Well of Light March 2019
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Releasing Tension, Opening to the Miraculous
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Stress is always an invitation, either to integrate unconscious material that creates difficulties in our life, or to develop new capacities. Stress is an opportunity to change, develop, and grow.
Thomas Hübl

Dear Ones,
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Last week we had, what I felt was a powerful dialogue, revealing the possibilities this thing we call stress presents for our personal, professional and collective growth and happiness. I hope you will take the time to listen to our Q & A session.
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​As I’ve said before, the word stress is a kind of phantom that conceals more than it reveals and only when something is truly revealed can it be healed. It’s like saying “I’m sick”, which actually obfuscates what is really going on in the body. Sick refers to the whole body and creates a loss of power and ability to focus on where healing is really needed.

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In the same way saying “I’m so stressed, anxious or overwhelmed” hides the source of the tensions that can immobilize us in the face of tasks and actions that we would normally consider to be routine. When we say that we are stressed we are saying that something is “too much”. But too much of what? Without exploring what it is that is too much, we are left with phantom pains and mental, physical and emotional constrictions that are similar to what people who have lost a leg or an arm, experience.

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So, when we find ourselves saying, “I am stressed”, the question to ask ourselves is, “too much of what?” Too much to do​, too much anger, fear, regret, anxiety.. .What is too much? In this way we can begin to trace the trail of constriction and tightness in our mind, body and emotional fields. When we distinguish where the constriction lives, we don’t try to get rid of, suppress or change it. We simply bring our breath and attention to the constriction, to the too muchness.

It wasn’t until I accepted myself just as I was, that I was free to change.
Carl Rogers

It is our awareness that ignites our innate healing power. In my interview this week with Miranda Macpherson, she used the term, “Ego Relaxation”! I love that soft, gentle and compassionate way of meeting our stressful situations with respect and honoring, because it leaves us space to be with whatever is at the heart of the contraction or tension that is too much. When I personally focus on my outbreath as I release, and just imagine the tensions dissolving into the earth. Try it right now. Stop reading this, locate an area of tension or tightness in your body, and focus your attention on the out breath. Imagine the tension just dissolving into the earth...

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When we see stress as a portal or sign post for our personal, relational and collective growth, we can open to the miracle of our own life. Allowing what is to be as it is, creates the opportunity to expand our emotional, mental and physical capacities by creating an experience of expanded spaciousness. It all starts in the body. Are we able to authentically access and embrace those unwanted parts of our lives, so that we can increase our capacity for life and living?

Meriel and I hope you will join us for the upcoming online and live workshops on Transforming Stress, Anxiety and Overwhelm and discovering the magic of our essential being and belonging...

with love and gratitude,
Michael & Meriel

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The music comes to me when I'm relaxing. I go and sit down on a seat or lie down.
I like thinking about fairies a lot, and princesses, and beautiful dresses.
When I try to get a melody it never comes to me.
It usually comes to me either when I'm resting or when I'm just sitting at the piano improvising,
or when I'm skipping with my skipping rope. Or even when I'm trying to do something else,
when somebody is talking to me or I'm trying to do something, then I hear this beautiful melody.
​Alma Deutscher
​English composer, pianist, violinist, and child prodigy.