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I am really struggling with how to go on with my every day amidst so much devastation. 😣💔 We are right now facing genocide, climate change, late stage capitalism and more…and we are supposed to pretend everything is ok? The heartbreak is non-stop and no matter how hard I try to make a difference, I can’t help but feel deep despair for the state of the world and my/our ability to impact it.
But Joanna Macy reminds us that:
“The refusal to feel takes a heavy toll. Not only is there an impoverishment of our emotional and sensory life, flowers are dimmer and less fragrant, our loves less ecstatic but this psychic numbing also impedes our capacity to process and respond to information. The energy expended in pushing down despair is diverted from more creative uses, depleting the resilience and imagination needed for fresh visions and strategies. ”
I am learning that it is ok to feel all the things: unproductive, sad, rage, stuck. In fact, if I can build a bigger capacity to feel, it becomes fuel and endurance for the long haul ahead. Feeling IS the portal; the way we get through from this moment to the next in a way that unleashes our imagination and hopefully a new world.
Here are some reflection questions to support you in your journey:
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How are you really?
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What do you feel and where?
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What happens when you breathe into whatever you are feeling? Notice.
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What is your relationship with grief? What is your relationship with rage?
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What do you need to stay with your feelings and allow them to move through you? Consider supports like people, time, space, resources.
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How can you transmute your feelings into action? How can you share it? What can you create from it?
I believe that we are alive in this moment to bear witness to the suffering of this world and do what we can to bring forth a new one. That means letting our hearts break open so that they are capable of more - more love, more justice, more joy.
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