How in the world do we give ourselves guidance and encouragement on our healing and growth and stability and strength? Especially when the “data” from moment to moment is soooo noisy?
The Trend - Awareness
When I ask my body something like “how’s my muscle mass trending?” it will have a clue (or two). There are the visual clues. There are strength and stamina clues. There are kinesthetic clues (touching my body and felt sense within my body). I consider all those useful indicators.
Indeed, the “felt sense” and intuition are now the ones I rely on the most. It was those that really said, “Hey, we’ve become sedentary amidst this pandemic. Muscles need to move! Let’s move!”
In the 51+ days I’ve now been doing my Morning Mile I can feel my muscles have changed. Is it visible? Sure, if you look REALLY closely. The felt sense is clearer. My intuition says that my muscle health has gone from a 3-4 to a 5-6+. My energetic blueprint is more active, too – a felt sense – and starting to shift muscles and balance and posture.
So why do I share this? Because…
I believe in the power of subtle trends – even ones that are noisy with ups and downs.
Look at the muscle mass chart I pasted in from my smart scale app.
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The moving average curve clearly shows the trend towards more muscle mass. The more I use my muscles, the more they grow. And they also hold more water in them (which is healthier, too).
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The daily measures are ALL OVER! Notice particularly the days where it dips below where I started. Some of this is the imprecision of the scale and its algorithms. And some is related to hydration level, too. Still, there are also felt senses of muscle vitality which if I mapped out would also be ALL OVER the place. And, still with a positive trend towards well-being.
How we measure “now” isn’t our Trend.
When we’re wanting to be more calm and confident, for example, there will be MANY moments when we’re not one or the other… or we’re feeling like an anxious mess that is convinced we cannot do anything right. (Or is that just me? 
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When we practice the skills, though, we can get a felt sense of the trend. The trend is our friend. But sometimes we need to step back. Sometimes we need to even get external reads on what those who really care about us are noticing of our trend.
What about when the trend ain’t good?
When I say The Trend is Your Friend, I include the truth that sometimes our trends are towards depletion, or towards chronic overwhelm.
Sometimes our trend is paying WAY more attention to events and people way way way outside our scope of direct care-ability, and it’s taking away from our capacity to be generous and present with those we actually know and love.
If we treat the trend sensors in our primitive brain and body-mind as friends, then when they pick up these trends (and they will!), we can take small actions – baby steps – to change the trend. Softly bend the curve in the direction of well-being.
How are your trends?
What trends are you noticing?
Are there microsteps your body-mind is suggesting to coax the trend in a healthier, more thriving direction?