The Light

The wound is where the light comes in. ~ Rumi 

One of the greatest awarenesses I discovered is how to use challenges and obstacles as fuel to build myself up. This ability is like a super power. During these moments we come face to face with ourselves. It’s like you’re put into a box and the key to get out is inside you. The key is working your way through the mental chatter until you find your mind at ease accepting what has happened, what is, and finally becoming curious about the very thing challenging you - the wound.

It’s this curiosity that brings in the light. Changes a “bad” or uncomfortable situation into an opportunity. For me, this moment of curiosity - I deem as growing season. To be clear - I believe growing seasons are always available to us - I just have experienced that sometimes we are not ready for the change, new steps, and new perspective required to lean into the growing season. 

For me its the steps. I notice my mind starts to think of all the things that need to be done to make the changes I know need to be made. I find writing helps. I will write the steps down. I will even break steps into smaller steps if I'm feeling super overwhelmed. I set dates to carry out steps and my favorite new thing is to take breaks in between working on projects or challenges. I know that should be a no brainer - but fear can cause you to rush to try and finish everything all at once. Well I'll speak for myself - I use to try to get everything done all at once. Now I have a different approach. 

I start doing things that help me to slow down so I can see every detail of the lesson. During these moments I don’t want to miss anything. I need to feel the hurt, anger, or whatever feelings show up. As I feel them and they dissolve like a murky river once it’s calm there is clarity and direction. 

I'll do things like well for one just sitting with my feelings is probably the hardest but most effective. i just sit - with my eyes closed and watch my thoughts come up and leave one by one for as long as I allow. I find the practice of sitting with feelings interesting these days. I really can't tell you what to expect because its kind of subjective. I will say for me it does seem like the weight of the big emotions releases. It's almost like the feelings transform into useful information. 

Sometimes working on puzzles helps me to transform the feelings into useful information. Of course taking a walk and conscious breathing does the trick too. Inhale to the count of 4 exhale to the count of 6. Sounds like inhale 1, 2, 3, 4, exhale, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 

Some times the light shows up as me needing to make difficult choices, but that’s what growing season is about. The future requires something different. A simple notion that holds a lot of weight and responsibility. Change sure can be hard. And I remind myself that we can do hard things.