I’ve got a secret

I’ve got a secret. Wanna know what it is? I’m scared. Yeah. I don’t like to admit it. Maybe you don’t either.

Just this week I admitted my fear to a friend. The world events  — natural and human — are plain scary. I found myself saying, “If you aren’t scared, you are not paying attention.”

This is not the fear that paralyzes me. Although if I ignore it, I can get tripped up. No, this is the fear that like nails on a chalkboard, scratches into my consciousness. A reedy, strident voice grates, “Pay attention. Listen to me.” And, I do.

This fear splashes cold dread on my being. This dread not does trigger a frigid spiral into paralysis. No, this cold splash wakes my courage. In this awakening, I peer through the fear to discover what is hiding beyond the cloying tangle. 

One thing that I have realized is that fear is seldom a simple emotion. It is this complex tangle of many elements. When it get caught in the tangle, I feel my anxiety grow, see the worst case scenario, and feel the mire of no-way-out. Maybe you’ve been there, too.

But, neither of us needs to be stuck in that messy tangle. That is where courage comes in. For courage says, “Yes, you might be caught in the tangle. You may feel that your breath is being strangled from your body. But you don’t need to remain in this stasis of fear. The way through the tangle is to focus on your breath. Breathe through your fear.” 

So, I breathe first taking short, regular breaths to loosen the tangle. Then I elongate the breaths soon finding a calm within the rhythm of the inhale/exhale. As courageous calm builds, I focus on what I am feeling to discover the roots of my fear.

I begin by simple saying, “show me why I fear.” The untangling begins as I look into the face of the fear’s blossom, travel from the blossom to the stem, and then journey to where the stem of fear digs into the ground becoming roots. Those roots dig deep into the ground of my being. When I am unaware, those roots send tremors of fear throughout my body, mind, spirit, and heart. 

The roots need not stay buried within my soul. Courage is a trowel that gently exposes the roots while listening for the tales of fear’s origin humming within the soil of my soul. Within this melody I recognize that fear is fed on the compost of shame, the not-so-good-enough, regrets, and other inadequacies that pulse through me.

Courage is fierce bravery fed by quiet understanding. Courage invites me to journey through the fear so that I can refresh, reimagine, and renew my spirit. I might not be totally able to silence the voice of fear, but I can meet it with the courage of compassion. I can alleviate some of the suffering that is seeded by fear. 

I am scared, but I will not allow the fear to consume me. Instead I will meet it courageously and compassionately. I know that you can do the same.

Van Hurst, ms, is an intuitive-coach-catalyst. As a contemplative coach, she uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for navigating the mundane and extraordinary. The result of time with Van? Being the change you want to see in the world by creating a blueprint for your life through a deeper connection to your intuition and contemplative nature. 

Van is a professional speaker & author who weaves inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are available @ www.wildefyrpress.com. Her most recent book, As Natural As Breathing: Being Intuitive, is available on Amazon. Contact Vanessa for life coaching, intuitive consultations, keynotes, and programs.

Website / LinkedIn Profile / Facebook / @fyrserpent / ©2022

Don’t

Don’t feel resentment. Don’t be angry. Don’t be afraid. Don’t. Don’t. Don’t. Have you ever heard the don’ts? I have. In fact, earlier this week, I had someone tell be don’t be resentful…turn it into gratitude. Yeah, right. Like that has worked when you ignore resentment and instead force yourself to feel grateful? 

I am the kind of person who follows the rules. It has taken me decades to give myself permission to follow my heart and not some arbitrary rules. This is why the word “don’t” impacts me so much. When someone who I admire talks about not being resentful, instead to find gratitude, I twine into despair. What is wrong with me if I cannot make that leap? 

The pit of my stomach falls. Those sticky emotions — resentment, anger, and fear — have me feeling like I am doing something wrong again. Then I return to the comment about turning resentment into gratitude? Is that really true? Should we turn the those sticky feelings into gratitude? It feels like a couple of steps are missing in the process.

Let’s begin with the tendrils of resentment as they tangle around us. When ignored, they cut off our breath. How are we supposed to shift the energy of those feelings? I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a wand to wave to make them magically become gratitude. 

What do we do? Wallow in what we feel? Of course not. That would be about as productive as shifting 180 into gratitude. How about if we name it, feel it, surrender into it, thank it, and let it go?

Name It

Life has a way of going sideways during time of high emotions. Sometimes we just can’t get paste the feeling into what is at its roots. In those moments, get quiet, breathe, listen to what the emotions is saying. Have a conversation with it. Then name it.

