Transitions

I am writing today from Vancouver, BC, where I am helping my mother prepare to move out of the home she has been in for many years. I am touched both by the precious opportunity to have some good mother-daughter bonding time, as well as the bitter-sweet process of letting go of the old and preparing to move into a new life.

I am so aware as I assist my mother in sorting through articles representing a lifetime that transition seems to be the name of the game for so many just now. How do we maintain our balance, our sanity, our health and sense of well-being in the midst of constant, accelerating change?

I am currently reading an inspiring book from the Heartmath institute, called Transforming Depression: The Heartmath Solution to Feeling Overwhelmed, Sad, and Stressed. The writers talk, as many people these days do, about a planetary shift. They write: “The accelerating pace of the speedup produces a shift energy, which sometimes can feel like riding a wave but at other times feels like being tossed around or caught in an undertow.” Feel familiar? The writers recommend a simple tool they call “Notice and Ease, “ which simply involves being aware of what you feel and befriending it by holding it in your heart. Thinking about ease as you focus on your heart can give the issue or sensations more space to resolve.

This reminds me of the process of augmentation we use in Biodynamics. Here we are holding an awareness of what is present, while orienting to the natural increasing of space or potency occurring in the inhalation phase of primary respiration (a subtle rhythmic expression of our source, what we call in Biodynamics the Breath of Life). This serves to remind the client’s system of the space or potency available in which to resolve whatever pattern it is holding. In that we begin essentially as fluid space, and only gradually solidify into more differentiated form, we are really returning to our origins. We might say our source is space.

Awareness enables us to be present with whatever arises, rather than to identify with it. When we become the emotion or reaction, we limit our options. When we step back enough to be present with it, change can happen in the spaciousness. We can then return to our natural fluidity and creativity.

I believe this is the essence of waking up. Awakening, by the way, is an important transition whether it be waking up from a night of sleep (or trying to sleep) or waking up to full presence in this moment.

Our first major transitions in life often set deep imprints for how we encounter later transitions throughout our lives. If our birth was challenging, we often perceive and react to other life transitions as if they held the same challenges. This includes littler transitions, like getting up in the morning or leaving the house to go for a walk. This means we have the opportunity numerous times a day to re-visit our early patterns, either reinforcing them or meeting them with renewed awareness, space and potency.

On a last note for today, I would like to share with you a poem that emerged from me as I was waking up one morning last week.

Waking up

This is the time of year the seagulls meet for their regional conference

Right above our house

Starting at 4 a.m.

And continuing until just after the time everyone else had planned on starting their day.

They must discuss very important things

Hundreds of them

Each with their own significant, very significant, opinion

Which must be voiced

Louder

Louder

Louder

Than the last.

At least the sheep were able to get some rest

I woke them with my camera

On a late afternoon stroll

Perhaps they, too, had been awakened

Too early

And were catching up…

Do we ever really catch up?

I had a friend once who became enraged at the idea

He had read somewhere that lost sleep is truly lost

We never get it back.

I’m not sure why this was so important to him

But, personally, I sometimes really want my sleep back.

On the other hand,

Do we ever really wake up?