You Are Here: Let’s Begin

We knew it was coming. Can’t say that I am shocked or even surprised by what is unfolding. What does surprise me — in a simply wonderful way — is the response of so many. The responses are about accountability and solid facts. If you are not one of them, that is okay. While we are all “here,” we are responding to that here in a different way. What’s important is that we show up where we are and work from there.

So, you are here. Now what? Let’s start with the what-not-to-dos: Don’t deny, minimize, or stuff what you are feeling. That leads to a potential pressure cooker explosion. The emotions come out sideways. We do or say things that we regret later.

I don’t know about you, but creating a mess that I need to clean up is not on my list of preferred things to do. Instead of denying, minimizing, or stuffing, own what you are feeling, dive deep into the messiness, allow yourself to feel it. Simply: name it. Don’t blame it. Don’t shame it. 

Honestly be with how you are. That is the first step.

Let’s practice: allow some of those tumultuous thoughts and feeling to rise to your being, breathe in, breath out, connect to your core. Don’t be concerned about all the uncertainty that is rising. Focus on the calm that emanates from your core. As you breathe, you might go for a walk (sometimes my walks help the angst leach out of my body). Or, you might sit in the quiet. Do something that will take you out of the sensory overload and into a place where you reconnect to you. 

As feelings surface, surrender into them. This is not an act of desperate giving up. It is a practice of curious exploration. As you surrender you no longer cling to the emotions, but flow through them as witness. Notice any body sensations, what your mind is saying, what emotions are lurking underneath the initial feeling. Your curious exploration is a time of noticing — nothing more, nothing less. 

Don’t despair if this doesn’t “work” the first time. If you are too tangled in the emotion. You may need to do this over and over again until you better understand the emotion and it lifts out of your being. 

What’s next? After neutralizing the feeling — or at least diminishing its impact — ask yourself one thing that you can do to make a difference. This one thing may not be an external. If fact, it may be an act of self care. In caring for yourself, you begin to heal the world. 

If you cannot surface anything, talk to a friend or friends. This is not a complaining session, but a time of mutual support and creative brainstorming. Together name something that you can do to make a difference. You may find that as you practice this letting go, you discover the courage to edge further and further toward your boundary and beyond until you are doing things that make a difference to not only you but to the world. 

Van(essa) F. Hurst is an intuitive, a mystic, and a contemplative. As a spiritual director she journeys with seekers on the ultimate quest — living into a stronger, more durable relationship with their sacred in ways that make a difference in their world. She is the author of five books and believes that through our lived experiences, we become the people we are meant to be. 

Reach out to me:  hurst.vanessa@gmail.com  vanessafhurst.com