Living with ambiguous loss and indefinite uncertainty.
Many of those I have practised with over the last few months have described experiencing a roller coaster that I can very much relate to. This article is a great read which describes our very human, shared experience and offers some wise responses, including recognition, acceptance, compassion, choosing to reframe and work with perception skilfully, getting creative with self care, appreciation, connection, taking action... https://elemental.medium.com/your-surge-capacity-is-depleted-it-s-why-you-feel-awful-de285d542f4c These are all things we can practice! Remember NACC - Notice, Allow, with Compassion, Choice (what does this moment need?) 'I might have intellectually accepted back in March that the next two years (or more?) are going to be nothing like normal, and not even predictable in how they won’t be normal. But cognitively recognizing and accepting that fact and emotionally incorporating that reality into everyday life aren’t the same. Our new normal is always feeling a little off balance, like trying to stand in a dinghy on rough seas, and not knowing when the storm will pass. But humans can get better at anything with practice, so at least I now have some ideas for working on my sea legs.'
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We are always in a mood. There is always a climate of mind – sometimes very subtle – influencing how we experience ourselves and the world around us.
It is really helpful to check in on this often as we go about our days – very gently asking what am I feeling in this moment and how might it be affecting my thinking and behaviour? This is something I have been particularly practising with recently and wanted to share this extract from a talk by Mat Shencks on practising with mind states. I really like the metaphor of a knot. And what Mat describes has definitely been my experience. ‘Mood states can feel so solid and fixed and yet we know from a place of wisdom that all experience changes. A contracted mind is a little like a knot in a rope. Very often just a series of loops woven in and out of each other and pulled tight. But if we pull tighter they just get more stuck. So we have to work with whatever pieces are available to us so that we can start to loosen the knot. As we start to follow the threads and strand out the different pieces we can get a sense of the space that can come into our experience. What has previously felt impenetrable and contracted can open up.’ ~Mat Shencks, July 2020 |
AuthorI'm Claire - and I (re)learn something every day from practising and teaching mindfulness... Archives
March 2022
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