Feel It

We’ve named the emotion. Now feel it. Letting it settle into our being. Just notice without attachment or judgement. We become an objective observer or someone who is witnessing without getting caught in the unfolding emotion. 

Surrender Into It

Just be with the emotion. Release any feelings that cling to the emotion. Maybe the feeling is self-righteousness or maybe shame. We don’t hold on to any of that. We acknowledge it, allow the root emotion and the emotion stems to flow over us without us getting caught in its tangle. The emotion runs through its life span. We gain a greater clarity about the root emotion and its tendrils.

Let It Go

Unlike surrender, letting go has an active component. We consciously and intentionally release the emotion. In this stage we discover what the tangle of emotions need to teach us. We may even feel gratitude for the lessons, the challenges that it presents. 

Being able to move from resentment or anger or fear is a process. At the end, we may feel gratitude or we may just feel the relief of understanding. It may take moments or days to move through this process. Our emotions are our emotions…they are what the are. As long as we do not use their force to hurt our self or another, then they are ours to engage and release in our own time.

 

 

Van Hurst, ms, is an intuitive-coach-catalyst. As a contemplative coach, she uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for navigating the mundane and extraordinary. The result of time with Van? Creating a blueprint for your life through a deeper connection to your intuition and contemplative nature. 

Van is a professional speaker & author who weaves inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are available @ www.wildefyrpress.com. Her most recent book, As Natural As Breathing: Being Intuitive, is available on Amazon. Contact Vanessa for life coaching, intuitive consultations, keynotes, and programs.

Website / LinkedIn Profile / Facebook / Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2022

what makes all the difference

surrender to what is

acknowledge the fear

kindle the embers of courage

trust in your ability to move through 

The world is covered in a dusting of snow. Everything is more beautiful with this thin winter veneer. In the quiet, the world whispers: surrender to what is, acknowledge the fear, kindle the embers of courage, trust in the ability to move through. 

That seems like a tall order, doesn’t it? If you attempt to master all the suggestions at once, yes. But, begin with surrender, and moving on to acknowledging, kindling, and trusting become more doable. You know, put one foot in front of another or the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. 

Surrender to what is

Surrender doesn’t begin with the actual letting go. It starts with recognizing and naming what is holding you in stasis. Surrender is possible only when you recognize how you are attached — what you cling to or what you push away. It is about understanding that you cannot have an objective perspective until you surrender to what is.

Surrender doesn’t meant giving up; it is about gaining a new perspective. When you surrender, you begin the untangling process. Knots loosened, you are able to fully breathe into the moment by focusing on what truly is.

Acknowledge the fear

Once you surrender, uncomfortable things happen. All of these ignored or hidden emotions rise to the surface. If you haven’t quite surrendered into the moment, this onslaught may overwhelm you. But once you surrender, you can dive deep into whatever emotion is lurking in the deep. Surrender-swim through the emotion to the root. Connect objectively to what is causing consternation. 

More often than not, my uncomfortable emotions are rooted in fear. Acknowledging the fear no matter how uncomfortable brings a new awareness — the awareness of the embers of our courage. 

Kindle the embers of courage

To acknowledge our fear is to kindle the embers of our courage. This kindling is only the beginning. Courage sparks deep into the recesses of our being shedding light onto our illusions. With courage we see the reality of fear — maybe life becomes less scary with this new perspective or maybe through the scariness we devise a way through the illusions. 

Trust in your ability to move through 

If these past few years have thought me nothing else, they have shown me that life is uncertain, chaotic, and disconcerting. I don’t know about you, but I often navigate through this challenging time imperfectly.  I’ve learned that perfect or imperfect, however I show up in the moment, is really okay.

An amazing thing happens when I trust in my ability to move through a given situation. I realize that no matter how I navigate through the moment, I am doing exactly what I need as long as I am aware. Sometimes I need to feel the evenness of getting it right — being as perfect as I can be. Other times, I need to own my imperfections and learn from my missteps. That learning and owning require that I trust in my courageous ability to surrender to the uncertainty. 

This journey that we take? It is about me…it’s about you…it’s about how each of us navigates through this life. In the end our abilities to surrender, acknowledge, kindle, and trust are what makes all the difference in our world. 

Van Hurst, ms, is an intuitive-coach-catalyst. As a contemplative coach, she uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for navigating those places may scare us. The result of time with Van? Creating a blueprint for your life through a deeper connection to your intuition and contemplative nature. 

