
Let you let it know that you really hear it.

Sarah 52:16
And yeah, then we can see, you know, if it what we're kind of looking for here is any sense of softening or capacity growing, or tension releasing in your body as we play with this. And if you notice that, if there's any way that this like side of the self can feel a little bit safer, your body will probably shift in some way, And it might be subtle. Probably will be subtle. I

Sarah 53:07
and I wonder here so it what we're feels like we're often trying to do with this is help these two parts of the self see each other and relate to each other. And come up with, like a compromise strategy, which is essentially the essence of pendulation and the strategy of starting small. Because what we would kind of like to do here is see about starting something in a smallish way, and then taking a break, and so doing, leaning into the yes for a little bit, and then taking a pause for the no to see how that felt, and to check in and see if that was okay, collect some evidence, and then, depending on what state you're in, after that little pendulation, then you can make the decision about maybe doing another one, or maybe not listening more to the Yes, or listening more to the No. So see if that there's a way that that you know, if you can even maybe imagine these two parts of yourself, like turning toward each other and seeing them, seeing each other, like relating relating to each other. You

Sarah 54:45
it and yeah, see how that feels to have this idea of these two parts coming into relationship, maybe coming into what we call coherence, as in we can find a rhythm. To work together. It's a little more you for a little bit, and then a little more me, and a little more one of them, then the little bit more the other. And we come into this potential for a expansion, contraction rhythm or a cycle. I'm

Sarah 55:24
okay, that is where I want to leave it for today. So stay with that as long as you want. Let me know how it lands for you. If you feel like it. Always love to hear from you. It's been a pleasure to connect today, and I look forward to next time. Take really good care of yourself. See you later. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai