Bringing Readiness Into PracticeThe next phase of the journey: small experiments, honest observation, and a conversation with our whole selves at work.
This journey began with a question about how and why we work—and what it means to include our whole selves in that conversation. Whether you’ve been following along or are joining here, you’re welcome in what comes next.
We’ve explored readiness, the patterns we carry, the body we sometimes ask to wait, and the communities and conditions that shape our working lives. Along the way, we’ve returned to an invitation: nourish ourselves before demand, recalibrate while we’re in it, and restore afterward.
Now I want to take that conversation into experience.
I’m calling this next phase Learn Out Loud. It’s a place to ask questions, learn from people who study and practice what we’ve begun exploring, and try small things in an actual working life. A life with deadlines, responsibilities, interruptions, and days when there is very little room for anything extra.
A little like experimental physics
I’ve been thinking about this phase a little like experimental physics—not because we’re studying physics, or because our lives are controlled laboratories. The comparison is an invitation to approach practice with curiosity.
There’s a question. Something to try. Something to observe. Then a chance to reconsider what we thought we knew.
Rather than asking, “What is the right way to be ready?” I want to ask, “What happens when I try this, here, in the life I’m actually living?”
I’m excited to bring my opinions, thoughts, and questions into conversations with experts—and to discover what those conversations might open up. Curiosity will guide everything we explore. I want to build a relationship with readiness, not turn it into another standard I’m supposed to meet: a relationship that leaves room for changing capacity, imperfect attempts, and learning that doesn’t arrive on schedule.
From understanding to embodiment
For this journey, I’m using embodiment to mean making room for the body in what we notice, choose, and practice—not only in what we understand intellectually.
I can talk about nourishment and still postpone lunch. I can value rest and move straight from one demanding conversation into another. I can recognize that I’m tense without asking what that tension needs from me.
The next phase is about exploring that space between knowing and doing. What would it look like to include myself a little earlier? To notice what I’m bringing into a meeting before I begin speaking? To let something I’ve learned influence one ordinary choice?
I want to explore breath, nourishment, movement, recovery, attention, and connection through that lens. Not as a collection of promises, but as practices to understand, question, and consider in context.
A beginning experiment: Sun Salutation
My beginning experiment is Sun Salutation. I’m approaching it with a question about readiness, curious about what I might notice when I bring this practice into the start of my work day.
Begin with a question. How can we gather or build energy for the work day? For me, Sun Salutation is a place to begin exploring that question—not an answer I’ve already arrived at.
Choose something manageable to try. I’ll begin with Sun Salutation before the work day, making room to learn about the practice and explore a version that fits my body and circumstances. I want to notice how I arrive before I begin, rather than assume I should feel a certain way afterward.
Observe without grading. What do I notice before and after? Do I feel more awake, more settled, tired, or much the same? What does “energy” mean to me that morning—an urge to move, room to think, or a willingness to begin? I also want to notice the context: how I slept, what I’ve eaten, and what the day is asking of me.
Reflect and adjust. How did the practice fit into my morning? What felt comfortable, and what didn’t? What would I want to ask someone who teaches Sun Salutation? Would I try it again, adapt it with guidance, or explore something different? I can let what I notice shape the next question.
Sun Salutation is my starting point for exploring what it means to nourish myself before demand. I’m curious about how the practice might fit into my mornings, without assuming it will give me—or anyone else—more energy. What I notice will be part of my own learning, not proof of what caused a change or a prescription for someone else. This is where I begin learning out loud.
Individual readiness isn’t an individual burden
There’s something I want to keep in view as we explore: our practices exist within the conditions of our work.
Workloads, schedules, resources, and expectations belong in this conversation. I don’t want to use a personal experiment to explain away an unreasonable demand—or turn a need for support into a failure to practice well enough.
Sometimes the next adjustment may be something I can make for myself. Sometimes it may be a boundary, a conversation about priorities, or a change in how the work is organized. Noticing that difference is part of the exploration.
We’ll keep returning to the three movements that have guided this journey:
Nourish before demand. What can I prepare or make room for before the pressure arrives?
Recalibrate during demand. What am I noticing now, and what is possible to adjust?
Restore after demand. What do I need before carrying this moment into the next one?
Learning where you can see it
Learn Out Loud means making room for the process, not only the polished conclusion.
As I learn from others, I want to share the questions I’m carrying, what I’m trying, what I notice, and what I might change. I want to distinguish what research offers from what I experience personally, and leave room for what I don’t yet understand.
There may be practices I return to and others I set aside. There may be times when the most useful discovery is that I need something different from what I expected.
You’re invited to explore alongside me. You don’t have to try everything, share private experiences, or turn your working day into a research project. You can follow one curiosity and decide what deserves a place in your life.
For now, perhaps begin here: What is one thing you understand about your readiness that you’d like to bring into practice?
Choose something small enough to try and meaningful enough to notice. Leave room to be surprised.
We’ve opened a conversation with our whole selves. Now we get to discover what that conversation looks like in motion.
My pace belongs to me. Your pace belongs to you.
You’re invited to follow this exploration through the Work Energy Lab podcast. YouTube and TikTok videos may become part of the journey, too. As this next phase takes shape, I also want to make room for a community where we can join each other in conversation, share questions and experiences, and offer suggestions about what to explore next.
What are you curious about? What would you like to understand more deeply or bring into practice in your own working life? I’d love for those questions to become part of what we explore.
Let’s Learn Out Loud together!
