Note from Louisa
 
I hope that this finds you well, having enjoyed some rest over the last week. Though, if you’re like me, it has been anything but restful, and I look around me at the post-holiday clean-up that awaits with some dismay. Another year of pandemic Christmas takes its toll.
 
It seems crazy that we are still trying to find our way back to normalcy after almost two years. In truth, I wonder if perhaps we may have, in fact, landed at a new plateau. Our central nervous systems are telling us that we can no longer afford to stay at this high level of continuous activation. Our bodies are not designed to handle a constant state of fight, flight, or freeze. On top of it all, CNS dysregulation for an extended period has been linked to a myriad of health concerns, both physical and psychological.
 
Of course we need that burst of energy when we have to escape the charging lion and reach safety before recalibrating, allowing the system to settle back down to pre-crisis levels. But we’ve been activated and engaged for the past two years just trying to pick up groceries, navigate child care, or to figure out how to maintain safe connections with those we love.
 
We are all prone to decision fatigue, a sense of hopelessness, tension in our relationships, and a disruption to our sense of purpose. Yet, we can’t afford to think of this in black and white terms. We cannot just pretend that the threat has passed. We do need to remain vigilant. The crisis is neither over, nor can we afford to stay in a perpetual state of hyper vigilance.
 
So as the pandemic does not have a clear expiration date, how can we help our central nervous system disengage from “The End is Nigh” setting and find its way back to some sense of order, purpose, and stability?  
 
How do we reconcile the design of the central nervous system to react to threat, with the psychological need to give the body a break and experience some extended periods of low level threat?
 
Well, here’s the hard part… (as if the rest has been a walk in the park). While our bodies respond to threat immediately, dumping stress hormones into our systems to help us see better, run faster, pump blood and breathe more efficiently, the de-escalation takes a lot longer. 
 
Think of it as a switch that gets suddenly flipped on to get us to safety, and a dial that is slowly turned down in order to get back to our baseline. You can see how easy it is to get reactivated and back up to DefCon 1 in the process of disengagement.
 
My not-so-secret weapon these past months has been community. Finding others with whom you can share this experience will help keep you from either becoming a doomsayer, or ignoring a potential real threat. Talking and listening to how others are managing, and sharing the burden of this time, can help ease our sense of isolation and pessimism. Even if we are all feeling helpless together, our sense of connection offers us some perceived resilience.
 
As social creatures, our central nervous systems are responsive to one another. If you find yourself anxious or afraid, reach out to a friend who is feeling grounded. Even if you don’t discuss your fear directly, a process of co-regulation occurs, allowing you to “borrow” a bit of their calm and stability. Yes, even online.
 
For the coming year at CML, we will be working to increase space for community through our sitting groups and study groups, as well as online workshops and retreats to help you stay connected, grounded, and healthy. Please take a moment to help your depleted central nervous system out by identifying a few other activities you can engage in to help you co-regulate, and in turn help others to ease their overwrought nervous systems.
 
We can all use the extra assist right now.
 
Blessings for healing in 2022,
Louisa
COVID UPDATE:

​Please note that CML is monitoring the changing COVID landscape in order to determine when we can safely open for in-person sitting groups, classes, workshops. At this time, we remain closed for anything in-person, except for individual therapy, until March 2022 at the earliest, at which time we will reassess the situation. We’ll keep you posted on any changes to the schedule. Thank you!
HOLIDAY CLOSURE:

Please note that CML will be closed from December 23rd to January 2nd to allow our staff to enjoy the holidays with their families. Sitting groups and other programming will be suspended during this time and will resume on
January 3rd, 2022.
 
We wish you all a happy, healthy and safe holiday season!
Daily Silent Meditation             
8:15 - 9:00 am
Monday - Friday Morning
Meeting ID: 899 6440 8784
Passcode: 818114
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Guided Meditation
1:15 - 1:45 pm          
Tuesday Afternoon
Meeting ID: 826 1223 4516
Passcode: 058471
Omaha Meditates 2022
Facilitated Online by Aaron Weiner
January 1, 2022
11:00 am CST

Wisdom House Collaborative is partnering once more with the Center for Mindful Living to celebrate Omaha Meditates on New Year’s Day. Please come join us at 11 am for a virtual hour-long sit on January 1st to start 2022 with presence and intention. 

If you wish to take the Omaha Meditates pledge to dedicate one minute or more to the goodwill of the event please go to Omahameditates.org. Or visit the Wisdom House Collaborative website at wisdomhouseomaha.org where you’ll find their New Year’s Resolution page that talks about recent scientific findings on the mechanism for changing our habits through literally rewiring our minds and bodies beginning with the training of attention and clarity. 

Let this New Year’s Day gathering be start of a wonderful new practice. We can help you develop and support your commitment with our daily meditation sits and study group. Regular practice helps us to garner the richest insights and benefits of meditation. Please check out our daily schedule (posted in this newsletter) and join us on January 1st and throughout 2022!

