Savor

I don’t know if this is the most wonderful time of the year, but I do know it’s the MOST time of the year. The MOST emotional, the MOST overwhelming, maybe the MOST disappointing or lonely or exhausting. So I hope to infuse more breath and stillness and magic into yours.

I want to give us a word for this season: savor

Let’s breathe into this word, this state:

SAVOR

What do you think of, or feel a memory of in your body?

I think immediately of a rich, dark chocolate truffle

Or a first bite of some amazing, complex dish that blows your mind with how delicious and surprising it is.

It’s often that second bite, right, you take with an intention to savor.

Rich, complex, long-aged or slow cooked food SLOWS us down to savor.

Or someone’s answer in a conversation that is so full of nuance and vulnerability it instantly slows you down and pulls you in.

Or a poem that might be so short - maybe just 3 or 4 lines - and take you to some profound, delicate place 

Or this time of year, the holidays, the holy days.

The way we bring the full presence that feels satisfying on the other side is to SAVOR. To really BE here. To BE now. To be WITH all that’s going on in your heart. All of the much-ness that the season might shake up in your heart. TO be with it. 

To savor it.

And to take some time to savor this past year. To really taste this past year. And this eating metaphor, it turns out, really works, as an image of integration.

To Integrate this past year. To metabolize. To ask a bunch of questions of it, so you can begin to glean the wisdom of this year. That the wisdom you can harvest wouldn’t be lost to you. That you would take time to harvest it.

I’ve made two tools to support you in integrating, in savoring this past year.

The Integrate Journal, and the Integrate Workshop. 

I’m going to be sharing some big lessons I am harvesting from this year, and asking some surprising, illuminating questions for you to explore in your own integration.

Ready for a curveball, but stay with me?

I’ve always disliked the term “ex.”

Ex boyfriend, Ex spouse, ex boss, ex friend, ex whatever.

We probably got that word from exit - as in, this is a relationship you’ve exited, but it subtly suggests you have exited, and we know, that’s not really how any insignificant relationship or significant chapter in our lives works in our psyche.

We can practically or legally have exited a professional or romantic relationship, but chances are, it hasn’t exited us. It lives in us. It shaped us, it may go on shaping us for a long time

My favorite alternative I’ve heard to an Ex is a “Wasband”;  instead of ex-husband.” How great is that? 

It actually subtly acknowledged that this is what was.

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned from one of my beloved teachers, Fr. Richard Rohr, is the mantra “transcend and include”

We grow beyond something by both including and transcending it.

To grow as whole people, who have integrated our past, rather than merely passing through, or exiting, unaware of what trauma we’re carrying, we can’t just transcend. Rise above, rise beyond. We have to include.

Transcend and include. 

SAVOR our past to be able to savor our present.

Identifying and embracing your lineage—where and who you’ve come from—is essential to any pathway to greater wholeness. Re-membering your own story-stitching the pieces of your story together—allows you to absorb it as wisdom. To transcend it. To grow beyond who you’ve been, rather than run away from it. Honoring  and thanking the scaffolding that allowed you to become who you are, even as that scaffolding becomes unnecessary. Your contents become more essential than the containers that held you as you grew.

To integrate our lives is to practice wholeness, to be able to say this blessing our past: everything belongs.

So I wish for us moments to savor this past year

To savor, to fully feel all the much-ness of this season and all that those aches or hope can reveal about the truth of your heart and your bravest dreams

I will be creating a cozy, sacred space to do this in the Integrate Workshop and Visionary course, and would love the share the Integrate Year in Review Journal with you as a guide to savor and learn from it all.

I would love to hear what this podcast has stirred in you, so please rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and share it with a friend or on social media. Tag me @nicolemeline and @altertogether so we can send up some smoke signals for like-hearted community, as we alter, together.

This podcast episode is sponsored by Ritual Multivitamins. What perfectly aligned brand, right? In all of my research on nutrition for my own training and my course Weighty, I have looked into a LOT of vitamins and supplements, and have really high standards. I love the quality of Ritual’s ingredients, their smart subscription model which means I never have to remember to order more from potentially shady suppliers, and their packaging, which is so beautiful I actually love making Ritual vitamins a part of my sacred morning routine. Learn more and order at ritual.com/heartward and use code HEARTWARD for 30% off your first order.