Monday, March 30, 2020

Befriending Ourselves in Difficult Times


Dear friend, 

I hope this note finds you healthy and safe, and doing okay in this time of groundlessness and uncertainty. I wanted to share some of my recent writing with you and to let you know that we'll be re-opening our online community, Befriending Yourself, to new registration as of today.

While we may be asked to practice social distancing for now, which is wise and also kind, this does not mean we must be distant to one another’s hearts.

I know that many of you - in addition to trying to keep yourself and your family safe physically - are also confronting feelings of loneliness, fear, and even hopelessness. Having a community to gather with regularly (online) can help us to bear the unbearable together and open to the opportunity that these difficult times offer to us at deeper emotional and spiritual levels.

As some of you know, we open our online community, Befriending Yourself, a few times per year to new members, with the next open planned for the summer. However, in light of the present circumstances, we have re-opened to new registration today and will stay open for the foreseeable future.

Four times each month (once per week except in the cases where a month has five Thursdays) Jeff Foster and I will come online live (twice together and once, each, individually) for meditation, conversation, and connection. These sessions will take place on the first four Thursdays of the month, at 11am Pacific Time (Los Angeles). For those unable to attend live, audio and video recordings will be sent out shortly after the session ends, as well as a downloadable written transcript.

>>> Learn more about Befriending Yourself and how to join

These are the times in our lives when we need ourselves and others more than ever, when we need an infusion of presence, empathy, attunement, perspective, and compassion.

Whether or not we connect with one another online at this time, I wish you the very best and look forward to staying in touch over these coming weeks and months.

Together, we will get through this.

Sending my love,
Matt

RECENT WRITING FROM MATT

SOCIAL DISTANCING AND THE SCINTILLAE OF LIGHT
We may be asked to practice social distancing for now, which is wise and also kind, but this does not mean we must be distant to one another’s hearts. For the bridge between hearts is crafted of the scintillae of light.

There are times when the ground will fall away, and there are no longer any reference points from which to make sense of what is happening. The rug has been pulled from under the life we thought was here, and were counting on to provide stability, solidity, and sense.

The narratives are conflicting, the feelings are contradictory, and the path forward is hazy. It’s as if we can’t access what was so clear from even a few days ago. Even “a few days ago” feels so far away.

All of the work we’ve done – the surrendering, the healing, the insights, the discoveries, the realizations… for some reason, it’s no longer in reach. It’s as if we’re being asked to start over.

There is a sense that some sort of veil is parting, but what is coming next has not yet been given. At times it feels so alive in the unknown, but at other times it is disorienting, and we burn for resolution.

Rather than struggle against the uncertainty, we can give ourselves permission to enter inside it. There is a refuge here, though it is hidden and may not be accessible via ordinary means. We don’t live in a world that honors the wisdom in confusion and doubt, but we were never designed to live someone else’s journey anyway.

Stay close to what is here now, even if what is here is uncertainty, confusion, hopelessness, and just being a bit scared. These, too, are the path, but we must move out of the status quo, habitual perception, and collective trance to remember.

No, today may not be a day for answers, but to let our hearts break open together to the vastness of the question. To take the risk to love one another in a new way. To speak kind words, to listen and hold another’s grief, to stay near.

To use this time in solitude to remember how dear, precious, fragile, and precarious it truly is here.


IN TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY
During uncertain times – where the personal, cultural, and collective status quo is shaken – listening and attuning to the manifestations of the unconscious can be an important way to stay connected with ourselves, with the soul, and with what matters most deeply to us.

Of course, many of us will be spending a lot of time and energy taking care of ourselves and our families, ensuring the safety of those around us, staying up to date on reports from organizations and agencies we trust, and following guidelines designed to protect as many of us as possible. It is both wise and kind to engage in all of this with a sharp, creative mind and open, flexible heart.

But in those moments when we find ourselves alone, social-distancing, and unable to distract ourselves in our ordinary ways, we may find ourselves in a unique situation to listen. Finally. To slow down. And listen to what it is the soul has been whispering to us.

The soul is always reaching out to us, by way of our dreams and fantasy-images, unexpected sensations in the body, irrational moods, and unexplainable “symptoms” of all kinds.

But usually we are too busy to listen, to feel, to sense, to enter into partnership with the voices, figures, and the lifeforce that is attempting to reach us.

For therapists (and everyone), you might pay careful attention to the counter-transference in these times, what emerges in your body and within the interactional field as you listen and attune to another, as they share their fears, fantasies, dreams, and images with you. For it is often through the body that the unconscious is able to find us.

I will not paint some Pollyannaish fantasy that there is always opportunity in times of uncertainty, fear, and challenge, for I do not believe it is that simple. For many, this situation will not be experienced as opportunity, but as tragedy. These ones could of course be me. And for these ones I pray.

