Stoic Bodywork News Letter - October 2025:
Dear Honorable Fellow of the Human Genome,
I’ll admit I find myself with a lack of a main topic for this month. There’s a lot of new and exciting things happening but they are all in various stages of completion. For now, I can tell you there is a fun addition to the website being launched, details in the news section below. Another more exciting announcement is right around the corner, but will have to wait until all the details are finalized.
I typically find myself looking for more projects in times like these. Then as everything gets moving I’m inundated with far too many tasks to keep up with. In an attempt to become a wiser more mature bearded hermit; I’ve decided to stick with the things already in the works. Having cultivated some longer term tasks that I can always jump back to in this time of, dare I say, boredom. I at least have things to satiate the need to constantly be moving forward.
This is the time I often refer to as the churn. Now this churn can be positive or negative but once you’re in it… you’re in it. Finding one’s self in the churn often happens without knowing we entered it in the first place. Personally it drives my nonsensical literary endeavors so I don’t always mind it. I’m lucky to have a sense for when it is approaching, ergo the base understanding I might be stacking one too many projects on the horizon.
You might find yourself in the churn now and again. A rhythmic cycle akin to a washer blustering garments to-and-fro. Vertices of fabric strained against the natural solvent of H2O. Wishy, washy, and ultimately settled by a vortex of centrifugal drainage. What you’re left with might be a tangled mess needing drying and sorting. Yet at least the washing part of the cycle is over and a new cycle can begin. After this churning you might perhaps learn something. I’d recommend the exalted revelation that moving the wash to the dryer all in the same day is a profound win amongst the hustle and bustle.
The key to it all? Remembering that its all cyclical. Fighting against the churn will leave you beat up and frayed at the edges. You can’t establish a new normal until the clothes are dried, folded, sorted and ready for another adventure. That new cycle could involve mundane mediocrity, troubling tribulations, enigmatic expeditions, or elated escapades. All of that isn’t necessarily up to you. The part you can control is how you react.
Should you choose negative then it will be. Should you choose positive then that’s the outcome you get. Perspective is funny that way. In the end choices beget change and change, especially in the churn, is ever present. I’ve, having written this, decided to leave you another chapter of the upcoming book in the current work section below.
It, the book, has returned from the editors desk and I’ve started the troubling task of applying the recommendations. This is the worst part for me in the literary process. It feels like what I’ve created isn’t mine anymore. My voice has been stifled, and all the time and effort feels wasted. I often feel like a failure seeing the list of hundreds of changes that should be made.
My favorite paragraph in the entire work is slated for deletion. Honestly… its crushing. I know though that this too is the churn. I can choose to fight it and assuredly the book will never be completed. I can choose to accept every change and just push it out the door. My rash disownment of it will surely show in an inferior experience for the reader and regret for me. Instead, I do what I often do, I choose the middle of the road. I put the work in and review each and every suggested change. Keeping what pieces of my voice I just can’t let go and also letting the manuscript become what its ultimately suppose to be by listening to well thought out suggestion.
I hope this helps you understand the reason, that sometimes, while in the churn, its best to just focus on the laundry. Everything else is fundamentally out of your control and not worth your precious effort. Getting it all washed, dried, sorted and folded. Hanging what needs to be hung, and placing in drawers what goes in drawers. Ordered and ready to be a lazy day on the couch, busy work day, casual outing, or fancy dinner party.
Your choice.
Always remember my ad nauseum disclaimer: I am not a doctor, medical, legal or financial professional, and none of this is medical, financial, legal or professional advice of any kind. Also, any affiliate links below will be noted with an asterisk ‘*’. Enjoy.
News:
We now have an online merch store! To celebrate you can use code STOIC for 15% off your first order. Everything is printed and shipped on demand. This means orders may take longer than you are use to (about 5-7 days on average). It keeps us from having to carry inventory and is more eco-friendly in the long run.
As things evolve at Stoic over the next few months we’ll be debating a price increase. This is to both combat rising costs of operation but to also provide new and improved services. More details will be shared once we decide what this will look like.
