I woke up yesterday to a light that only exists in the creeping beginnings of summer.
Bright; shimmering; a whiteness giving way to blue. The sound everywhere: skylarks.
This is us, this seasonal change. The way that we, for a while, are winter people, becoming spring people, becoming summer people. An endless trail of becoming paired with an endless letting go, no matter how tightly we hold on.
I read a post yesterday that speaks to the difficulties of letting go. On being stuck in endless loops; the internal conversations of ‘why is this so hard?’
I talk of letting go a lot in my work. In reality, this body, this nervous system, is masterful at letting go. It is always striving, moving towards a place that allows it to be new, constantly seeking to create a version of itself that is a perfect match for the present moment.
This is what is means to have a nervous system that is adaptable; a constant newness, a constant effort to sense into right now and to respond appropriately to it.
If this is not the case; if we find ourselves instead on spiralling loops or playing out patterns again and again that aren’t serving us, then we have to consider two main arenas:
- How we can support the body to release the stuck-ness and move beyond the reflex patterns it has fallen into
- How we can better understand how the current state of being is serving us and what the invitation is we are being called towards.
In the case of the body, we need to support nervous system health through sensing and novel movement work. Sensing, to the brain, is the language of safety. Our sensory system provides the information it needs to be able to be regulated, adaptable and responsive.
When we activate our sensory system in a moment where we recognise we are looping round in a state of being that is more about the past than it is about right now, sensing is a way of communicating to the brain “come back to the present, and notice what is here.”
The more we do this, the more adept we become at not only recognising patterns and interrupting them, but putting ourselves back in the position of choice: how do we want to respond here?
From the point of view of our mind, it’s easy to get pulled into a self-defeating conversation in relation to the pattern. Instead, I’m interested in asking, what’s the invitation here? What am I being called towards, and what is getting in the way?
Considering the invitation not only directs your focus forward, but allows you to get more intimate with the resistance. In this way, we do not flee, and we do not rally our defences. We allow for a well-felt resistance and to potentially sit with the uncomfortablity of the invitation.
It’s about re-establishing agency and choice.
What does my body need here to allow for something different?
And,
what is the invitation?