For others, there is a unique invitation in times of isolation, where the rug is pulled away and the distractions are no longer there. Where the voices, images, and dreams have found a way in. The soul is not in us, but we are in the soul. And it is speaking.


AN INVISIBLE BRIDGE
There are times when things fall apart. When internal and external structures, references points, and the axis around which we spin is dissolved… not by ourselves, but by nature, by the great Other.

In the face of this dissolution, it is very natural to go through a process of disbelief, fear, and rage. What will happen to me? To my family? To this world? To sentient life?

It is essential that we turn into this dissolution, which is a wrathful, yet holy emanation of the soul, of the beloved as he or she or it makes its way into this world of time and space.

To take some moments to slow down, root into the earth, and to craft these bodies as vessels to contain, hold, and integrate the feelings, the images, the impulses, and the uncertainty. These experiences, though difficult and challenging to tend, are not obstacles to our path, but are the very essence of the path itself.

As we offer safe passage and sanctuary for the falling apart of me and my world and how I dreamed it would all turn out, we step into the realm of the warrior. Our heart is turned into a temple. Inside this temple, fearlessness does not mean never being afraid, or pathologizing fear, transcending, or shaming it. It means the profound, alive, creative, empowered willingness to meet fear, moment by moment, with the power and beauty of our brokenness.

As we turn this body into a vessel of presence, attunement, curiosity, and love – and as we metabolize and assimilate that which we’re being asked to hold now – we might discover a tenderness underneath it all, a soft spot, even a soreness, an ache. It is an ache of grief for this world, for how fragile, temporary, delicate, and tenuous it truly is here.

How precious it is, how rare, how outrageous, even, to be given another breath. This breath. And this one.

In this recognition, we see that whether things are falling apart or staying together, somehow it is workable, what we’re feeling is valid, and that our lifeline is that invisible bridge that connects one heart with another.

Sunday, March 29, 2020

In times of uncertainty


During uncertain times – where the personal, cultural, and collective status quo is shaken – listening and attuning to the manifestations of the unconscious can be an important way to stay connected with ourselves, with the soul, and with what matters most deeply to us.

Of course, many of us will be spending a lot of time and energy taking care of ourselves and our families, ensuring the safety of those around us, staying up to date on reports from organizations and agencies we trust, and following guidelines designed to protect as many of us as possible. It is both wise and kind to engage in all of this with a sharp, creative mind and open, flexible heart.

But in those moments when we find ourselves alone, social-distancing, and unable to distract ourselves in our ordinary ways, we may find ourselves in a unique situation to listen. Finally. To slow down. And listen to what it is the soul has been whispering to us.

The soul is always reaching out to us, by way of our dreams and fantasy-images, unexpected sensations in the body, irrational moods, and unexplainable “symptoms” of all kinds.

But usually we are too busy to listen, to feel, to sense, to enter into partnership with the voices, figures, and the lifeforce that is attempting to reach us.

For therapists (and everyone), you might pay careful attention to the counter-transference in these times, what emerges in your body and within the interactional field as you listen and attune to another, as they share their fears, fantasies, dreams, and images with you. For it is often through the body that the unconscious is able to find us.

I will not paint some Pollyannaish fantasy that there is always opportunity in times of uncertainty, fear, and challenge, for I do not believe it is that simple. For many, this situation will not be experienced as opportunity, but as tragedy. These ones could of course be me. And for these ones I pray.

For others, there is a unique invitation in times of isolation, where the rug is pulled away and the distractions are no longer there. Where the voices, images, and dreams have found a way in. The soul is not in us, but we are in the soul. And it is speaking.




My new book - A Healing Space: Befriending Ourselves in Difficult Times - is now available for pre-order at Amazon and will be published by Sounds True in November. 


My monthly online community, Befriending Yourself, co-facilitated with author and spiritual teacher Jeff Foster, is currently closed to new members, but periodically opens throughout the year. To place your name on the mailing list for additional information, please visit the course page here

Sunday, March 22, 2020

Social distancing and the scintillae of light


We may be asked to practice social distancing for now, which is wise and also kind, but this does not mean we must be distant to one another’s hearts. For the bridge between hearts is crafted of the scintillae of light.

There are times when the ground will fall away, and there are no longer any reference points from which to make sense of what is happening. The rug has been pulled from under the life we thought was here, and were counting on to provide stability, solidity, and sense.

The narratives are conflicting, the feelings are contradictory, and the path forward is hazy. It’s as if we can’t access what was so clear from even a few days ago. Even “a few days ago” feels so far away.

All of the work we’ve done – the surrendering, the healing, the insights, the discoveries, the realizations… for some reason, it’s no longer in reach. It’s as if we’re being asked to start over.

There is a sense that some sort of veil is parting, but what is coming next has not yet been given. At times it feels so alive in the unknown, but at other times it is disorienting, and we burn for resolution.

