A few days into 2024, someone asked me what my New Year’s resolution was. It took me aback a bit, because I realized I don’t think in terms of “New Year’s Resolutions” any more!
What I found myself saying to her was that I try to live my life in a way that makes me happy every day. And if there are challenges to meet, I’ve learned I need to take time to re-imagine the situation in a way that begins to reveal its possibilities, instead of any doom and gloom that seem to be settling on me.
Recently I was trying to pick my way through a difficult and painful situation, feeling kind of trapped, held in a small place surrounded by a large heavy darkness. I couldn’t see what to do.
Prayer helped. Not prayer to some outside-of-me entity to come in and make it all better, although that is where we (I) tend to go first with prayer! Our work with Incarnational Spirituality invites us to pause, open new doors, throw open different windows, become curious, let new light in, see with new eyes and new visions, and explore different versions of what might be possible.
So, in that moment, I found myself asking for help to see the situation differently. Could there be a new angle, a different perspective that might light up? In my prayerful holding of this painful set-up in me, I became aware of an evocative image.
In my inner vision, down at the bottom of that heavy darkness, I began to notice a small light. I felt I wanted to cup my hands around it, and shield it from the wind, so it could grow. As I did that, the light began to be brighter. I began slowly to be aware of different ways I could frame the situation. I began asking myself questions, like —Hmmm… if I could create something here that would be satisfying and generative and fun for me to work on and with, what would that look like? What might it feel like? What are the possibilities here?
Framing what was going on this way began to turn me in a more fluid, lighter direction, away from the darkness that had been settling in. Best of all, it felt so much better to hold the issue in this generative way, in my body, mind and spirit. It gave me a sense of agency. Creative ideas began to come to me. I could focus on the emerging chick, instead of the terrible threatening crack in the egg. I continued to check back with this feeling of possibility as new ideas came to me. I realized that I felt the sense of possibility in my body as lightening, as expanding, really like a quiet inner Yes. It felt good.
Using this “Yes feeling” as a guide, I could see how to make changes and shifts in my current situation that would feel better. The situation itself didn’t change, but I found more empowering ways of responding within it. This felt sense became a kind of shepherd for considering new choices, prospects, directions. As I got an idea or felt drawn in a direction, I could measure it against this feeling of Yes in my body, and know if it was right, even if I didn’t quite understand it yet.
This was an important shift for me. It didn’t “fix" anything, but gave me a new, generative frame to hold it all in. It feels so much better to think and feel this way. I want to choose this.
The world as it is right now needs for us to know how to do this! Let’s explore and practice this process together in the Felt Sense class that is coming up soon, starting on January 25th. Learn how to restore your creative power to guide you “through the night” with your felt sense.