Some of the women I work with have started requesting a still moment in the mornings. Just a small dose is happening at the retreats.
I did not plan any of it. I did not print a flyer. I did not walk in with a program. Honestly, I have been hesitant to share some of the things I know, because I do not want anything I do, personally or professionally, to be built on ego or gimmick.
I learn different nervous system regulation practices, because I served in the U.S. Army for over 21 years in many areas of leadership and healthcare, I’m also 50 going through perimenopause, and a Black woman with children in the US. I have clinical a diagnosis of PTSD and anxiety. I’m not alone, many of us military or not are suffering from some of the same issues. I use all of the practices I have learned over the years to cope with stress in a positive way. Not one big thing. A lot of small things.
I choose joyful and calm moments to help regulate. Sometimes physically stressful moments too, like yoga, running, learning pickle ball. Different tools for different days. All of them real. None of them mine alone to sell.
Back to what happened at work. A coworker saw me and a friend doing a movement I had learned. Just the two of us. We were not performing. We were not recruiting. We were doing the thing because it works for our bodies. She watched, and then she joined. Then another woman joined. Then another. That is how something true works.
There is no requirement, commitment or roster here. If we want to start the day with a still moment, here is an opportunity. That is it. And the women have kept coming. They have made it, for now, a daily practice.
I don’t require or want anyone to gravitate towards me. The women are gravitating towards what is true for themselves, and I am doing something that works for them.
I did not learn that as a founder of hava. I learned it through life. If a practice is true, it sticks. If it isn’t, it falls away. I am not convincing anyone. I am putting real money tools in front of Black women, in the comfort and familiarity of being alongside other Black women and trusting us to know what is ours.
So this week if we have a small true thing that helps us slow down, we do not have to program it. We do not have to package it. We do not have to become the wellness person at our job. We can just do the thing. Where we are. In our bodies. The way we would do it at home.
The women who need it will see us.
They will join.
Let the shoulders drop.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Sahavit💛