Coming Home Meditation Tuesday Morning 9-10:15 EST ~ Softening
Last week we worked with resistance. We'll continue that exploration tomorrow with the medicine of softening.
Dear Friends,
Last week we explored the subtle and not-so-subtle ways resistance prevents us from being in the now, present, open to reality as it is. We sat very still and let resistance unfold, reveal itself, and we tried to let go over and over again; releasing tension and fixation.
At one point in the meditation, towards the end, I evoked compassion and self-compassion. When we shared back to the group about our experience, several people commented that touching compassion was extremely helpful to the process of releasing tension and resistance. The compassion felt like grace. It felt like it made the whole experience softer, more malleable, and less intense.
I know when I am coaching clients through trauma healing, we reach some very tough spots. There can be a lot of fear and anxiety in the process. The body goes numb or stiff, there is a desire not to feel. There is tension and tightening. And everything can start to feel very serious, frigid, and sterile. When I sense this, I often give the instruction to bring some warmth into the process, some space, some softening. When people can access this, it tends to help ease and even speed the healing process. When they cannot, that also tells me something. We need to work on softening!
For me, the softening is related to The Feminine energies and wisdom. It is part of what we are so sorely missing in this world of hyper masculinity, control, deadlines, harshness and urgency. We need to remember the “felt sense” of The Feminine and invite and invoke Her in our healing, transformation, growth, and evolution. This is Her domain. We are so used to forcing things to happen, using military-style discipline and brute force to organize ourselves and propel growth. But, this can backfire when it comes to the human psyche. Think of how a child thrives when the loving mother is present, patient and relaxed. Or how an argument can be defused when one party has the courage and presence to soften their position.
Softening is beautiful in its own right. It can also be a powerful tool of transformation.
Join me tomorrow from 9-10:15am EST for Coming Home, a weekly discussion and guided meditation dedicated to practices and topics that bring us deeper into the body and into connection with the earth and each other.
As always, the Coming Home meditation is a pay-what-you-feel event. Recommended donation is $10-20. Anything is appreciated and nothing is required. You can give here:
Venmo: ElizabethSchuyler-Brown
Paypal: schuyler@artofemergence.com