Taking some of my own advice

It was around 3pm in the afternoon yesterday and I was click-clacking away on my keyboard, working on some spring offerings for Circle and Spoke, wondering: can I make it to the zoo by 5pm and to Adams Morgan to take some brief video footage for the event promo?

Suddenly, I stood up and went to my kitchen cabinet and then the fridge looking for a snack. As I stared at the tub of apple sauce, I found myself HALTing (see below for the HALT primer). 

I’m tired, I thought. I need to lie down for a moment. 

I put on a timer for 40 minutes and headed to the couch and within minutes I was conked out and woke up about 35 minutes later with drool all over my chin. 

I never made it to the zoo yesterday or Adams Morgan in time to take that video footage, but I realized that in fact those weren’t must- dos.

My must dos were: listening to my body and resting.

And as I awoke from my nap, I was ready for some movement and really wanted to bike. The weather in DC yesterday was somewhere between not exactly winter and not exactly spring. 

I checked when sunset was and saw I had enough daylight for a brief afternoon ride. I gathered my helmet, bike lights, handle bar bag and got on my bike for a nice ride along the high ridges of Rock Creek Park. My face was greeted by the cool breeze and my thighs felt alive as I pedaled up the hills.

Circle and Spoke believes in empowering you through giving you time to rest and reflect in and out of the saddle to shift gears. And sometimes shifting gears means flexing practices that give you micro-moments of awareness like HALT.

These are practices that we embed into our rides and retreats, so you are able to bring them into your daily life like yesterday as I was staring down the apple sauce yesterday and asked myself, am I hungry, anxious, lonely or tired?  

You know that announcer voice on sports games that goes, “this moment brought to you by…” Well, sometimes that feels like my life.

This nap brought to you by HALTing.  This bike ride brought to you by post-nap energy.

BTW, Did you miss the primer of HALT last week? 

Are you… 

H: HUNGRY?

A: ANXIOUS? 

L: LONELY?

T: TIRED? 

Give yourself the grace to lean in and listen as you HALT.

I’ll be in touch soon with the spring offerings from Circle and Spoke to build up your tool kit with practices like HALT and fun moments of riding alongside some rad women and non-binary folks! I hope you’ll be game to join us 🙃 

Wheels up, 

Ellen

PS- Come stop by Circle and Spoke’s table at Helpful Core Therapy’s upcoming wellness resource fair on Wednesday, March 5th from 6-8pm at Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda. This event will feature physical and mental health wellness resources from over 30 local organizations and agencies. All attendees will be entered into a raffle, and everyone is invited to participate–no need to be Jewish to attend! Walk ins welcome. You can RSVP here!