In a moment of activation, when our emotional world is on fire and we've fallen off center, an invitation arrives. An opportunity to choose something different, to encode new circuitry, to replace the ancient pathway of self-abandonment with that of curiosity and holding.
To slow down and reaffirm an old vow to bring light to the symptom, to offer breath where it was lacking, and to care for ourselves in a way that was not possible until this moment.
To drop into the body and feel our feelings, sense our sensations, and soothe a stimulated nervous system. To send life into the belly, the heart, and the throat... and any other area which longs for our attention and kindness.
Once we have come back into our window of tolerance, feet resting in the earth – even if still a bit shaky, vulnerable, and tender – but slower, more embodied, and grounded, we can begin to illuminate and reorganize the core beliefs that are looping with the emotional and somatic material. We can honor the holiness of thinking, feeling, and sensing, each a gift of the beloved as she unfolds into time and space.
Engaging the path of neural integration, we bring together the various layers of our experience, explore their interrelations, and plant the seeds for future freedom.
To begin to infuse each level with new awareness, with compassion. Untangling the wounds of the heart, the contractions of the body, and the conditioned narratives that have emerged in the attempt to discover meaning and make sense of our experience.
To suffuse new life into the limited beliefs, painful feelings, and addictive behaviors that have grown out of our response to trauma - personal, cultural, and collective. To flood this material with breath, spirit, and soul.
To attend to each layer, in turn, bringing light to the darkness. While awareness is required, mere insight is not enough. Clarity is not enough. We have seen this. Rather, it is some activity of love that seems to be required, to give birth to a new world. But what this love is must be discovered by each of us, not as a concept, but as a movement of revelation within.
Photo by U. Leone/ ulleo via Pixabay
My latest book – The Path Is Everywhere: Uncovering the Jewels Hidden Within You – is now available
The next book, The Unfolding Heart, will be published by Sounds True in early 2020, details to come
The next event is The Healing Shame Retreat: Spiritual Awakening and Transforming the Core Wound of Unworthiness, April 24-29, 2019 at Sunrise Ranch in Loveland, Colorado, with co-facilitator Jeff Foster
