New Moon Greetings – November 20, 2025
Connecting with stillness in the midst of chaos and challenges might feel counterintuitive, but could be the healthiest choice. It can renew us so that we have the fortitude to carry on.
Imagine yourself as a buoy on a lake. You may be bounced around by the wind and the waves but you are anchored to a quieter place in the water. We have an internal anchor of stillness we can choose to focus on even when it is storming. Resting for a moment in stillness can give us a new perspective about how to proceed.
Resisting the Doom Scroll
Our nervous system was designed to keep us safe from immediate dangers. However, we now have access to terrible things happening all over the world 24 hours a day. The fight or flight response is not supposed to be turned on all day long.
This is not a suggestion to put your head in the sand about current events. We need every intelligent and kind person to be paying attention and showing up right now. However if we don’t take time for respite in the middle of it all, we will burn out.
A simple mindfulness practice is to notice the moment when “catching up with the news” slides into the doom scroll. Consider how much time do you actually need to get the facts about a situation? How many experts do you need to listen to? And importantly, is the person or news site you are tuning into helpful with possible actions you can take, or simply repeating what you know with more hand-wringing? Pay attention.
Three reminders
- Our fight/flight response is important to our survival when we really need to fight or run. However if a more thoughtful approach is needed, we can choose to reset our nervous system to one of calmness and the ability to act in a mindful and deliberate way.
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flax Find a way to anchor yourself in stillness. One of the simplest ways to reset your nervous system is to take three slow breaths, making the exhale a few seconds longer than the inhale. You may have more complicated mindfulness practices that you engage in like tai chi, art, or music, but having a practice you can touch quickly is key for the reset.
- And lastly, the world has always been a chaotic place. Maybe we’ve been lucky to avoid much of the chaos, but lately it feels like it is everywhere. Take some time to read biographies and the history of the world. In the midst of chaos people lived, loved, formed friendships, supported one another, sang, danced and celebrated being together. Choosing to cultivate joy is also a way to reset your nervous system.
Green World Stillness
Taking those three slow breaths out in the green world is a way to help your nervous system stay calm routinely. So put down the cellphone and head outside. Visit a garden or park or even a solitary tree and breathe in the tangible energy of plants. People have intuitively known that connecting with plants, gardens, and trees calms our nervous system. Now of course there is research to prove it.
And when you are able to be outside among the plants you can actually lock in that energetic awareness for the times you can’t get outside. Choose a specific place and intentionally breathe that energy into your body and memory. Create a clear picture in your mind but also breathe the green world energy into your heart center and solar plexus. Intentionally lock it in so that you can call it up the next time you need to quiet the fight or flight response.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think the chaos in the world is going away any time soon. But we can make a choice to anchor ourselves in stillness so we can navigate through it in the best way possible.
Announcements
Winter Solstice Celebration at Bluff Lake Nature Center in Denver
I will be hosting a winter solstice celebration in Denver at the Bluff Lake Nature Center on solstice morning, December 21st. Here is the link to sign up for this free event
Happy and Healthy over Fifty Seminar
I was interviewed as part of the Happy and Healthy over Fifty Event. You can check out the event (it’s free) and all the here:
https://link.healthwithvladi.com/calabrese
About this Blog Post & and Qigong Practice
This post is part of my lunar blog series. I post each new moon as it is a great time to begin projects and set intentions with the increasing light. Topics are related to related to plants and ideas featured in my book, Growing Mindful. . Other topics are related to mindfulness, gardens, qigong, and intentional living. For more details and a list of past lunar blog posts, click here.
About Qigong – I lead qigong at Bluff Lake Nature Center in Denver on the last Sunday of each month. You can find the schedule in announcements on the home page. I have also partnered with other graduates of the IIQTC (Institute of Integral Qigong and Tai Chi) to offer virtual HeART of Body Compassionate Self Care Practice Circles based on qigong and tai chi. Check out the information here: Global Healing Circles or contact me if you need more information.
