Walking down the street, it's an early spring morning on Tiohtià:ke, the city of Montreal is quiet in its bustle. I'm charging, setting one foot in front of the other in a power walk that seems to indicate I am in, plainly, a hurry. A hurry to get where? The bakery.

I'm walking as if it were a competition to make it to the bakery in order to enjoy my fresh bread and muffin. Muffin which I eat while walking in an equal hurry down the street back home in order to make it, as quickly as possible, to my desk.

At this point, I shut my eyes and take a breath. What just happened? Why did my morning feel like a race? There's no deadlines today. I don't have any urgent appointments. All that's on the schedule for the day is studying Ayurveda (indian medicine) and reading about Bhakti (sanskrit for devotion) while I wait for the locksmith to call me. I'm not even likely to receive that call before noon.

Pause.

One of the techniques that's been the most foundational in my own attention building practice has been this exceedingly simple word, pause. Close your eyes, take a breath, open your eyes. Where am I? How is the light in this place? What sounds do I hear? What just happened? Can I spend just a little more time with what is here right now? Is there a pressing need for me to move on to the next thing right away? How are my feet positioned? Can I feel their soles? Pause. What's the state of my inner world? Am I in pain? No? What else is present? Heat, cold? Tightness, lightness?

Okay. Slow down. It's not possible to concentrate on medical theory if I'm running from one place to the other. Best to let the breathe and body catch up to the transition.

To be fair to to my hurried nervous system, there's a lot happening.

I keep this newsletter quite bare of anything resembling news, commentary, or analysis. All I have to say is that not a day goes by without the wider happenings in the world affecting me at a conscious level, and certainly not an instant goes by in which I am unaffected at an unconscious level.

In the interim since returning from India in early feb, Shanthi and I led our second weekend-long nervous system regulation retreat, Dégel, for a group of 15. It was a beautiful learning experience. I'm grateful to all the participants for their enthusiasm and their trust in coming to explore our collective dys- and co- regulation capacities. More to come.

In April, I'm going to spend two weeks at Wildheart in the Hudson Valley to study+practice somatic communication and contact improvisation with Nita Little (a founder of contact improv and pioneering researcher and choreographer), leading up to a performance on April 27th. This will be my first time performing in a professional dance piece! To say I'm looking forward is an understatement. I'll try to write a whole update about it all.

Through it all, I'm still working on my naturopathy certification and seeing clients for bodywork. Later this year I'm going to launch the next iteration of my online platform, including an update to this, my personal newsletter, and a differentation from my professional therapeutic consulting work.

And here's an open invitation: Do you want to have a conversation? In Montreal or online? Reach out, let's catch up or introduce ourselves.

With love,

Laure