Part 2 of Embracing Support series
As I lay in bed thinking about this week’s blog, I realize how privileged I am. A quick explanation; This is the second part of a four-part blog series around embracing support. This week is about presencing ourself to be able to name what we need.
I am privileged to be able to have the space and time to actually self inquiry. To ask myself what I need beyond the basic rights of any human being. I do not live in a warring country, I have food, water, shelter, and I am not in a situation of need for protection, necessarily, beyond being a woman. I have choices.
I write this because I want to acknowledge that for some, the need is immediate and clear.
I write this so we can all join together in stopping the systems of oppression, hatred, greed, and more, and instead, create a world where all Beings may thrive because all their basic human rights are being upheld and supported.
And now the blog:
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”
-Carl Rogers
We have this tool called awareness
This statement from Mr Rogers already is making the presumption that anyone is present enough to themselves to know how they are, to see their own reactions, and to observe what they would want their responses to be. To really step out of themselves and to take the witness frame of mind.
This is a great tool that we have; witnessing our own thought patterns and habits. We have this tool of awareness that we can call upon to support ourselves in being deeply and authentically present to what is, both outside of our self and within our self.
Awareness has always been one of the most important aspects, benefits, and practices of and from Yoga.
This action of awareness in the moment is what I have started to call “Presencing”.
It just came out in a class recently, and it felt good. (There are a few definitions I have found for presencing, but the one that is most in alignment for the way I am using it is, “The act of bringing Oneself into the present moment.”-Macmillan dictionary)
Awareness can be a very challenging action too!
Challenging because we might just come across witnessing within our own mind thoughts of self-doubt, self-dislike, unworthiness, and even self-hatred. And we might witness thoughts of jealousy, wrong comparisons, hurtful judgement against others, disgust, negative ego, and more. For support in this, go back to last week’s blog that was all about self-acceptance.
Through the act of becoming deeply present with our self, and honest in that heart centered look, we can then start to recognize where we’re holding our own self back.
*Here’s where I caught myself for a moment. I was about to continue on in saying that it would allow us to see where ‘life is holding us back’. However, it is not life that is holding us back, it can only ever be our own beliefs, fears, expectations, or other self-judgments or self-doubt that could hold us back.
Life does not hold us back, life loves us, so why do we hold ourselves back?
Why do we dim our own Light when we need support and won’t ask for it? {More on the asking next week!} As I said in a recent Instagram post, “you are not meant to go alone”! Watch it here, especially if you like ’80’s Rock!
Take a moment to be with this poem…
‘Fear’ by Khalil Gibran:
“It is said that before entering the sea
a river trembles with fear.
She looks back at the path she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.
And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.
But there is no other way.
The river can not go back.
Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible in existence.
The river needs to take the risk
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.”
The river was presencing herself. We know in her inner landscapes she is fearful, she is trembling. She is scared to go into the unknown. We hear how she is able to look back, and to see forward, by being in the here and now, and accepting all of it as it is.
Fear makes us lost from our True Self.
Like the river at that moment, as she looked back and forward from a place of the fearful present, what do you need, dear reader, in order to leap?!
Some needs that I have discovered recently to support healing at any given moment, and perhaps they might resonate with you. Notice what does or does not feel resonant in your body as you read, then write…
“To heal you have to get to the root of the wound and kiss it all the way up.”
-Rupi Kaur
*I must love all of me. Love the shadows, the ingrained beliefs that are so false. I must look so deep that I may find the root and be able to then kiss, love, and accept it (then I can change! Just to circle back to Carl Rogers quote.)
“Could you plant
healing words
in my wounds?”
-poem by Alexandria Vasiliu
*A practice of constantly repeating healing and uplifting words to myself. Asking for a loved one to support me with their kind words and actions.
“Healing feels like a
Stranger inside my body,
Until she gains the courage to
Remember she’s been
Here all along.”
-poem by Treena Orchard
*Moving my body so that I feel connected to my heart again, to my strength, to my love that I have to then give. Moving to refill my well and to remember.
There are miracles in me
Waiting their turn to happen
I am never giving up on myself.
-Rupi Kaur
*Just that, never giving up! Believing in myself that I am worthy of support, and that I am worthy of abundance! Having patience at times, persistence, and gratitude; especially with miracles.
“When you are lost, that’s the best time to be found.”
-“The Littlest Families Big Day” children’s book by Emily Winfield Martin
*Allowing myself to be supported. Allowing myself to just stay, and then be found. Trusting that I am taken care of, even when I feel lost, and that I will be found; and that I will come to know my own heart, know myself as whole, and find my True Self.
“There are probably other incredible souls who will change your sense of what’s possible and will change your life in such beautiful ways, that are still out there, that we have yet to meet.”
-Ai-jen Poo
*Knowing the support is there. There are people out there WANTING to help me and you! And there are people RIGHT NOW in my life, and your life, that are showing us what is beautiful and possible.
You now have a choice, dear reader.
Will you now ask for what you need? To flourish, to serve, to live the life of abundance, joy, and peace you SO deserve?
Next week I will dive into asking!
May you become present to the world around you and within you. May you begin to see and experience the support that’s here for you; both within yourself and around you. May you start to feel the love from life that is given to you.
All my love,
Shawna
Read Part 3 of this Part 4 series on Embracing Support.