The day before I wrote this, I was feeling out of sorts. I couldn’t quite settle, align, focus, or open into the day. My practices and tools weren’t helping, and I had to stop.

I lay down on the floor and let go of trying to shift or understand what was happening. I let myself be with it.

Almost as soon as I did, I realized I was grieving. It felt as if I had lost someone dear, someone important in my life.

And with that realization, something changed. I got up, and the day began to flow again. And not too long later, that person reached out to me.

Sometimes, the most useful thing we can do is to stop trying to be useful to ourselves. Not forever, but just long enough for what’s here to be met.

A single moment with ourselves can be enough for something to begin to shift.

For some, this summer carries a weight that makes the sun feel too loud.

The sun is bright and the days are long, yet something inside feels the opposite: heavy, muted, or simply too tired to meet the light.

If that’s where you are, you are not out of step with life. You may be in the shade, and the shade is part of the garden too.

What I have come to trust is this: beneath what is heavy, something remains intact. The grief, the exhaustion, the not-knowing, none of it reaches all the way in. You might notice it in a moment of stillness — a breath that drops a little deeper, a softening you didn’t expect. Something in the body that hasn’t forgotten how to rest.

The shade is not the end of the story. It’s a place to rest, and to remember what remains.

Sometimes this most useful thing we can do is rest in the shade for a moment. For others, it helps to have support in learning to trust what remains. You can read more about working with me here: https://regenerativesomatics.com/work-with-candice/

If you know someone who might benefit from deeper support, please feel free to share this with them.

With love,
Candice