October 2023 Newsletter
Connections!
Connection is why we are here: it is what gives purpose and meaning to our lives.
Brene Brown
Connection is why we are here: it is what gives purpose and meaning to our lives.
Brene Brown
Dear Ones,
When I look back at my seven-plus decades I see a consistent thread, a longing for connection. At the same time I carry the baggage of trauma, the fear of connecting, of being seen, abandoned, or shamed… I know in my mind that the overwhelming events of my earlier life are not happening now. But the paralyzing experiences I encountered from an early age don’t live in my mind! They live in my body and emotions. Our intelligent nervous system protects us from becoming immobilized in the face of threat, danger, and overwhelm. The more we try to “get rid” of the nagging fears, unwelcome emotions, and imagined threats, the more the nervous system tries to protect us. That’s its job!
When I look back at my seven-plus decades I see a consistent thread, a longing for connection. At the same time I carry the baggage of trauma, the fear of connecting, of being seen, abandoned, or shamed… I know in my mind that the overwhelming events of my earlier life are not happening now. But the paralyzing experiences I encountered from an early age don’t live in my mind! They live in my body and emotions. Our intelligent nervous system protects us from becoming immobilized in the face of threat, danger, and overwhelm. The more we try to “get rid” of the nagging fears, unwelcome emotions, and imagined threats, the more the nervous system tries to protect us. That’s its job!
We are all swimming in a sea of individual, familial, collective, and intergenerational trauma which leaves us feeling separate, protected, and untrusting with a sense of lack or scarcity. Unresolved experiences from our past live in our bodies as tension, stress, or numbness. To integrate and digest these fragmented and frozen parts of our essence we must feel the unwanted sensations and emotions. Left unattended they rob us of our vitality, intimacy, and the sense of connection that is our birthright.
Healing involves discomfort, but so does refusing to heal. Over time
refusing to heal is always more painful.
Resma Menakem
refusing to heal is always more painful.
Resma Menakem
We live in a culture that has numbed and normalized the trauma that surrounds us. For the most part, we meet people with our mind rather than our heart and body. We relate to each other from our past-based memories or projections, rather than attuning to what’s emergent, immediate, present, and alive within and between us. To connect we need to feel each other.
The meditation and integration circles we’ve been holding for the past four years have helped many people deepen their ability to connect and feel each other as well as the natural world that surrounds us. We cannot solve our personal challenges as well as the challenges that now threaten all life on this planet without learning to connect and embrace our fragmented and suppressed shadow selves.
Every challenge that we run into is actually a call of life
for us to connect deeper. Every challenge is part of our ‘teacher.’
Thomas Hübl
for us to connect deeper. Every challenge is part of our ‘teacher.’
Thomas Hübl
.Feeling our suppressed experiences and sharing in a safe, protected space with others who are on the spiritual and awakening path connects us with our natural ability to relate. We learn to meet others as energy, vitality, and presence rather than personality and past experiences. Curiosity is the key to embarking on this amazing inner journey.
Through meditation, mindfulness, and somatic sensing we can feel each other in the moment, and generate new aliveness, creativity, innovation, and mutuality. We hope you will check out our upcoming workshops on Relational Intimacy, Trauma Integration, and Attuned Mindfulness at www.welloflight.com
With infinite love and blessings,
Michael & the Well of Light Team
Through meditation, mindfulness, and somatic sensing we can feel each other in the moment, and generate new aliveness, creativity, innovation, and mutuality. We hope you will check out our upcoming workshops on Relational Intimacy, Trauma Integration, and Attuned Mindfulness at www.welloflight.com
With infinite love and blessings,
Michael & the Well of Light Team
“It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an
inescapable network of mutuality, tired into a single garment of destiny.
Whatever affects one destiny, affects all indirectly.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
inescapable network of mutuality, tired into a single garment of destiny.
Whatever affects one destiny, affects all indirectly.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
