Ok, the days are shorter and shorter and I am ready for the solstice! Here's a special challenge for getting us through the last shortest days of the year: do at least one "fun" or "pleasurable" thing every day for these last 6 days. Fun is a muscle, if you haven't used it for awhile, it may be weak, so you may have to do some "fun" without it feeling "fun" for a while, it may even feel painful if you have learned that fun is dangerous because it is not "productive" but stick with it and it will get easier! Here is a list of pleasurable activities and a video about my journey with pleasure! xo, z

For all our team members and anyone else as well, what is your current relationship with the daily 3? 1. mindfulness (paying attention to our senses) 2. gentle movement (rocking, slow walking, stretching, dancing, etc.) 3. unskilled creativity (playdoh, coloring books, gardening, cooking, etc.)

Ok! I have set up the what's app groups, please let me know if you have any trouble accessing these! They are here for you to encourage one another, share wins, challenges, etc and participation/engagement are totally optional with no obligation! I will not be in the what's app conversations, those are just for you all as a team, so if you need to connect with me you can do so here on Skool or by email. Let the connection and encouragement commence! xo, z

In our continued exploration of what it feels like to be in a community based on support without obligation, we are ready to embark into these dark and colder months together with our Winter Legends Challenge! I am thinking we try without captains this time. And I found that the groups who used on What's App seemed to find a lot of connection, so let me know if you're open to that and I'll start two teams for now and add if others decide to join! We will focus on : 1. the daily 3 (gentle movement, mindfulness and creativity) 2. noticing when "should" arises and asking it "why?" to see if we can start to loosen up some of our absolutes 3. engaging only in the ways that feels right to us *** Excited to announce that we had 9 more people express interest so I am shaking up the teams a bit, my apologies for breaking up some of the teams! I'll be making the what's app groups in the next day or two! And off we go!!! *** Team GriffinSoar: @Casey Daly @Matthew Milbourne @Marianne Keller @Dorothy Gepner @Ash Thalman Team ChimeraBurst: @Heather Allyn @Debi Brun @Maeyah Puriya @Lydia Newell @Rachel Williams Team GolemWish: @Denise Moore @Laura Klapper @Mona Constante @Noah Souder-Russo Team SpriteSparkle: @Kerri Kochelek ensley @Rebecca T @Karen McKinley @Alicia Tao @Ash Lane All others are warmly welcome to join! xo, z

Hello dear friends! When we finished up our summer challenge there were a lot of beautiful responses, many people found it to be encouraging and helpful and most felt there were elements of stress around "not being able to participate enough" or "being overwhelmed with trying to keep up with things." Given this, I'd love to do another round for winter and see if we can continue to give ourself practice with being a "no-obligation" community, one that comes together when/if/how it is flowing for us and without any "shoulds" or "have to's." It makes sense that this is stressful, being free and authentic is one of the most stressful things for our nervous system because it has been wired for us to follow the rules that have been developed over millions of years for how to survive the longest and reproduce the most prolifically. Both of these involve high levels of "group think" and "going with the authority" and so we are pushing up agains all that evolution when we "do our own thing." So trying this new and risky thing requires practice and I'd love to continue to practice together, exploring if we can take what is awesome about co-regulation and leave the rest of that external pressure/obligation stuff. Winter can be challenging for many reasons, mostly because it is a naturally dorsal time and we live in a sympathetically driven world. My bearded dragon knows what's up and already went into brumation by simply putting his head under a towel and going into a deep sleep last month, his body felt that temperature drop and followed suit. In our fast paced culture, there is no support for slowing down in the winter. Having less energy, it can be more difficult to keep up with the daily 3, especially the movement piece for those of us in colder climates and those more affected by seasonal affect stuff. So, what do we think? Let me know if you are interested in being a team member or captain and we will go from there! xoxo, z