The Real Challenge Of Our Lives
What are we learning about ourselves and others through the collective experiences we are going through in this moment, in these last few months and years, and specifically this week?
I am writing this the day before the US election, when the votes are yet to be counted and we don’t know who will be in leadership in the US for the next four years. We don’t know if there will be more violence around the election results. We do know that people have strong beliefs. This is a high stakes election for people in the US and around the world.
My work is helping people regulate their nervous systems because we live better when we are grounded and centered. We don’t function well when we’re in fight/ flight/ freeze/ fawn. Our brain is flooded with adrenaline and cortisol and we don’t have access to calm and our full mental capacity. When we’re in these survival responses, we lose our capacity for compassion and empathy for ourselves and others. No matter the results of the election, we will have more information and can begin to make plans and take meaningful action together.
Like many others, I find it puzzling to understand people right now. It doesn’t make sense. It’s difficult to keep an open heart for people who apparently are out to destroy the freedoms and social justice we care so much about. Feelings are running high because so much is at stake this time.
We have learned things about each other and perhaps about ourselves that are disappointing. We feel less safe with each other based on what has been revealed. We are being stirred into fear and dehumanizing the “other side”. For my mental health, I have been focusing primarily on listening to people I respect who are telling the truth about what a second Trump presidency would mean for our freedom. AND it is so much harder to keep our hearts open when we are afraid.
There are many powerful actions we can take. See The Work Of Our Time here. We are not helpless. We feel so much better when we act to support our own nervous system, to exercise the power we have to vote, and to have conversations with people about working together for what we believe.
The simple act of witnessing our own experience and regulating our nervous system is an ongoing and profound practice of self and community care. As hypervigilance decreases, the noise of catastrophic thinking quiets and we experience the moments of relief and resting in stillness.
Yes we have work to do, and we are more effective when we are rested and grounded.
“We need to end our reliance on outside sources that promote division and seek the internal source that leads to unity. We end the war within ourselves and with others by facing ourselves, in every moment, and with some degree of compassionate awareness and spiritual maturity.
Are we willing to recognize the patterns of harm that we have been involved in, and consciously choose to heal the reverberations of that harm that are unfolding all around us? Will we as a species finally find a way to create a reality of peaceful coexistence?
I saw that my individual creation song was only one note in a larger composition and that my task was to harmonize my song with the larger symphony of life and help facilitate its progression.” Sherri Mitchell, Sacred Instructions.
We need every one of us engaged and standing up with courage and open hearts.
We can understand trauma and disconnection, and how we reached this place we are now. We know in our bones that we need each other to heal. We have reliable and powerful practices to come back into connection and open our hearts.
We are not alone in our suffering. We have company on this path to radical change and healing. We need to reach out for each other with open hands and hearts. This is the real challenge of our lives.
Join us each week in our Sunday free community class where we inquire and connect. This week in our US election debrief, we’ll do some regulating practices and look for common ground in our experience. Our focus will be on our somatic experience and not on the way any individual in the group voted or feels about the candidates. Details here.