I have been away in South Africa and one thing that has struck me is the amount of space in that country. The nature is stunningly beautiful and vast. During the retreat I taught there the themes were grounding, centring and boundaries resulting in a lot more physical, mental and emotional space - within the participants, but also within myself.
The interesting thing is what happened after the retreat. I had created so much space inside of myself, but then had a really hard time not to fill it again through films, food, work, shopping, etc. I have become so much more apt at creating space within myself, but I still struggle to tolerate the space when it is there. My challenge is about feeling into the emptiness and the vastness without needing to fill it, because that space is a fertile ground for integration, growth, creativity and newness. I encourage you and myself to create space and then have the courage to not fill it again. Be in the empty space in beauty Sandra
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I've been observing over the past two to three weeks what's been moving within me and also within the people I've been working with and the theme of being in "limbo" has emerged. It's the strange "in-between" state where we leave the old behind and are about to embark on the new, but have not quite taken the steps yet for whatever reason. Someone else described it as "being on the edge" with the sense of uncertainty around where we are heading and whether we'd like to move forward or not. Often previously dealt with patterns come up strongly and try to call us back. Very old challenges might surface and there is a sense that we've taken multiple steps backwards. Frequently it is in the moment we feel the most lost that we are about to enter the new and a huge shift is going to happen.
My personal challenge has been to hang out in the state of limbo trusting the process and knowing that something big is going to move. Walk in beauty Sandra As part of my ongoing personal development and process, I have been focusing on my anxiety that can be evoked over seemingly nothing. I get the feeling of losing my ground, of tightness in the chest, of ants in my whole body and a sense of restlessness and the urge to "do" or "fix" something. The cardinal rule for me is to stop and pause creating space versus going into a headless frenzy. And for sure not to write any emails at this point in time or make any major decisions.
I understand in myself that this reaction is not proportional to what is actually going on, but it is a "trigger" - as we call it in Forrest Yoga. When I manage to create the pause, feel into my body, notice the sensation and come back to myself, the situation looks very different and a lot more manageable. In that moment I have created perspective. Ongoingly, to cultivate a sense of calm and groundedness and inner peace I have been working on what author and researcher Brene Brown calls "swimming in your own lane". She talks about how we can be pulled out of our body by comparing ourselves with others; she likens this to swimming in a lane next to somebody else and trying to adopt their rhythm and strokes. At the end we are breathless, out of tune with ourselves and very inefficient. It's about staying in my own lane, focusing on what it is that I'm doing and what is important to me; of course taking inspiration and learnings from the world around me, but essentially staying concentrated on my own values, what has integrity for me and my own priorities. Staying in my own lane also extends to limiting my use of social media: as much as it can be inspiration and creates connection, it also can trigger separation and disconnection within myself. Walk in beauty on your own unique, wonderful and mysterious path! Sandra |
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