June 22, 2015

Cheers y’all!  Wow, I feel inspired today.  I attending a Summer Solstice Celebration at Anahata, a local community here in Floyd last evening. The highlight of the evening was a talk/discussion led by Charles Eisenstein.  For those who do not know him, Charles is an Author/Speaker on issues around change movement.  His most recent book, The More Beautiful World our Hearts Know is Possible, is available to borrow from the Floyd Focusing library.  I enjoyed meeting Charles in person and witnessing him using Focusing techniques like pausing and sensing in freshly as he spoke and interacted with those around him.

WHAT MAKES ANY OF US A BAD PERSON?

One of the points Charles shared was about how whenever he has had opportunities to spend time with big money executives that many of us perceive as heartless, almost evil for the decisions they make – these people were no different than other people he typically meets.  They have families they love and they generally feel powerless about the decisions they are making.  Somehow they do not see that things could be different.

WE ALL EXPERIENCE CHANGE SOMETIMES

Anyone who has experienced a ‘felt sense’ shift or an aha that suddenly changed how they perceive their current situation knows that some things can change. And when we have these types of changes and experience this new way for awhile, we do not go back to the way we were ever again.  We now move forward from this new place. I’ll give the example of cutting back on sugar.  Once you make it past the first 3 weeks, your body’s response to sugar begins to change.  This is more dramatic the more you pause during this time to really sense in to how your whole body is responding to less sugar.   Your taste buds are easy to notice.  Now, when you taste something really sugar saturated, it no longer tastes yummy.  All you can taste is sugar – not the other new sensations you’ve become accustomed to experiencing.  How about your brain, are your thought processes any different with less sugar?  And your energy level – any changes there?   From now on, your experience of sugar is different.  What do you think it is that opens the way for change to come easily?  What would it take for a big money executive to have a change of heart and make a choice against the status quo that they live among?

STOPPED PROCESS

I’ll suggest that the Focusing process gives us everything we need.  Our hint is whenever we find ourselves feeling powerless, maybe something feels ‘just the way it is’ or ‘too hard to change’.  Chances are good that there is a stopped process somewhere under those types of thoughts.  A stopped process occurs whenever something happens to us that, at the time, we did not have the emotional resources to deal with.  Our body witnessed that unsuccessful moment and because it is always wanting for us to thrive, protective habits or distractions develop to keep that unsuccessful experience from happening again.  Meanwhile, we carry all this around with us like a weight.  Our life goes on, and yet, this part stays the same, year after year.  It is stuck in the past.  We fall into routines or patterns that we assume are simply ‘us’.  Or we’ve been this way so long or maybe the world feels like it’s been this way so long that we do not even try to imagine anything different. I’ll suggest that people that come across as heartless or bad, have protective mechanisms in place which are very strictly preventing them from connecting to their hearts.  Really, it can feel like a matter of life or death for something in us.  Until we can find the courage to be with and hear that from Self-in-Presence, change is a long way off.

RIPE MOMENTS FOR CHANGE

And ripe moments for change are gifted to all us.  These are moments when we feel totally safe in our surroundings.  We’re able to ground and connect to our own inner knowing of what is right in this moment.  Almost instantaneously, if something brings up a reminder to us of these circumstances that make us feel powerless, a felt sense about it forms.  The entryway is here.  We need only stay with it.  Pause whatever you are doing and listen.  Self-in-Presence holds the space with interested curiosity.  Whatever unfolds is your next step, your new way of understanding your purpose, your role around this issue.  Clarity has come.  Now, you know. Still you must reach deeper into your bag of courage if you are going to stand up for change in a hostile environment.

EMBODIMENT IS YOUR ARMOUR

So someone in the oil industry might say his heart knows it is not right to build more fracking pipelines and yet, that is his job and he continues to do it.  This person has paused long enough to listen within.  They got stuck at embodiment.  In our Focusing process, this is where we invite that clarity to be with us in our body as long as it would like.  We really pause to feel that open, spacious, flowing sense in our body.  We might also take it further, walk, move our bodies with this new knowing “I am this…”.  Can we imagine standing up to those who still believe the old way we did and sharing this with them?  What comes up in our body when we invite that?  If we do not still feel open, spacious, flowing – then there is more inner work to do before we make that step.  We turn toward that which feels tight or constricting with curiosity until there is no more to be heard. All of us feels on board.  We are ready to stand up for what feels right within.  We are not afraid of the consequences, we can even sense that whatever happens, its ok, another opportunity will open and we will greet it with open interested curiosity.

IT”S A LOT AND IT”S HAPPENING MORE ALL THE TIME

The more I get to know Focusing and this process of how change happens, I’ve come to accept, it’s not too surprising humanity is where it’s at.  Change takes courage and a willingness to really get to know ourselves. Complex beings we are.

And, I see that change is happening and at a faster and faster rate.  People in high power positions are admitting mistakes and changing course.  Our new Pope is one example.  I also believe that every courageous step anyone of us takes to line ourselves up with our own inner heartfelt knowing and then act from that place of living our highest wisdom makes it easier for it to happen again.  We are paving the way for a new way of being.  It gets easier each time we do it, our body learns to trust the process, and we model that it is not so hard to those around us.  Be the change you’d like to see.  And then look around once more…it’s happening, old story evil is crumbling down and it has nothing to do with guns or war.  It has everything to do with heartfelt listening.