Chiron’s Temple: A Supportive Online Space for Weary Healers
Facilitated by Dr. Louisa Foster
February 2022 – July 2022
 
The ancient myth of Chiron, the archetypal wounded healer, has a profound message for health and wellness professionals in this pandemic world. As providers in service to others, we must also compassionately tend to our own injuries. Using creativity, mindfulness, and psychodramatic principles, this supportive group offers powerful, time-tested action approaches to breakthrough emotional blocks, usher in greater self-awareness and self-compassion, and build vital co-creative connections.
 
Reclaim the energy, focus, grace, well-being, and healing power necessary to hold space for others even as you navigate your own challenges. The need for community — interacting with and supporting our fellow healers — is more urgent than ever before. Giving and receiving critical nurturing can be a transformative experience. Together, we’ll provide a safe container of comfort, support, and guidance to help you explore your identity as a healer along with your personal and professional realities and aspirations.
 
This group meets twelve times over six months (twice monthly) for two and a half hours each session to explore the rigorous and nuanced demands of being a mental health provider in this modern, global crisis. We will turn to our wisdom to help create structures and rituals to help us stay firmly grounded as we weather the storm. 
  
Each session will include guided meditation and creative activity to deepen awareness and bring essential questions to life — together, we will share and witness each other as we learn and grow together. 
 
Give yourself the gift of connection. 
Learn more about this program, including dates, fees, and registration.
Mindfulness Study Group
Facilitated Online by Laura Crosby
First and Third Sunday of the month from 4pm to 6pm

We are currently reading two books!

  • Real Change, Mindfulness to Heal Ourselves and the World by Sharon Salzburg
  • The Dharma of Poetry, How Poems can Deepen Your Spiritual Practice and Open You to Joy by John Brehm
 
The Dharma of Poetry is a rich and deep exploration of poetry as teacher. The author complements this exploration with a collection of poetry-inspired meditations. The poetry, the teachings, and the practices are quite moving. 

Real Change is a relevant and accessible offering of sage wisdom and mindfulness techniques for our time. As Jack Kornfield puts it, “Inspiring, loving, and empowering. The perfect medicine for these difficult times.” 
 
Our sessions are freely offered, drop-ins are welcome, and there's no registration necessary. We read together - so no homework! - and discuss each chapter. Books are available from lcrosby@me.com.

Meeting ID: 843 4464 0572
Passcode: 570798
Health and Meaning
By Pamela Mueggenberg LMHP, MA Art Therapy Counseling
 
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” -Viktor Frankl
 
We are now entering a new phase in this pandemic - after two years of putting off routine appointments, teeth cleanings, and annual checkups we are all headed back to the doctor. 
 
In some ways this is a symbol of the hope we have that our lives are getting back to self-care and normalcy versus crisis and fear. Unfortunately, for many of us this means we have test results coming back, that point to newly discovered illnesses. An abnormal pap smear. A lump in the breast. Higher blood glucose. Liver enzymes.
 
By June 30, 2020 41% of adults in the US have delayed or avoided medical care due to concerns about Covid. Emergency room visits declined 42% during the same time period. The CDC estimates that 1,438 cancerous and precancerous lesion diagnoses were missed during the pandemic. Our bodies have been in a holding pattern through this quarantine, and are showing the effects of it.
 
We are slowly integrating the tides of Covid into our daily lives, and coming to see that other elements of our health require our attention. Oftentimes we equate health, or fitness of body, with a “good” life. What does it mean, then, when we get sick?
 
In 1997, Claire Wineland was born with cystic fibrosis and was originally given 10 years to live. With advances in medicine and her own strength of will, she was able to be a vibrant force of public education and advocacy for CF until her death in 2018. She described the 5 hours of breathing treatments a day, the 50 medications, over 30 surgeries in her lifetime, and the suffering that is a part of her life. 
 
Still, she says, “you can suffer and be okay. You can suffer and still make something. That the quality of your life isn’t determined by whether you’re healthy or sick or rich or poor, not at all, it’s determined by what you make out of your experience as a human being, out of the embarrassing moments and the painful moments. It’s what you make and what you give from that place.”
 
I invite you to take a look inward and see: what do you give, what meaning do you make from your life’s circumstances? Do you see your own suffering as isolating, or a window to see the pain in others? Does the weight of your own challenges make it harder to connect to others, or does it remind you of how fleeting and sacred those connections are? Have you discovered you are stronger, more afraid, more brave, less patient, kinder than you realized? 
 
How do you want to be? In your wisest moments, what do you want to give?
 
At some point in all our lives, we will get sick. What we do may have to change to accommodate our body’s new needs. But always remember, you are a transcendent being. Who you are is not limited to your physical health. How you make other’s feel, what beauty you create in the world, the people in your world that are better off because you are here, this transcends the bounds of your body. You are bigger than any one of these things, and to quote Ms. Wineland, you can be okay.