Mindful Align with Holly Bond

04/18/2023

Hello friends! I have an upcoming online Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) class, June 19th-August 7th, 6:30-9pm pacific time.

Click the link below to register. Feel free to forward to others you might know who would be interested.

(Live Online Class, 06/19 - 08/7, 2023) Interested in learning about mindfulness and meditation, but not sure where to start? In our 8-week MBSR program, you will investigate how to integrate these powerful tools into your life.

01/13/2023

A little Friday humor for you. 😉

12/31/2022

Nervous systems learn stability or they learn unpredictability. And then that is their default mode as they navigate the world. Whichever we were raised on, we can be a force for healing. 💙

04/03/2021

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“As darkness fills the sky, and the stars come out.
Do you lie there, recalling where you left your power.
Inside the hands and minds of toxic people.
Within the grey places and unsafe moments.

Why not, instead, evoke a lullaby.
Full of brave, tender feelings,
carried on kind hearted words.
That wrap your soul in heartfulness,
that calls your power back to you.

Whisper into the night, your heart, your bones.
Remind yourself, that your power has only ever belonged to you.
Not to any other body, mind, place or moment,
no matter what they led you to believe.
And as you lie within the darkness, let yourself feel it growing, mending, resting and thriving.
Never leaving, never taken,
always yours to hold, remember and awaken.”

~ Brigit Anna McNeill
www.brigitannamcneill.org

Art by Debra Bernier
www.etsy.com/shop/shapingspirit

02/03/2021

Love this take on Brigid, Celtic goddess, later revered as a saint in the Catholic Church.

We don’t have to believe in literal gods or goddesses to connect with archetypes. Archetypes are still useful ways or relating to cultures, energies, and cycles.

And it’s important to reflect on how the degradation of both women and Indigenous traditions all over the world have disconnected us all from women’s wisdom, which is very real. There is a way to honor both the healthy masculine principle of science and the healthy feminine principle of intuition.

May the healing energy of Brigid’s fire cleanse and forge us all in new strength. 🔥🔥🔥

Today is the festival of Brigid, the ancient Celtic Goddess of water and fire, the holy well and the sacred flame. It was also known as Imbolc or Oimelc, ewe’s milk, the time of lambing, of birth and spring’s beginning.

Here in Northern California it is indeed the moment when the first fruit trees begin to blossom. The manzanitas are in flower with tiny, waxy bells, and we have finally gotten enough rain to green the land.

Brigid is the patroness of poetry—and at Biden’s inauguration we felt the power of the poet to heal and inspire in Amanda Gorman’s words. Poetry is truth, and while we are not all wordsmiths, we can all commit be truth-tellers, to be vigilant in countering lies and disinformation, and to speak truth to power.

Brigid is also the patroness of the forge. As the days lengthen and light returns, and as we head into the eleventh month of lockdowns and pandemic deaths, it feels a bit as if we’ve all been laid out on her anvil and hammered hard. May this tempering make us stronger. A smith can forge weapons, but also tools. May we become the strong tools that can build a more just world.

And Brigid is the patroness of healing. Today we hear lots of talk about healing—but true healing is not the same as soothing, or covering over a wound without lancing it first. To heal, a wound must be exposed and abraded. To heal this country’s wounds, we need cleansing truth, and accountability for the harm that has been done and continues to be done by systems of injustice. No wound can heal when it is continually reopened. But when we stop the harm, lance the sepsis, and apply the right balm, we can draw upon great powers of resilience.

Brigid, bathe us in your healing waters. Raise your flame of truth! May we drink from the well of renewal in this fresh, green spring!

01/08/2021

💙🙏🏻💙

I know many of you are reeling from the events of this past week. I've been reflecting on the fact that in my spirit, I knew something like white supremacists storming through the capital would happen. That members of Congress would be hiding under their desks and pipe bombs would be placed in various spaces across cities and towns in our country. I knew in my spirit the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris wouldn't guarantee a ceasefire and in fact, would instead, cause more disruption.

White people who are consciously or unconsciously wedded to the collective power afforded to them because of being part of the white group will stop at nothing to maintain their power. Read that again.

I know many white folks I am in community with, who are invested in working to create conditions for us all to be free, are shocked by the events that happened this past Wednesday. Surprise and shock are different things. It is shocking to see confederate flags in the capital building. It is shocking to see a white man from QAnon who thinks he is a shaman talking nonsense and not being arrested for breaking into the capital building. It is shocking to see police officers open the gates to the capital for a bunch of white thugs that a narcissist president rallied with minutes before they stormed the capital. The stark contrast of the capital police's response to Black Lives Matter versus white lives matter is shocking.

But, none of this is surprising.

We can trace back throughout history and see the same behaviors of white supremacy we see playing out right now.

If you are white and working for us all to be free, regulate your nervous system and figure out what you want to do about QAnon, white supremacists and your own internalized sense of superiority.

If you are BIPOC regulate your nervous system and rest. This will be unfolding for quite some time and we need to be rested.

As I wrote the other day, white supremacy is a mental health crisis. It is a global crisis. It is an economic crisis. It is an attack on our humanity and the crisis white people who are here for collective liberation need to be attending to.

12/10/2020

Love these words by Michelle Johnson. 💙

Musings about holding space for and with others

I've been sitting in reflection about the spaces I co-create, curate, hold and conjure. I have seen and experienced so much during the more than two decades in my tenure as a space holder. One thing I have noticed time and time again is that because I strive to create a brave space with others in a very unsafe world the expectations of what I can do as a human and facilitator are often unrealistic. I cannot guarantee safety although wouldn't it be awesome if I could? I cannot guarantee a harm free zone because we don't live in a harm free culture. I cannot take care of all of what needs attention because I do not know all of the needs, land mines and wounds that might be present in a space.

I can co-create conditions for honesty, authenticity, vulnerability and grace. I know how to wade through messy s**t. For real. I know how to sit with discomfort and call out harm when I see it. I know how to invite people to move into the most expansive expression of who they are for the benefit of the group. I know how to be still and quiet when silence is what is needed. I know how to say I don't know instead of posturing and acting as if I do. I know how to draw on the wisdom of the group because collective wisdom is more important than any one teaching I could ever offer. I know how to hold people, emotions, grief, joy and a space for ceremony and liberation.

Holding space is an art, one I have studied for quite some time. Holding space and guiding people is about intuition and listening deeply to what is unspoken and teaching to that instead of what is on the surface. Holding space is about honoring the different needs in a group and not leaving anyone behind. Holding space is about being grounded and steady because all the things will come at you when you hold space in the way I do.

I love the spaces I co-create, curate, hold and conjure; they are not always full of ease but they are deep. Beautiful. Messy. Life changing.

10/07/2020

I'm a tad late posting this, but if you're interested in taking an MBSR class, I do have another online class starting next week, Thursdays, 6pm, pacific. Hope to "see" you there. 😀

Are you interested in mindfulness and its potential for enhancing health and well being? Are you under stress? Are you struggling with chronic conditions such as chronic pain, depression, and anxiety? Are you feeling as if life is too much? Or do you simply want to live a fuller life with greater ba...

09/01/2020

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