Van is a professional speaker & author who weaves inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are available @ www.wildefyrpress.com. Her most recent book, As Natural As Breathing: Being Intuitive, is available on Amazon. Contact Vanessa for life coaching, intuitive consultations, keynotes, and programs.

Website / LinkedIn Profile / Facebook / Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2021

Fear Shows Us Where Hope Lives

The world is shifting, morphing into something new. I do not believe we will return to what was. I see this time as an evolution into what will be. This is a bold time of uncertainty. And, there are time I am afraid. Maybe you are, too.

One of the things that I’ve realized is that Pema Chödrön had it right — we live in places that scare us. Well, maybe you don’t, but I will own being scared by the unfolding uncertainty in this time. Does it stop me from living in this new world? Of course not. 

Uncertainty is never without its companion, Hope. While there is a lot to fear, those moments are opportunities to flex our courage muscles. The fear, the uncertainty, the hope are waking us up to who we truly are. And, maybe knowing who we are is the scariest thing of all!

Collectively and individually, we are walking down a deeply rutted path of uncertainty. We don’t know where the path is leading. If I had to guess, I’d say that the world won’t ever return to normal. That probably isn’t a bad thing. We may step into some fear on this road, but within those ruts fragile stems of hope are beginning to peek out. The key is to be aware of what scares us while allowing the tendrils of hope to energize our way forward.

We need to pay attention. Name our fears. Call upon our courage. Never give up hope. Remember that when we acknowledge our fears, we are less likely to get caught in their tangles. When we act with courage, the hold that fear has on us weakens. And, hope clears the path into this new way of being.

What exactly is courage? It is not giving up, acknowledging fear, being brave enough to venture past our comfort zone into this fierce world of potential. It's looking our self in the eye and saying, “Maybe this shall not pass, but I will grow through it by being the person I know that I am.”

What is hope? Hope is anticipation, it is expectation, it is a willingness to follow our dreams into realization. When we hope, we say to our self, “Don’t give up. One more step. One more try. Just around the bend. You are not growing into. You are living into who you are.” 

I go back to the book that I read about the Shambhala warrior. We can choose to be a warrior by being gentle and courageous on this quest to understand our self. Amid the fear, the uncertainty, we can choose to be the goodness that radiates hope into the world.

With hope and courage we are called to discern our role in the untamed world filled with unrealized potential. We are called to act from our contemplative heart — to choose to be anchored in our authentic nature while being a beacon of hope. We take small steps, engage in brave acts on this journey of sharing our self.

So, how do we live into who we are? 

• Be aware. Two tools that increase your awareness: Be aware by anchoring into the moment. Shield by creating a permeable barrier between you and the world. 
• Discern how you are called to show up. This means contemplatively listening to that voice within.
• Act. Be okay with whatever your response is. If an action feels too big, dial it back to where your actions are just outside your comfort zone. Then act. 

Fear will always be with us. If you are like me, it pops up when you least expect it. Fear isn’t bad. It is an opportunity to courageously show up as our best self. Fear shows us where hope lives when we listen. 

Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is lives in the margins…the places that share us. As a contemplative coach, an intuitive-coach-catalyst, she uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for navigating those scary places. The result? Personal transformation. She is a professional speaker & author who weaves inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are available @ www.wildefyrpress.com. Her most recent book, As Natural As Breathing: Being Intuitive, is available on Amazon. Contact Vanessa for life coaching, intuitive consultations, keynotes, and programs.

Website / LinkedIn Profile / Facebook / Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2021/

There Is Just Try

Lyrics have been written. Songs have been sung. Quotes have been made for this tiny, one syllable, three-letter word. Does the word try get a bad rap? I think it does. Remember the Yoda quote? “Do or do not. There is no try.” Was it a little shortsighted? I think so.

So before you read any farther, I have a confession to make. I am an unapologetic Try-er, a risk taker who has gone out on a limb or two that have cracked. But, I have also leap from limbs into the great unknown and discovered myself on the thermals. 

Mirriam-Webster defines try as an attempt. I don’t know about you, but it seems that I have spent my entire life attempting one thing or another. The goal of each try? To be who I am. I’d like to think that each try got me a little closer to me.

Does not quite reaching that goal make me a failure? Does trying and allegedly not succeeding make you a failure? Of course not! Trying is all about figuring out where you are in this life journey. Trying is a way of negotiating this event we call life. Trying is part of discovering what works for us …and what doesn’t.

