Are You Available For Connection?

with Prentis Hemphill

This week, we’re re-running one of our favorite How To Not Lose Your Sh!t episodes: our conversation with the incredibly wise Prentis Hemphill. We’ll be back next week with a brand new episode!

So often we hear women say that things feel deeply wrong right now and they want to do something about it. But how do we engage without losing ourselves? It can feel like pain is the only way to make change, like we can only heal the world if we’re willing to be exhausted and broken ourselves along the way.

Teacher, author, and therapist Prentis Hemphill offers a different perspective. What if we can actually heal our systems while healing ourselves? What if it’s not about checking off items on a to-do list? If we can be more present, listen with curiosity to ourselves and our neighbors, it doesn’t just make us feel more centered. It’s actually more politically effective.

Here’s just one snippet of Prentis’ grounding wisdom!

We are scared. We are overwhelmed. We want to show up for each other, we want to support each other, we want to take action. But the quality of the presence, the quality of your own relationship to yourself and your awareness of what’s going on with you actually changes what it is that you offer.

I’m talking about how not just how a lot of us approach our lives and the things we do as a task list, which is often, you know, “What can I check off? I did the good thing. Now I’m a good person.”

If you can be more present with what you feel, how you show up, be more honest, be more listening, more receptive, and choose from there what action you take, what you choose will be different and how it feels will be different.

I say to organizers all the time, “Are you available for connection? Or not?” You might be knocking on somebody's door, but you might actually not be available for connection and that's gonna change what happens.

If you missed this episode last year, or if you’re feeling a little off-kilter and could use a little extra grounding to get you through your day, don’t miss it.