Rather than struggle against the uncertainty, we can give ourselves permission to enter inside it. There is a refuge here, though it is hidden and may not be accessible via ordinary means. We don’t live in a world that honors the wisdom in confusion and doubt, but we were never designed to live someone else’s journey anyway.

Stay close to what is here now, even if what is here is uncertainty, confusion, hopelessness, and just being a bit scared. These, too, are the path, but we must move out of the status quo, habitual perception, and collective trance to remember.

No, today may not be a day for answers, but to let our hearts break open together to the vastness of the question. To take the risk to love one another in a new way. To speak kind words, to listen and hold another’s grief, to stay near.

To use this time in solitude to remember how dear, precious, fragile, and precarious it truly is here.




Photo by Molly Rose Lee


My new book - A Healing Space: Befriending Ourselves in Difficult Times - is now available for pre-order at Amazon and will be published by Sounds True in November. 

My previous book - The Path is Everywhere: Uncovering the Jewels Hidden Within You - is available at Amazon

My monthly online community, Befriending Yourself, co-facilitated with author and spiritual teacher Jeff Foster, is currently closed to new members, but periodically opens throughout the year. To place your name on the mailing list for additional information, please visit the course page here


Sunday, March 15, 2020

Today may not be the day for "answers"


The contradictory feelings of hope and hopelessness, meaning and flatness, anxiety and rest. The shakiness and uncertainty in the belly. The tightness in the throat. The ache inside the heart. The joy that at times is there, but never can seem to be sustained.

All the techniques, the teachings, the things to manifest, the new beliefs to take on, the worn-out ideas about the true source of peace, aliveness, and flowing abundance. Perhaps there were once answers to these questions, but now there is no answer to be found. Only a burning where the questions once existed.

This burning is the doorway, the portal, pure evidence of the connection.

A cosmic sort of exhaustion can come at times, where we find ourselves in the bardo between one moment and the next. We can’t quite go back to the way it was, but the rebirth has yet to appear. There is a creativity in the liminal but it can seem out of reach. We are asked to marinate in the womb of now, tend to the groundlessness, and find refuge in the unknown: to be midwife to the darkened illumination. There are signs and symbols and guidance all around and inside us, but their appearance is governed by a timeline written somewhere else.

As we bear witness to a new day, in awe at the gift that has been given… the breath is here. The heart is quivering. The birds have come. Sounds from the other world, another opportunity to hear, to behold the miracle of the senses. The sun has come up again. The moon is hiding nearby waiting her turn. For just one moment, the veil parts and the perfection is there awaiting our participation.

Your life is not an unending self-improvement project and your heart is not a venture to be undertaken, mastered, and completed. Perhaps today was never going to be the day when you figured it all out, got all your questions answered, or resolved the contradictions. It's just too wild for all that. Just too creative. Just too alive.

Today may not be the day for answers, but to let your heart break open to the vastness of the question. To fall to the ground as a humble lover of the mystery. And listen once again.



Photo by Enrique Lopez Garre



Falling in Love with Where You Are: Embracing the Joy and Heartbreak of Spiritual Awakening - our annual spring, five-day retreat - will take place April 22-27, 2020 at Sunrise Ranch in Loveland, Colorado, with myself and Jeff Foster. More information here

My online community, co-facilitated with Jeff Foster - Befriending Yourself: Discovering the Beauty in the Wounded and Broken Places - is currently closed to new members, however will re-open later in the year if you'd like to add your name to the wait list. Learn more here


My most recent book – The Path Is Everywhere: Uncovering the Jewels Hidden Within You – is available in both paperback and Kindle editions. 

My next book, A Healing Space: Befriending Ourselves in Difficult Times, will be published by Sounds True in 2020. Learn more here


Sunday, March 8, 2020

Never underestimate the power of love


One way to speak about trauma is a state of psychic unbearability. Where thoughts, feelings, sensations, and images begin to loop, cascade, and waterfall upon us.

We cannot contain, tolerate, or hold it. We’re on the edge of utter fragmentation, drowning in a black pool, slipping underneath the quicksand.

To have another person, with a soothed empathic nervous system, near us, resonating right-brain to right-brain, to help us to collect the pieces into a sealed container, can appear as a momentary miracle.

Even if the intensity does not lessen, somehow we sense at a very primordial level that we will not go down. We will make it. There is a sliver of hope. A small piece of light.

To help another in this process of metabolization - to provide a home for that level of overwhelm, terror, and dysregulation - to digest it together and offer it back to them in more manageable bits, is an act of love.

Like a mother bird who eats and partially digests a worm for her sweet little babies before spitting it back into their mouths.