Let’s use a down-to-earth example. One of the things that I am aware of during this Time of Covid is the inability to try on clothes. So, yesterday I bought this really cool tie-dyed sweatshirt. I brought it home. Put it on. Guess what? If you guessed it didn’t fit, you would be right. So, now I get to do one of my least favorite things — return it. 

If you think about it, when you try and don’t quite get what you were expecting there are consequences. You, and me, get to decide what to do about them. Does that mean that this try  was a failure? Of course not. It was an attempt at adding a cool sweatshirt to my wardrobe. No loss, no fail. 

Maybe you and I need to look at tries in other arenas in our life the same way. In this wild, uncertain journey you and I can never know for sure how something is going to work out. Until we scooch out on that limb, we don’t know. if the limb will hold us, if we will go crashing to the ground, or it we will leap into the unknown.

 If I’ve discovered on thing on this journey of trying, this life isn’t about the complacent. It is about taking risks — the underpinning of trying. So, try to me isn’t a bad thing. In fact, when we try, we engage three important life skills:  

• Be curious. Have a questioning stance. Be open to what you find. Ask the questions not to expect a definitive answer but to get a bit closer to the answer. Be flexible in reframing what you find into a deeper question.
• Be daring. Try new things just for the experience. You may discover, like that sweatshirt, the fit isn’t great. Or, you may discover a new direction, a new skill, or something that just says, “this is me.” 
• Be courageous. Trying can be scary. Even paralyzing. Look your fear in the eye. Gather the strength to meet your fear, address your concerns, breathe into your courage. Then just do it — TRY. Courage says, “Who knows what will happen, but I am going out on that limb! Join me?”

Try, because really, what do you have to lose? Own your inner Try-er. And, maybe, just maybe you will gain a part of you that was never really lost just hidden under the weight of your fears. 

Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is an unapologetic Try-er who encourages others to embrace their inner Try-er. As an Intuitive-Coach-Catalyst, she uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for personal and relationship transformation. She is a professional speaker & author who weaves inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are available @ www.wildefyrpress.com. Her most recent book, As Natural As Breathing: Being Intuitive, is available on Amazon. Contact Vanessa for life coaching, intuitive consultations, keynotes, and programs.

Website / LinkedIn / Facebook / @fyrserpent / ©2021

Navigating through the Transition Time: Imperfect in an Uncertain World

As the world slowly settles into this new normal, have you asked yourself about the impact on yourself of this transition time? How is your body, mind, spirit, and heart (emotions) managing all the uncertainty? Maybe things have shifted so subtly that you haven’t notices or perhaps there have been symptoms and signs you can no longer ignore. 

No matter what, this transition time has left a mark on each of us. They may manifest in our body, our mind, our heart (emotions), or our spirit. The symptoms and signs present themselves uniquely in each of us. What have you noticed? 

Mentally: Has your Ladder of Inference got a workout? (The Ladder of Inference is how our beliefs power our assumptions and judgments. The result is our responses and reactions.) Mine has. I have noticed more and more how my beliefs inform my judgments and assumptions and the ways that they manifest in my actions. I have had some uncomfortable but enlightening conversations with myself. My beliefs have shifted as I open myself to the views and beliefs of others.

Emotionally: During this time of transition what is your emotional state? Mine seems to have been scattered to the four corners of my being. This uncertainty is hard on the emotional life. For with uncertainty comes fears. Identify the fears is necessary to release paralysis. Reframing is vital to navigating the uncertainty. To reframe: Find the good, the beneficial, in any situation. Doing this gives each of us the power to try anew again and again and again until the fear no longer paralyzes us.

Spiritually: How do we make sense of what is happening? So much raw emotions is percolating and often boils over. I wonder how we can find our way into a world where the Golden Rule is the only response. To create a world that is governed by the Golden Rule, we return to our self. Internal transformation is the only birther of external change. This is a time for us to live from our beliefs — share our core message and invite others to share theirs. 

Physically: If we have ignored the messages from our first three aspects, they converge and speak from the physical. It is difficult to ignore the mental, emotional, and spiritual murmurs that become physical shouts. There is a lot of heavy weight in this world that targets the physical. That realization came when little aches became big, and I admitted that I was not handling the uncertainty as well as I thought. 

I dialogued with the first three aspects to identify what was happening. Only when I had this open, honest conversation with myself, could I consciously and intentionally name the fears and reframe where I am. This gave me the power to navigate through this time of transition. I didn’t have to know where I was going; I needed to be aware of what was unsettling me along the path and be open to the next step.

