Do you ever have one of those days you just need to “shake off?”
Yup, me too.
A few weeks ago I’d had one of those days, so I decided to do a little shake off the day, bump my endorphins pre-dinner stair workout. As I was headed out I asked the kids if they wanted to join me. Connor was busy doing a zoom with some of his crew from swim club, so 9-year old Chase joined me.
We headed out to our local stairs (about a 8-minute walk) and chatted along the way. I asked him now many sets he wanted to do. He first said enthusiastically, 5! At 200 stairs per set, that makes for 1000 stairs! Wow. Ok. My eyes must have widened because he quickly decided to change it to 3. I’d be lying if I didn’t breathe a bit of a sigh of relief!
When we were headed down our first set he suggested we throw a rock in after every set. Cool. Great idea. Always thinking about how we can layer in little mindfulness/ mental health practices (and also knowing I needed a little “release” myself), I suggested that with each stone we “release” something that we don’t want to take forward from our day.
Before we threw we shared (I gave him the choice) and then threw.
It was fun, cathartic and a beautiful sunny moment. I shared about it LIVE on my weekly Tip Tuesday on my Facebook Page (you can watch it here ).
What was SO cool was that one awesome viewer asked if we could throw one for her…so I carried on to throw more stones for others. How fun is that?!
Sometimes we just need to “release” the day. Let go of what doesn’t serve us. There are lots of mindfulness or meditation practices that help with this, but I sure did enjoy the physicality of throwing a rock into the water.
If you have one of those days where you want to “release” something, give it a try! And hey, why not release a rock for a few others you know who might need it too while you’re there!
Want to take this strategy next level with a Meditation?
Just the other day a friend shared this YouTube meditation from Tillicum Lelum Aboriginal Friendship Centre. In the meditation, holding a stone in your left hand you send everything you don’t need into the stone. You keep your right hand open to what you need. At the completion of the meditation you gently place the stone in the water to allow the healing property of water release what you don’t need. It was SO powerful. Check it out.