Traversing Through Turbulent Times

This blog is dedicated to exploring a topic that has been so present for clients and myself: how do we hold center and embrace life fully in the face of such collective unrest, turbulence, and very real humanitarian and environmental needs that we must not turn away from. 

Holding Center in Times of Turbulence

Humanity is currently on a track that is replaying many of the horrific patterns of some of our darkest times of how “Humans” can treat other humans and in truth, all Beings including the planet. And somewhere in the middle of these clashing storms, many of us have been seeking a way to navigate how we can show up in meaningful ways with the collective challenges and wounds we are having while also pursuing happiness and balance with our daily lives.

In last week’s blog, Hope, Honoring, and Respect, we explored one of the first steps of any healing or transformation journey: embracing the hope that things can change. Without hope that we can travel through moments of darkness, pain, dis-ease, injustice, disasters, whatever circumstances that we find ourselves in which we feel limited in our ability to control or shift, we often abdicate our real healing power of choice. Without grounded hope we get lost in protective avoidance, collapsing inward and don’t get up again. Hope gives us the energy we need to shift from protective freeze and folding into feeling our intrinsic desires to somehow rise up and courageously move with what choices we do have, even if those are more internal stances of hope, courage, and respecting ourselves than outward. 

Moving from Hope to Love

Hope and respect intertwine and create a spark of belief in our true ability to wield our greatest superpower, the grounded choice that we have the power within us to shift from feeling stuck with a burden or aspect of ourselves/life that feels lost in separation or dis-ease. Each time we are able to find a choice that honors the spark of hope beginning to take root within us, little by little, a trustworthy feeling of self-empowerment grows. As our inner power grows, we begin to believe and know that we have more internal capacity to turn toward the aspects of what we feel are “broken” or causing us pain instead of avoiding or denying them. That is when we open to the second steps of healing, moving from love, not fear.

One of the things I often remind myself and clients when we find ourselves in what feels like a storm of circumstances is that moving from love doesn’t mean non-action or the idea of neutrality as far as apathy or shadow peacekeeping that only seeks to appease the source of the discomfort by disconnecting or disengaging. It is actually the opposite. 

Thomas Merton, a modern mystic, wrote in his book Love and Living,

“Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by
ourselves alone - we find it with another.”

His words usher us into deeply connecting with what is happening and the seemingly uncontrollable realities that are present with love acting as our North Star, illuminating unseen paths through. Merton suggests that instead of separating ourselves or disconnecting from the discomfort of what is triaging us, such as images of injustice, suffering, and any issues that are present as a way to safeguard ourselves that we instead move toward connecting with that discomfort with love as a way to reach our destiny. 

In episode 45 of Soulful Practices Podcast, I dive deeper into how we can embrace joy, real happiness, laughter, healing, and the pursuit of our dreams while also making choices that help support the whole too?

You can watch the episode on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcast. 

Highlighted Practice to help you meet the different Parts of you that often struggle to avoid: 

Practice of Arriving into What Is Rooted in Love 

Help me arrive into my life today.

Help me be with the parts of me that are scared, lost, and fearful and let them know that I see them and I understand. 

Help me be with the parts of me that are up in arms, ready to fight, to defend, and are angry, not sure how or who to target themselves at, and let them know that I see them and I understand.

Help me be with the parts of me that are weary, tired, depressed, and hopeless, and let them know that I understand them.

Help me be with the parts of me that want to hide, write stories, and recruit allies to their inner stances and beliefs, and let them know that I see them and I understand. 

Help me be with the parts of me that are not lost, not blind, or trying to defend and that are able to see, be with, and guide me, let them know that I see them and I understand. 

Help me be with the silences, the discomfort, the desires to disconnect, fight, and run that will meet me in those pauses, let them know that see them and I understand. 

Help me be with love, courage, and willingness to move from this place, let me know that I am seen and understood by this love that is holding me. 

Help me move from this place and help me wake up and know when I’m moving from fear, letting me see and understand what is happening so that I can pause, soften, release, and open to love once more. 

This is my prayer, my intention, my hope. I am now open to any guidance, actions, and ways of being that would be helpful for me to focus on today. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you, and so it is.

We are the guardians of hope, the peaceful warriors of love, and the agents of change, it starts within us and grows out from there. Please know that you are not alone, your personal healing matters, our collective healing matters, and the two travel together. 

PS: If you are looking for more support on how to walk and live as a healing presence through your life, check out my new suite of three mystical tools, The Sacred Witness Oracle Suite that includes a 56 card Oracle deck, in depth guidebook that contains guided somatic and trauma-informed Parts work based practices, and companion new book release Trauma Informed Enlightenment: Awakening to the Healing Power of the Sacred Witness. Together, these tools create a depth of support that can serve as a Soul Companion for you on your journey of healing and awakening.