July 2023
Barrier or Blessing
This week I’ve been waking up to a construction crew on the road beside my house. They are here at 6:30 am getting ready to start their day, which includes a lot of shouting back and forth between the crew, and then the machines are fired up at 7:00 am. As you may know I have a chihuahua, little Miss Maisie, and as soon as she hears the first voices outside she starts to bark. She has low tolerance for unfamiliar loud noises and apparently so do I. At least this week.
I like to meditate in the mornings and will often spend the first hour of my day in silent contemplation followed by a writing or poetry practice. I had chosen a meditation for this morning called, “A Guided Meditation on Listening and Silence”. I’m smiling because I know there must be a lesson in this somewhere.
Before I went to bed last night the words, barrier or blessing, came to me and I felt their significance so I wrote them down. In the midst of the external noise and internal protest my contemplation for the morning became, “is all this noise a barrier or a blessing?”
Is all this noise a barrier or a blessing?
As spiritual practitioners it’s so easy to get caught up in a belief that our nature of quiet presence is impacted by the noisy world we live in. It’s not. Presence is unchanging. It welcomes everything into herself. All external and internal noise are welcomed into her quiet immensity. It’s something that each of us have to discover on our own. We are such conditional beings. If I’m good enough I’ll be accepted. If I’m still and quiet enough I’ll be enlightened. If I’m quiet inside I’ll find peace. While we’re trying quiet our minds and find acceptance peace is right here in the background wrapping her all encompassing arms around us in each and every moment. Humans are conditional. Our true nature is unconditional.
None of us can earn our way into heaven and anything that reminds us of this essential truth is a blessing. All the noise this morning, both external and internal, reminded me that everything is happening in the context of absolute stillness no matter how loud and intrusive it might seem.
The ego is resistance (no) to everything and presence is a yes to everything. Presence is vast and unlimited and the separate self is limited. Finite and infinite. Content and context. There is no point in arguing with either.
We can bring this truth even closer when we realize that no matter how noisy our world is, all the noise is happening in a context of loving acceptance. Noisy road construction, noisy barking, noisy complaining mind all happening in a field of absolute acceptance. A field of loving compassion. When this is recognized there is no longer a barrier between noise and no noise. We can stop fighting against the content of our mind and bodies and allow ourselves to arrive here, again and again, every moment just as we are. No problem.
See if you can follow this invitation to arrive here into this moment just as you are and notice the vast acceptance of your own loving presence? How does this resonate in your physiology?
In August I will be facilitating two events; The Sacred Simplicity of Right Now and Outrageous Devotion. As always my events are an invitation to pause and join with others in a safe, slow and sacred space. I will be teaching about the role of the nervous system in healing and spiritual awakening and I will guide the group in gentle neurosensory (nervous system) practices and engage in dialogue and questions with participants.
This month we began a six month series of Monthly Events where I am teaching the relationship between trauma; the nervous system and being present. For many of us it’s difficult to be present because our minds and bodies are so full of undigested stress and trauma. We long for peace and yet we carry an imprint of past trauma in our physiology that is a habitual movement away from the present moment. This movement away is our survival system of Fight/Flight/Freeze and Overwhelm.
The next event in the series is: Orientation. The practice of orientation is one of the most effective ways of stabilizing the nervous system in relationship to the present moment. I will guide the group in an orientation practice and there will be time for questions.
Whether you are new to these kind of practices or a seasoned practitioner you are welcome to join us. The practices are simple and direct and the shared space is safe, warm and welcoming.
I wish you a gentle and kind relationship with yourself as you navigate these challenging times.
All of Candace’s services are Trauma, PTSD, Complex Grief, Chronic Illness and Benzo withdrawal symptom sensitive.