It can be so hard to maintain a sense of hope when things are falling apart, when the uninvited ones surge and we find ourselves claustrophobic and uncertain, underneath a waterfall of cascading thought and feeling.
The invitation is into the earth, the body, and out of the seductive spin of trying to resolve the activation by way of concept and more thinking. With the breath as ally, travel inside the raw, tender sensations and provide sanctuary and a field of space in which the visitors can rest.
Once you have soothed your achy nervous system and watered the fire with the cooling rains of loving kindness, you can then dialogue with the visitors from a place of grounding and open perspective, asking why they have come, what they need, what they have come to reveal, and dare to care for yourself in a new way. With the circuitry of slow, empathic attunement, you can then use your mind in wild and creative ways to bring illumination, perspective, and new vision.
It is an act of mercy to allow the hope to fall away at times, to let go of the pressure to hold even that. And to somehow, in that falling apart, to see that while we may never be able to integrate love and hope, that it is always integrating us.
Photo by Julita – Bodensee/Schweiz – pasja1000
My most recent book – The Path Is Everywhere: Uncovering the Jewels Hidden Within You – is now available
The next book, A Healing Space: Befriending Yourself in Difficult Times, will be published by Sounds True
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
