Time to Hone your Spidey Sense

The reason I teach what I teach is because I want you to know stress isn't a problem.

The problem is not knowing how you're creating it in your body and in the bodies around you.

So many of us are over-capacity because we've been taught to fight it (fight ourselves) instead of use this wise resource.

Even in these troubled times.

Especially in these troubled times.

[Please, learn about tyranny from other cultures and how humanity has been navigating it for millennia. And, what are your practices to aid you in moving when you need to move, make a decision when there's literally no time to think? Spreadsheets, Venn Diagrams and apps may not be available nor the most useful.]

Now's the time to hone your spidey sense.

Stress - the combination of felt sensations in your body + your interpretation of the sensations.

I know this well. I stressed myself out this morning thinking about all the doom and gloom presently and likely coming our way.

And that felt totally awful. I noticed I was feeling major heart flutters in my chest, shallow breathing, and I noticed my low back was hurting. This was so uncomfortable but the symptoms were calling me to be here now.

Change doesn’t take time, it takes presence.

My practices got me through. First a) breathing and observing phenomena without a story - my feet can feel the hard surface of the floor, I see there's a vast blue sky out my window (even with the clouds) and I remembered my commitment - for the future generations in front of me, the ones I won't know, I asked myself how can I be and act as a ancestor worth claiming? (thank you, Stephen Jenkinson)

I need not waste another moment speculating, when my power is now, and focus on one thing in front of me.

There's no bear at my door right now.

I still have agency.

Chop wood, carry water, chop wood, carry water…

I will always have agency even when the choices are shit; and when there is a bear at the door.

I come from a long line of fighters in my DNA. Brilliant, clever thinkers, revolutionary types.

Yes, tapping into the ancestors is useful. I talk to my dead. Talk to your dead!

I know who I am and what I stand for.

I also know that I'm connected to the infinite, the vastness of the big, blue sky and the universe beyond that.

I’m connected to the wisdom of all that.

I've also done a lot of grieving. I'm not done, but I’m not full to where there’s no more I can bear. Because I can bear it. There are things I must bear.

I’m not attempting to hold back a river of grief. That takes up way too much focus and energy.

Using the rice pot metaphor, picture steam coming through the lid evenly and at a sustainable rate.

I can move, cry and talk, make decisions and grieve (and be afraid).

Emotional reactivity doesn't preclude us from our expression of it.

It's actually a powerful and necessary aid in our collective transformation.