mayFebruary 6, 2012
Happy New Year, Friends and Colleagues!
Listening.
Slowing down.
Pausing.
Taking a deep breath.
Listening.
Consider viewing our lives and our living as a journey to a place we have never before traveled - A journey in which we, like the early pioneers discovering new frontiers, do not fully know what the next turn in the trail will bring. To do this safely, we have to truly stop, listen, and assess the terrain before us both before and as we are moving forward to ensure our safety and the safety of those around us. We have to assess if it is indeed the land we want to enter. And if so, we must decide with those around us how to enter. We have to be conscious of the environment we are already inhabiting... Is it safe? Is there enough sustenance here to survive? Can we pitch our tents a while, do we invest more and build, do we keep going, moving on from where we are? Do we retrace and return changed with more experience and possible wisdom? We can apply each of these questions to both the physical as well as mental, emotional, spiritual, and relational aspects of our journey.
Listen. Slow down. Pause. Take a deep breath. Listen.
I spoke with a fellow traveler the other day, our paths cross intermittently. She noted that she could not believe it was February, that it felt like it should be Thanksgiving still. Although Thanksgiving feels like a lifetime ago to me, I could only agree that yes the holiday season had blown in like an expectant and exciting wind and had been fast and full with all of its celebrations, traditions, and tender to raucous friend and family gatherings. For me, it was wondrous! And exhausting.
You may have noticed that I did not write to you in January. And you may have noted that the Restoring the Healer Workshop closed. Both of these decisions came from my own act of listening, with the help of trusted friends and colleagues, to my own personal journey and where I found myself on the path I was traveling. I discovered that I was tired. I needed to, personally and professionally, Slow down, Pause, Take a Deep Breath and Listen. What I am experiencing now are new Aha's!
Areas lacking safety are becoming more clear. Decisions re: next steps became and continue to be more obvious. I took some time to look and appreciate the great distance I had traveled in the last year. I reviewed all I had accomplished, how much had changed, where I had been, and where I was actually going if I stayed the path. I made fresh commitments to myself to steadily create space to integrate my life experiences mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, relationally, and yes, financially. Taking time for this has and continues to allow me the opportunity to find a new balance from a re-grounded stance.
I try to live with integrity. So much of my message through Moonstone Center is grounded in whole person self care and growth in the context of relationship. Even as I know and communicate the power and value of integrating awareness and attention to our whole selves, I do not always easily or consistently live my message. If we consider all that occurs on each of our personal journeys re: births and deaths, marriages and separations, maturing children and parents, experiencing our own aging selves and life partners, and the powerful, often daily effects of the experiences we share with those we treat and heal...no wonder we need time to take it all in, re-balance and re-orient, routinely....not just once we discover we are way out of balance and possibly in trouble.
As human beings, we are on a journey; there are joys and dangers, successes and disappointments, points of celebration and loss. As Healers, we often forget that we too must create space and time to integrate, re-balance, and find a freshly grounded stance in order to not only survive the journey, but to travel it vibrantly!
Today I invite you: Listen. Slow down. Pause. Take a deep breath. Listen.
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Please explore the rest of The Healer's Life! We have a new CEU Event schedule for May 18, 2012, Friday, The Power of Collaborative Treatment Teaming: Bridging Complementary-Alternative Therapies with Traditional Mental Health Treatment (See Below). It will be another experience of dynamic learning in a setting of self care with yoga incorporated throughout. You will be so glad you came! Bring a Colleague and Register Today! Also on the sidebar, check out the article on Somatic Transference I wrote for the Los Angeles CAMFT Jan-Feb 2012 Newsletter. And consider my book recommendation, The Wise Heart by Jack Kornfield, PhD. I bought this book when I heard him present a couple of years ago...He both presents and writes his holistic and integrated approach to mental health beautifully. And for self care, in addition to coming to the May 18 event :->, give Rumi a whirl....sometimes reading some really good poetry can really feed your soul! Until next month...
Peace,
Elisabeth and the Moonstone Center Team
