Body of Truth

       Richard Moss makes an interesting distinction between feelings and emotions.  Feelings, he says, are spontaneous reactions to our experience of life, registered in the body.  Emotions are generated by the thoughts and stories we tell ourselves, as we react to life.

       As I sit with this distinction, it's clear to me:  Feelings rarely lie.  Emotions routinely do.

       If I want to know how I truly feel about something, I need to listen to my body, which for me is easier said than done, since I tend to navigate with words, and my body rarely speaks English.  

       There are many ways to listen to the body.  Psychologist Eugene Gendlin wrote about a technique for accessing our deep truth in a book he titled, Focusing.  Lately, I've been experimenting again with a version of the focusing technique, in which I picture a person or a situation and gently ask within:  "How do I feel about this?"  or "What do I want to do about this?"  Sometimes, I receive the felt sense of an answer. I name that felt sense and, if it resonates as truth with the body, I feel a shift inside, a relaxing, a sigh of yes, usually somewhere in the area around my solar plexus.

       At other times, perhaps more often, there will be a stillness inside with no sense of an answer.  I attend to the stillness and gently offer multiple choice options:  Naming a few feelings or possible courses of action – going slowly, careful not to rush the body.  When I name something that's really true for me or right for me, I experience the shift, that felt sense of "yes".  

       I'm still a bit rusty with this.  It doesn't work perfectly all the time.  Sometimes, I suspect, I'm not ready to trust this knowing or this way of knowing.  Sometimes, the mind and old habits insist on running the show. 

       So, I'm invited to persist – patient with myself and a deepening friendship with my body.  I'm invited to see the easy flow this quiet listening brings to the navigation of life.  I'm invited to relax and to remember:

       The body tells the truth.

Odd Moments

Noticing lately

how I fill

odd moments

rehearsing

rehashing

regretting

pondering

planning

preparing.

Chatter

fills the

spaces -

old habits

of forgetting

who I am.

Sometimes

I

remember

I am

connected

 in love -

unique light

in a

universe

where

all is

light

and

all is

love

and all

unfolds

just right.

Odd moments

can

heal

refresh

renew

re-orient.

Odd moments

can be

God moments.

       A friend and colleague recently shared a parable she uses in her psychotherapy practice.  I pass it on for your enjoyment.

The River and the Lion

       After the great rains, the lion was faced with crossing the river that encircled him.  Swimming was not in his nature, but it was either cross or die.  The lion roared and charged the river, almost drowning before he retreated.  Many times he attacked the water, and each time he failed to cross.

       Exhausted, the lion lay down.  In his quietness, he heard the river say, "Never fight what isn't here."

       Cautiously, the lion looked up and asked, "What isn't here?"

       "Your enemy isn't here," answered the river.  "Just as you are a lion, I am merely a river."

       Now the lion sat very still and studied the ways of the river.  He watched and listened.  After a while, he walked to where a certain current brushed against the shore.  Stepping in, he floated to the other side.

Author unknown.

Ego

Compares

Critiques

Controls

Battles

Belittles

Blusters

Anguished

Angry

Alone.

Awful

Or

Awesome

Gotta

Be

Special.

Youngster

Yearns

Yes -

Acceptance

Admiration

Affirmation

Belonging

Believing

Befriending

Comfort

Compassion

Companionship.

Embrace

Young

Ego.

Accept.

Befriend.

Companion.

Be nice.

Be with.

Be love.

Own and Choose

We grow

and

Resist growth.

We see deeply, wisely,

and

We cover our eyes.

We give generously

and

Withhold stingily.

We can be merciless in judgment

and

Mercifully forgiving.

Complex

and

Simple,

Goofy

and

Grand,

We can own it all

and

Choose what to feed.

A New Year's Thought

       Just tidying my office a few minutes ago, I opened Brian Browne Walker's translation of  Tao Te Ching, and this one caught my eye.  It seems appropriate for the season.  Enjoy!

Act by not acting,

        accomplish by not straining,

                understand by not knowing.

Regard the humble as exalted

        and the exalted as humble.

Remedy injury with tranquil repair.

Meet the difficult while it is still easy;

        cross the universe one step at a time.

Because the sage doesn't try anything too big,

        she's able to accomplish big things.

Those who commit lightly seldom come through.

Those who think everything is easy

        will find everything hard.

The sage understands that everything is difficult,

        and thus in the end has no difficulties.

2012

       Lot of buzz with this new year.   Big elections in November.  Mayan calendar ending in December.  Turmoil, it seems, everywhere.  Fear stories abounding – from all over, right and left. 

       I have a New Year's invitation for us – me and you.  Let's not pay much attention to the buzz out there.  Its vibration weakens us. 

       Let's focus on the quiet voice inside, the gentle wisdom of the inner master.  We need to breathe and soften to hear this voice.  And sometimes, we don't hear it all.  We just feel it.

       We feel the sigh of "yes", as inner connection happens.  The connection guides us.  It steers us with purpose.

       In 2012, let's listen to our own teaching.

       Happy New Year.  Happy listening.

From Solstice to Christmas

       I'm feeling quiet this holiday season – more like solstice, right now, than Christmas.  Winter solstice invites us to embrace the dark, quiet, fertile emptiness within.  For me, this darkness is a spiritual womb.   Its rich environment nurtures growth, invites incubation and prepares us for transformation.  It births us.

       Tonight in group, our meditation took us into the fertile darkness of solstice.  We rested peacefully in the quiet, letting the darkness hold us, for maybe half an hour.  No work.  No agenda.  Simple allowing.

       When the time seemed right, we invited a spark to enter our hearts.  With each breath, the spark grew more radiant.  It became a flame, then a roaring blaze.  Within each of us, darkness gave birth to light.  We radiated together – each light a unique expression of the one light, each heart uniquely expressing the one heart.

       Christmas celebrates the birth of light.  Solstice, perhaps, like the womb of Mary, provides the incubation light's birth requires. 

       Have a beautiful and memorable holiday season.  Let the quiet darkness hold you gently and let your love-light be born – again and again and again.  Merry Christmas!

Re-Run

        I'm running full speed this week.  In addition to my normal case load, I'm leading two retreats, two consultation sessions and a couple groups.  Despite the pace, I'm energized, feeling alive and, for the most part, loving it all.  Reminds me of my first piece in the Weekly Wisdom series – posted nearly three years ago – titled: An Antidote for Exhaustion.  Here it is again.

An Antidote for Exhaustion

Poet David Whyte once asked his friend,

Brother David Steindl-Rast,

about a cure for exhaustion.

The reply went something like this:

The antidote for exhaustion is not necessarily rest –

though in some cases that may be true.

The antidote for exhaustion is wholeheartedness.

Heart-sight

       In group Thursday night, Mary mentioned a practice she's been using in her interactions with others.  She visualizes heart energy moving up to her eyes and out toward the other.  Her gaze is peaceful and spacious – without sentimentality.  It's a way of being present that's powerful in its impact on her and on the interaction.

       Inhale the love-energy of the universe into your heart and exhale it through your eyes toward the friend you face. 

       Heart-sight creates a safe and loving space for conversation.  It's good looking.