Current work / Research / Recommendations:
Chapter 36: Cycles
Noun
1 : an interval of time during which a sequence of a recurring succession of events or phenomena is completed
2 a : a course or series of events or operations that recur regularly and usually lead back to the starting point
2 b : one complete performance of a vibration, electric oscillation, current alternation, or other periodic process
Over the past few chapters, we’ve moved through Chaos, Creation, Order, and Destruction. Each phase informs the next, and each phase depends on the one before it. Together, they create a dynamic model for growth, collapse, and rebirth. This primordial cycle is a recurring sequence, and it is the cycle that gives context to our struggles. Cycles help us see that change is necessary, that repetition is part of the process, and there is something to pay attention to. Cycles also teach us that endings don’t always need to be feared. The inevitability of conclusion can be comforting when you know it is part of a cycle.
Emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and biologically you live in cycles. From breath to heartbeat, from season to season, from dawn to dusk, your body mirrors the patterns of the natural world. You are sensitive to them and understand them on levels to which your subconscious is very attuned.
This is one reason people struggle with growth. They expect a breakthrough to be a finish line. They expect healing to be a straight road. Cycles don’t work that way. You’ll have to revisit old wounds and loop back to familiar patterns. Oftentimes doing this repeatedly until you understand the lesson hidden beneath the surface. Importantly, everyone experiences cycles differently and at different rates. One person might be trying to see what their options are, another is trying to build something new, and yet another is trying to define what they have. There will also be those that are leaving something behind choosing to look forward instead of back. Great confusion comes from not knowing where you are.
If you don’t recognize these mismatched timings, you project misalignment where there is simply a difference in phase.
When we’re unaware of cycles, we blame ourselves for not progressing fast enough. We mistake return for relapse, which is often frustrating. Universally, cycles are designed to be opportunities. Life brings us the same themes so that we can deal with them appropriately. We do this collectively as well as personally, physically as well as mentally, and most certainly spiritually. Becoming aware of the cycles you are within is a key factor to creating therapeutic change and deeper self-awareness. When you stop seeing these cycles as signs of failure, they become signposts of change. You are not being asked to escape the pattern, but to understand your place in it.
In therapeutic bodywork, recognizing cycles is crucial. Clients often ask, "Why is this happening again?" The answer is often due to sensitivity. Speaking from the perspective of the body, any danger to the system must be avoided. If there was a previous injury, there could be weakness in the area that needs to be protected. That protection will not stop until the system agrees it is no longer in danger.
On a larger scale, cycles govern culture, history, and society. Political shifts, economic collapses, and technological waves all follow cyclical rhythms. Nothing grows indefinitely or declines forever. Change is constant, but it is also patterned. When you look at systems as cycles, you see possibilities not just for prediction, but for participation. You can intervene, contribute, and adapt. Entire industries, strategies, and inventions are based on this understanding.
The spiritual layer of cycles gives credence to the alchemical saying ‘as above, so below.’ Everything done in this Aetheric Materium (the world of physical matter) influences the spiritual health body. Without that connection we move aimlessly without purpose or understanding. It could be argued that without it we don’t move at all. We know this intrinsically, which is the reason we ask why questions, the reason we seek deep meaningful answers. We yearn to understand the origins of the cycles themselves. This gives rise to a new set of senses that are a part of the mind as it interprets the spirit.
Understanding cycles is a learning endeavor of patience. When you know you’re in a cycle, you start understanding the outcomes. You stop clinging to highs or fearing lows and can relate to your challenges. You can start asking: Where am I in the cycle (chaos, creation, order or destruction)? Do I need to collect more information, act, refine or move on? What’s appropriate right now (not once and for all, but right now)? What do I need to do differently this time around? What might these current moments lead to? Can I plan? What lesson is in this repetition?
If you’ve been stuck, maybe it’s time to end something. If you’ve been holding on, maybe it’s time to let go. If you’ve been waiting, maybe it’s time to begin. If you’ve been moving too fast, maybe it’s time to slow down and rest. Or, maybe, you need to continue the work, ordering your life instead of trying to tear it apart.
This is not about mastering every phase. It’s about knowing that each phase has value and has something to teach. You are allowed to be exactly where you are and move when the time is right. Sometimes you might not be the one who decides when to move, but you have the knowledge that it will happen. Everything changes. Everything returns. Each return holds the potential for a different response. No moment, season, or emotion is final. You can be prepared by investing time in training your mental and spiritual senses for the change you are trying to achieve.
Product recommendations:
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Unrelated:
Stoic and Chan/Zen ponderings:
Is thinking outside the box the act of getting out of the box or contemplating how to get out of it?
