Growing Foundation for Trying Times
No doubt about it, we are living in “interesting” times.
As I write this, California has historic fires raging, making claim to hundreds of thousands of acres of land, taking human and nonhuman lives and destroying homes, businesses, livelihoods and, of course, our beautiful landscape.
As I write this, children are still waiting to be reunited with their families after detentions at the borders of this country, their parents fleeing harm and hoping for a safe landing and a future that could offer sustenance and growth.
There’s been the rise of the #Me Too and #Times Up movement demonstrating the extent of violence against women. And Black Lives Matter has expanded far beyond its initial rallying call to bring awareness to the murders of brown and black skinned people in the streets of the United States and calling us to recognize the systemic underpinnings of racism, bigotry, and xenophobia that the United States was founded on and the legacy that brings.
I don’t know about you, but I need to manage how much news I can take in at a time.
I’m watching and attending to how my body responds to what I hear and what I see and the feelings that arouse my nervous system and could lead me to a sense of overwhelm.
Nothing good comes from a state of overwhelm. Quite literally, the thinking and reflecting part of the brain gets bypassed and is no longer “on line”. It’s not a good time to process with your partner or negotiate with your boss. And it’s not the best time to be driving but of course, that happens!
The times we live in now are calling for us to come to our greater self to be better able to function in our own lives, with each other, and most certainly in our larger communities.
Early trauma, which can include among many things, challenges at birth, or growing up in a dangerous environment at home or on the street, fills us with stress that takes its toll on our functioning, our relationships and, over time, on our physical health.
Survival is an imperative and we do what we must to continue. When and if there’s the privilege of resources, time and space, we now know that neurodevelopment continues throughout a lifetime. It’s possible to attend to those internal capacities that never before had the chance to develop and expand.
These interesting and challenging times offer us an opportunity to make radical change because continuing in the usual way so clearly isn’t working. Coming to ourselves and our senses together can offer a creative and expansive life personally and with all our relations.