We are holistic beings. Our body, mind, spirit, and heart speak to us in every moment. They alert us to the potential of imbalance. By living with awareness, we acknowledge the little and big ways that we are impacted. Each aspect empowers us to minimize anything detrimental and accentuate the best in each of us. Because #inthistogether begins by keeping one’s self together. 

 Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is an Intuitive, Coach, Catalyst, who uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for personal and relationship transformation. She is a professional speaker & author who weaves inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are available @ www.wildefyrpress.com. Contact Vanessa  (vanessa@intentandaction.com) for life coaching, intuitive consultations, keynotes, and programs.

Website / LinkedIn Profile / Facebook / 

Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2020

Recognizing What is Not Working

How can you change if you don’t recognize what isn’t working? This not working might be actions, words, or thought patterns. We see the destination we crave but are stumped how to get there. No matter where we turn, the destination seems far away.

I grow increasingly more disturbed by the violence in the world. So focused on what we as individuals want, we lose sight of what the community desperately needs. That need? To care for the most fragile among us. This compassion is for more than the most obvious — each of us is fragile in ways we do not comprehend.

How can the world change unless we as individuals change? That change happens when we look through the illusions and truly see our self while admitting our imperfections — the ways we hurt others, and, how in hurting others, we harm our self. This paradigm shift takes courage and fortitude. 

Maybe this journey to recognition of our imperfections is about caring less about the actions of others and about focusing more on our self — how we respond and react to the world. I recognize that while this concept is nothing new, our ability to consistently live this way is difficult. When we focus on our self, we answer the call — we return to our true self by becoming the light that shining through the pandemic guiding us to a new way of being. 

I, like others, have a lot of hurt and anguish that simmers in the chasm that divides. I agonize over the question: “How can I communicate with someone when we speak two very different languages?” We may both speak English but our words are based upon different value system. I would like to believe that more often than not, mine is the language of compassion.

To create an equitable world, we must bridge individual and collective chasms by identifying our fears. When fear is a nameless, faceless companion, we get stuck in our differences and illusions. We believe in the possibility of change without understanding of what stops transformation. Unless we understand even a part of what is stopping us, we lack the power to confront what simmers in the chasm. With understanding we gain the courage to build the bridge across it.

The knowledge that invites us into an understanding in not one of tacit agreement. It is the understanding that breeds a recognition of why we do what we do; why others do what they do. In this realization are the seeds of our change. When we nurture them, we take that step-by-step journey of transformation. 

For me, the answer to what is not working is not found out there. It is found within. For, it is in the core of our being that we have the strength, the courage, the fortitude, to peel back the layers of hurt and finally own who we are. This powers the way we respond to the world. No longer do we focus on the behavior of another. We focus on how the behavior impacts us and how we will respond with compassion. 

Wishing you the strength, the courage, the grace, to recognize what is not working and make the change. 

 Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is an Intuitive, Coach, Catalyst, who uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for personal and relationship transformation. She is a professional speaker & author who weaves inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are available @ www.wildefyrpress.com. Contact Vanessa  (vanessa@intentandaction.com) for life coaching, intuitive consultations, keynotes, and programs.

Website / LinkedIn Profile / Facebook / 

Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2020  

The Storm is Fierce, Breathe Deeply

You never know when the unexpected with shower you with whatever you need. Life is about listening to the shadowy storms and responding in the bright sunshine.

The world is this scary, uncertain place that shines so brightly with the power of possibility. But, life is hard and sometimes we edge so deeply into the shadows, we forget who we are and the power that simmer deep inside of us. Instead of facing the storm, we wait for it to abate never realizing that the storms are always present.

We can grope in the shadows shrinking from any thunder while hoping to find the latch that releases us from our dark or we can breath deeply into the storm’s fierceness. With our breath we connect to our fears that form a seemingly insurmountable barrier to igniting the power of possibility. When we move between the barrier and those possibilities; sometimes we realize the possible, other times we retreat further into the shadows. 

So, what can we do? I propose turning that little spaces of darkness into a places of learning, places of respite, places of coming home to the real inside our self no matter how messy, how imperfectly perfect we find our self in those moments. Within that space we can be who we are. We can separate the authentic from the illusion. In doing so, we live in the freshness present after the storm.