No, we cannot always provide this function and we must be honest with ourselves about our real-time capacities and our agreements with others, at times helping in other ways, including establishing clear boundaries in order to protect our own integrity. To not shame ourselves for what we are able to provide in a given moment.

To offer our listening presence, a blessing, some warmth, a hand to hold, a shoulder to cry on; to pray that this one be guided, held, and not forsaken. To set aside our need for them to heal, shift, or transform, “get over” what they are experiencing, or go through it in a way that prevents confrontation with our own unfelt emotional world.

To seed the interactional field with hope, mercy, and kindness... the activity of intergenerational reorganization.

To breathe with them, listen carefully, say even a few simple words, anything so that they feel felt in that moment, that they are not alone.

Never underestimate the power of love and the devastating truth that so many of our dear fellow travelers have never really received this, a safe container in which to tend to overwhelming thoughts, feelings, and memories.

May we do whatever we can to help this world, to bear witness to the wildness of the human heart and nervous system to reorganize, and to the soul shining out of all sentient life.



Photo by Rene Rauschenberger



Falling in Love with Where You Are: Embracing the Joy and Heartbreak of Spiritual Awakening - our annual spring, five-day retreat - will take place April 22-27, 2020 at Sunrise Ranch in Loveland, Colorado, with myself and Jeff Foster. More information here

My online community, co-facilitated with Jeff Foster - Befriending Yourself: Discovering the Beauty in the Wounded and Broken Places - is currently closed to new members, however will re-open later in the year if you'd like to add your name to the wait list. Learn more here


My most recent book – The Path Is Everywhere: Uncovering the Jewels Hidden Within You – is available in both paperback and Kindle editions. 

My next book, A Healing Space: Befriending Ourselves in Difficult Times, will be published by Sounds True in 2020. Learn more here


Sunday, March 1, 2020

When sitting with a friend (or ourselves) in times of struggle...


At times, you may be asked to sit with another who has been touched by the darkness. To allow them to fall apart in your arms, unravel, be without hope, and feel lost. You may sense there is some sort of wisdom unfolding, but it is chaotic, uncertain, and not easy to stay with.

While it is natural to want to do whatever you can to help them feel better, listen carefully to what it is they are truly asking for. Extend to them a calm, regulated nervous system where their experience can be validated and held, exactly as it is. Ensure them – with words and with your presence – that they need not "get over it," "accept everything as it is," shift into a "higher vibration," "stay in the present," be cured, transformed, or "healed" in order for you to stay close.

To provide such an environment for another, you must first offer safe passage for the unmetabolized in yourself: the unmet sadness, abandoned shame, discarded grief, disavowed hopelessness, and deserted aloneness. If not, you may find yourself rushing to talk the other out of their experience, urgently spinning to relieve them of their feelings as a way to cut into your own anxiety and discomfort. All the while subtly and unconsciously disavowing the raging intelligence buried within the dark.

Together with them, make the commitment to not pathologize their experience. Pain is not pathology. Hopelessness is not pathology. Grief is not pathology. Shame and rage are not pathology. They are path. Seed this wisdom into the relational field and watch in awe as a new world unfolds.

As you attune to the "other" in front of you – as well as to the alchemical "other" within – feel the creative flow of love as it fills the space between, crafting you both as vessels of sanctuary for the pieces of the broken world, for the shards of confusion, and for the crumbled hopes and dreams that have dissolved in front of your eyes. Honor the holy truth that the forms that love take will always fall apart – for this is their nature – in order that they may come back together in more integrated and cohesive ways.

Within the aliveness of the relational field – despite the pain of the present, the traumas of the past, and the broken dreams of the future – you may see that it was only love after all, taking whatever form it must so that it may unfold itself into this world, in ways the mind may never understand.

Please do whatever you can to help others in whatever way you are able: attune to their emotional experience such that they feel felt, listen carefully to what they are saying, and how they are making meaning of their lives.

Slow way down, bracket your favorite psychological and spiritual jargon and theories, and allow yourself to be curious about how they are making sense of their experience. Feed them, hold them, speak kindly to them, provide sanctuary and safe passage for soul to disclose its mysteries. And remind them that love is here and is alive.





Falling in Love with Where You Are: Embracing the Joy and Heartbreak of Spiritual Awakening - our annual spring, five-day retreat - will take place April 22-27, 2020 at Sunrise Ranch in Loveland, Colorado, with myself and Jeff Foster. More information here

My online community, co-facilitated with Jeff Foster - Befriending Yourself: Discovering the Beauty in the Wounded and Broken Places - is currently closed to new members, however will re-open later in the year if you'd like to add your name to the wait list. Learn more here

My most recent book – The Path Is Everywhere: Uncovering the Jewels Hidden Within You – is available in both paperback and Kindle editions. 

My next book, A Healing Space: Befriending Ourselves in Difficult Times, will be published by Sounds True in 2020. Learn more here