RESET: Daily Rituals

As we go deeper, it becomes even more important to remain present during this process.

Present to yourself, your experience, and your emotions.

We’re very good at distracting ourselves, but I ask you to try as best you can to become and remain present to yourself.

Presence allows you to move through the stages of growth. It allows you to witness and hold space for yourself.

Presence allows you to get clear on what’s yours and what’s not – an essential part of this journey, as it allows you to come back to your truth, and clear out expectations, fear and judgements.

The quickest, easiest and most fun way of becoming present is…

The Power Pose

You know I’m a huge advocate of the Power Pose!

I invite you to add this to your daily routine.

At least two-minutes of power posing, as you become present and take up space with the truth of who you are!

If you feel overwhelmed, confused, or doubtful… stand up and do two-minutes of power posing and feel your energy instantly shift.

“The way you carry yourself is a source of personal power—the kind of power that is the key to presence. It’s the key that allows you to unlock yourself—your abilities, your creativity, your courage, and even your generosity. It doesn’t give you skills or talents you don’t have; it helps you to share the ones you do have. It doesn’t make you smarter or better informed; it makes you more resilient and open. It doesn’t change who you are; it allows you to be who you are.”
― Amy Cuddy

“Movement, like posture, tells the brain how it feels and even manages what it remembers. As walking becomes more open, upright, and buoyant, our memories about ourselves follow suit.” – Amy Cuddy

A reminder…

SCAT… yes really!

Usually I’m ‘given’ acronyms like DANCE, SACRED, GRACE… and then I was given SCAT.

If I’m honest, initially not one of my favourites… but then I experienced the real power of this practice, and I want to share it with you too!

SCAT as defined by The Merriam Webster Dictionary:

• To go away quickly
• An animal faecal dropping
• To improvise nonsense syllables usually to an instrumental accompaniment

The 2nd definition was the first that came to my mind! Hence the reluctance…

But put another way…

“The best way to get moving quickly as you get rid of what’s weighing you down, in a way that doesn’t have to make logical sense (accompanied by music if you choose).”

Ahhh much better!

The Origin Story

For the longest of times I loved to do Julia Cameron’s ‘Morning Pages’, from her book, The Artist’s Way.

But I eventually found myself writing about the same stuff over and over, and feeling like I was compounding whatever I was trying to process, and it wasn’t helping me to move through it, so I stopped doing it.

But I missed having a dedicated journaling process.

I felt I needed more of a structure, but I didn’t want anything too structured (oh to be so fussy!)

I found myself thinking about what I would want to cover/focus on during a journaling session, and I aimlessly wrote down four words. The first word intrigued me, as it wasn’t a word I would use! And as I thought that, I giggled to myself and thought; I bet there’s an acronym in these.

As I looked more closely at the four words I’d written down, I realised that there was an acronym, in fact it was in the exact order that I had written down the words:

Spew – Celebrate – Answers – Thoughts

The Process

I like to do this journaling before I go to bed, to bring a close to my day, but of course, do it any time that feels good for you.

I have a separate journal for my SCAT (hahaha), and I chose a black covered journal, so it would ‘hold and contain the energy’, but as always, choose a journal that works for you. But I would keep a separate journal for this, as you don’t want to get SCAT over everything 😉

Spew/Spill:

This is very similar to Morning Pages, in that you just spew/spill your thoughts and feelings over the pages. Writing whatever you want. Writing as much or as little as you want to.

None of it has to make sense, just let yourself write whatever you want to.

No rules. No structure. Not even any grammar if you don’t want to.

Purging. Clearing. Releasing.

If you’re stuck with what to write, start with that… ‘I’m not really sure what to write today, but I thought I’d start with this…’ and see what words spill over the page after that.

Celebrate:

Write a list of everything that you are celebrating.

Write your DONE-list (opposite of a to-do list)

Celebrate all that you’ve done, achieved, completed.

Celebrate everything about you and how you’ve shown up for yourself (and others).

Celebrate everything you feel grateful for and appreciate.

Celebrate. Celebrate. Celebrate.

Answers:

Write down a question that you have, and then allow yourself to answer it.

Ask as many questions as you like, answering each one in turn.

If you don’t have any pressing questions, simply ask: ‘What do you want me to know?’.

It’s important not to miss this stage, particularly if you feel you don’t have any questions, as you might be avoiding something, or you could be ready to go deeper!

Thoughts:

This final section gives you a space to review and witness any additional thoughts that come to mind, or process and bring clarity to anything uncovered during your SCAT.

So there you have it…

You now have a daily SCAT practice to keep everything flowing as it should do.