How do you do this? Begin by acknowledging where you find yourself in the moment. Recognize that there can be no shame in the darkness when there is most surely no shame in the light. Both the dark and the light are needed to grow — each provides sustenance for the evolution into your truth. If you believe nothing else, believe that. 

Next, use your greatest life tool — your breath — to anchor and center yourself. Breathe deeply into those part of yourself that seem to be hopelessly frozen by some nameless emotion. Even if you believe that nothing will release them begin a wordless conversation with your fear, your angst, whatever you find hiding in the shadows. Listen to the reason, the root, that birthed the emotion. Respond to what you find at the root.

The next part is scary. Okay, maybe scarier then what you’ve just done. Befriend the fear, the angst. Ask yourself what small act you can do to turn the force of your feelings into the power of transformative action. Remember, a journey begins with a single step, so does your movement from the shadows into the light. 

Then act. Just do it without judgments or defenses. In your action you ignite the spark of your light. Listen to its guidance for your spark illuminates the message from all your senses. As your spark burns brightly, you gain a clear picture of where you find yourself.

In time, the dark you find yourself in comes less scary. It becomes a place to face your fears, gain respite, and rejoin the world with actions that a echo the power of your authentic being.  

Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is an Intuitive, Coach, Catalyst, who uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for personal and relationship transformation. She is a professional speaker & author who weaves inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are available @ www.wildefyrpress.com. Contact Vanessa  (vanessa@intentandaction.com) for life coaching, intuitive consultations, keynotes, and programs.

Website / LinkedIn Profile / Facebook / 

Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2020 

Thoughts from the Frontline

Uncertain and interesting are these times. I am an empath who works in an essential business. 

Each day there are new policies and procedures enacted to keep the customers and workers safe. We are protected from the tangible while the intangible emotions continue to bombard us. Lately the battering of emotions has intensified leaving me overwhelmed most days.

Everywhere I turn I see a lot of hope and compassion heaped upon an unstable foundation of fear. Some seem to be intellectualizing the current situation in ways that gloss over the suffering of so many while focusing on the anticipated good that will come sometime in the unknown future. I have also read my share of fear-driven posts from people who are finding it difficult to navigate the choppy waters of change.

I find myself wondering, Is there a middle point? A place where we live in the real while addressing the issues as community while building and sharing a collection hope. I’d like to believe so. And, if this place exists, where it is to be found?

We are a people who tend to be stuck in our heads. We make sense of the most incomprehensible things because that is what makes us feel safe. If we can analyze it, draw a conclusion, and find a solution, then everything is okay, right? Maybe, maybe not.

I believe that this approach fails to take into account the uncertainty of the world and the fact that we are not islands. Our being okay as individuals or even segments of the population doesn’t mean that, for others, the world stops its descent into chaos. Unless we take into account that we are community, then any solution will not encompass everyone. Now more than ever we need to act from the stance of #inthistogether. We must act upon the knowing that our actions — simple and complex — impact the actions of others.

What can we do? I have learned that life is to be experienced through our entire being. Living in this way, we gain awareness with our body, mind, spirit, and heart of the richness of information presenting in each moment. Being stuck in our head might offer a certain consolation, but it cuts us off from not only community but also from our self. 

Absorbing any information with the four aspects of our being (body, mind, spirit, and heart), we gain a clearer understanding of circumstances and how they impact not only us but others. We use components of our understanding — including the compost — to nourish our plot of land. This plot is not an island garden; it is part of a greater community garden. 

What are the little and big ways that we impact others? Stop living in your head and get in touch with how others are being impacted by the uncertainty. Say thank you, offer a compliment, listen intently. As your sphere of influence widens, so does your ability to impact others and the world. Share resources in a blog, facilitate community discussions, connect with others to change policy at local, state, and national levels. Give as you are able from each aspect of your being — physically, mentally, emotionally, and spirituality. 

Now is not the time to be stuck in our heads intellectualizing our selves into the illusion of hope. Now is the time to open our self to understanding — how we are impacted and how others are changed by this unfolding. Now is the time to act in ways that spark personal and communal revolutions. These are revolutions fed by an awareness that we are in this together and will only survive if all have the tools necessary to cultivate our plot and help others cultivate theirs in the community garden.  

Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is an Intuitive, Coach, Catalyst, who uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for personal and relationship transformation. She is a professional speaker & author who weaves inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are available @ www.wildefyrpress.com. Contact Vanessa  (vanessa@intentandaction.com) for life coaching, intuitive consultations, keynotes, and programs.

Website / LinkedIn Profile / Facebook / 

Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2020