It's the time of year, as the cycle of Winter ends and Spring begins to flow in, with a sweetness in the air, we are reminded of a loving nature all around us.
We might even feel it rise within us, as we smell the new warm honey-breeze.
Our ability to love what is outside of us can feel easy - we point and say "I love that!", "I yearn for that" or even simply "I behold that".
When we see what we love, outside of us, sometimes its the only way our psyche can accept a love we actually hold for ourselves but which our inner-critic keeps at bay. This habit might be all we have capacity for just now. Or it might be the clever way we have survived to be able to continue to identify as being a loving human. We might say to ourselves "There are things I love... people I love.. therefore I am a loving person... a good person".
There is also a deeper invitation. The call of the inner-beloved that says "I am that".
I am the beauty that I see, I am the traits I admire, I am the values I behold or notice. I am that radiance. I see it. I am.
The request - can we love ourselves? Not in an entitled sense, but in a compassionate, benevolent sense. Can we truly, deeply, fall in love with who and what we are?
Cherish our own self.
"Falling in love is nature coming in" - Joseph Campbell.
There is a perspective where acceptance of our wounding - our imperfections, our crunchy ugly parts, our edges - allows us a resilient vulnerability. A vulnerability that holds open the spaces where love can reach us, and be felt.
The idea of actually 'falling' in love - losing a grip of certainty, safety, stability - allowing the action of the unknown to be completely in charge. Allowing ourselves to let go of it all. No longer 'holding it together'. Trusting that this action is held by something larger and we can fully surrender. The great outward sigh, exhale, surrender. No longer resisting, but becoming.
Not necessarily to a romantic other, but to the gift of being fully human and alive. Allowing our cracks and broken parts to be portals through which we expand and grow and increase our capacity for compassion.
Gradually, through the cracks, our otherwise shielded internal parts meet the outside, light gets in. And we feel connection. Feel love. Feel the warm sun of a compassionate awareness. We feel ourselves flower.
It is our total vulnerability, and acceptance of it, that is one of the strongest actions we can make in healing and personal growth. When we do it as a group, it is one of the strongest actions we can make towards healing humanity. We begin to create a culture of repair. Repair of the self = repair of the planet.
This action is an ancient mechanism for healing. It is in nature, all around us - things cracking, breaking, changing - a heart breaking might also be a heart breaking open. Into something more. A seed case cracking open to allow the sapling to emerge. A bud, breaking open to allow the flower to blossom.
"We see the world as we are" - Malcolm Ringwalt
When we point at what we love, it is a way of knowing what it is we can or do love of ourselves. When we feel a deep yearning, it might be our soul pointing us in the right direction on our life path. Telling us to follow the love.
People are relational creatures - when we are in relationship with others, we have the opportunity to clearly see our own self. To have reflected to us, our brightest yearnings and our darkest shadows… we have the opportunity for truth and clarity.
Talk-therapy sessions can be one way of gifting yourself the time and space to build an awareness that allows nature in - your nature - your own wild, loving, blossoming self.
If you feel drawn to exploring your expanding self, book in here for a healthy chat at our next Community Clinic.
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