the stuff I tell myself (and myself tells me, maybe?)
Listen to your heart. What’s your body telling you? Feel into that experience. Visualise this. Sit cross-legged. Trust your gut. Trust your feelings. Breathe through your nose. Let it go. All of these may be familiar to you - I’ve heard them all and most evoke feelings of discomfort, giving me the idea that I ‘should’ be able to do something I feel I can’t do. It's not the same for everyone, I get that. That discomfort sets off the idea that I can’t do it, or I’m not doing it properly or I’m not doing it how it should be done - and therefore I have failed in some way.
As I go on I’m learning more about language - both inner and outer - as in the language that comes in and the language we use when talking to our own selves. We use words to define our experience and react to our own ideas and experiences, just as we react to others’ ideas. And these ideas are some of those. So I suggest you make up your own mind, or maybe don’t read them at all!
2 Things to share
Before I continue - My weekend Nature retreat is happening Friday 7th - Sunday 9th July. There will be camping involved and loads of connecting, absorbing experiences, time for reflection and connection, in a beautiful setting. It’ll be a small group and a safe space. More details https://endless-river.org/nature-retreat-2023/
Also I'm still practicing doing the Rapid Resolution sessions and I invite you to give it a go. It's painless and interesting, and can even be a fun way of getting beyond some stuckness or other. When I say stuckness I mean an idea or issue that we can't seem to 'let go' or 'move through'. So I am working with people to shift these stucknesses - I've done 6 session so far and am learning a lot. So if you would like a free session or even if you know someone who might, just get in touch endlessriverflow@gmail.com
So how do we know what's 'good' for us or what's 'bad' for us? Well, I don't think there is a way of telling and I think it doesn't actually matter. Each thing is measured against a previous thing which at some point perhaps someone told us has some relevance and therefore is important and we may continue along that path until we see that it might not matter at all, or we might think that nothing else BUT that thing matters.
As we develop habits, those habits can turn into beliefs and those beliefs can influence the direction of our lives, how we think we (and others) should live and essentially allow us to judge others as behaving correctly or incorrectly. All from a simple food choice or a decision about what matters, which is essentially based on a culture of consumption and, generally on what people can actually afford to do. We can spend money until we feel good and equally we can spend our way into feeling bad. Everything we do has its opposite built in. And neither really matters.
So when we think we are right about something, generally we are not. It's just a position. It's generally something we've decided is 'good' and so it becomes some kind of truth. Just like the ideas I'm spewing out here. I'm not sure I believe them but I know I can see things more clearly if I'm not caught up in why I like something or why it feels important to me. The more reasons I have, the more ways I have lose it.
I want to be ready to shed my beliefs at any moment because they are not and never will be who I am. They are just trinkets, clothing, things I wear and use, tools I gather to help me work and shape this crazy reality.
Your thoughts on meaning and associated things would be valued. What really matters to you? And does it really matter at all?
Have a good one!