the REASSURING BUTTERDOG + "the self-esteem workout"
the REASSURING BUTTERDOG + "the self-esteem workout"
a POWER CLASH Soul Sauce + Floss Workout by Dr. MLE | Beach Witch
Presidents’ Day + the REASSURING BUTTERDOG
It’s Presidents’ Day here in the USA, a paradoxical and problematic holiday that the Canadians have thoughtfully redubbed FAMILY DAY!!!
However you like to think of it and whoever you’re spending it with, today is a good opportunity to take inventory (physically, spiritually, existentially) and release some MIXED FEELINGS and UGLY emotions as we navigate a contentious presidential campaign season (still) (again).
Hence the REASSURING BUTTERDOG | a Soul SAUCE POWER CLASH Workout.
In this ALCHEMICAL fitness routine, I fuse the magic of the BUTTERFLY & the DOG to release emotions (the ugly ones, that we are often storing in our hips), reset your nervous system, encourage flexibility—both physically and mentally, boost circulation and flush out toxins, and invite you to take inventory of your body.
Womb Work
I choreographed this workout after I did some serious womb work—i.e. sacrificing all of myself on the altar of self-transformation, and I emerged feeling super wobbly and vulnerable and not yet ready to return to the “real world.”
You, too, can use the REASSURING BUTTERDOG after an intense writing/imagining/ideation session—or after a melodramatic family excursion, or before a melodramatic family excursion, or before or after taking a deep dive into the news, or before or after heading into a high-powered work meeting, or whenever you need to remind yourself that there is something better than perfection—to cool down and ground yourself.
The Magic of the Butterfly + the Medicine of the Dog
The magic of the butterfly is TOTAL TRANSFORMATION. She sacrifices EVERYTHING on the ALTAR of SELF. Butterfly teaches us to nourish our bodies, minds, and spirits; to release what no longer serves; to take time and space alone; and to traverse change with grace. (She also knows that we have everything we need within!)
The butterfly crunch targets hard-to-reach oblique muscles while stretching the inner thighs and hips. I also throw in some of my own butterfly-infused abdominal moves that cut DEEP into the six-pack, METAMORPHOSING your WAISTLINE and prepare you to take IMAGINATIVE FLIGHT! The BUTTERFLY will also help you to release emotions (the ugly ones, that we are often storing in our hips), reset your nervous system, boost circulation and flush out toxins, all while TRANSFORMING your ABDOMINAL WALL!
Dog heals what we cannot heal within ourselves and protects us from things we can’t sense or comprehend. Dog teaches trust, loyalty, unconditional love and devotion.
Like death, dog is our constant companion as a species. We learn from the dog to paradoxically experience the rewards of growing a soulful relationship with the unknown. Because of her sureness of direction, her keen feeling for truth of heart, the dog is the ideal metaphysical guide—into the deep cuts that define our lives.
The Down-Dog-based moves in this workout dynamically engage your core in a way that fixes energy leaks in your posture, grows BOTH strength and flexibility, and improves mobility. So you can USE those core muscles, in say, a rousing game of sand volleyball or ultimate Frisbee, or your next half marathon.
The Self-Esteem Workout/Feminist Sneak Attack
It took me over two years to get “The Self Esteem Workout” published, but it’s finally out in the world, in a highly reputable journal, edited by some of America’s most iconic poets…
And I’m really happy finally reading it in print…
Like I love love love this poem, y’all. The humor is wickedly delicious, or deliciously wicked… Think Feminist SNEAK ATTACK.
And there were years—YEARS, y’all, in which I almost gave up on it because it kept getting rejected. But I kept believing in this poem, and myself, and over the years I whittled her—not to mention myself—down to her essential core, and I let go of some assumptions about how I thought she needed to be…
(Which was wickedly complicated, originally this poem was formatted as a matching question, in which the reader pairs the beginning of each statement with the ending they think is “right.” I love this choose-your-own-adventure approach but apparently editors do not.) So I released my original ambition (like so many) into the ether and viola! The very esteemed editors at Action Spectacle took a chance on me!
There are so many lessons here—about failure, and generosity, and getting your ego out of the way, and radical resilience, and womb work, and the enormous and unforgiving faith it takes to believe in yourself.
xxxO, Dr. MLE | Beach Witch
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