Radical Hospitality with Reality
For most of my life, I would do anything to avoid the discomfort of reality. Soothing myself with food, TV, running, or some other numbing practice was how I got through each day. Now I see it as self-abandonment and I have compassion for the parts of me that thought I couldn’t open to reality. This abandonment is a way of life in our culture and it can be very challenging to undo years of programming. Through the practice of sitting with my feelings and bodily sensations that arise during moments of discomfort or whatever else I’m feeling in a given moment, I’m noticing a growing spaciousness within. I’m not giving myself away for the promise of some longed-for easier time in the future. What arises from within is something that surprised me, a deepening self love and compassion.
I call this way of being radical hospitality with reality and it is how I define my relational signature, how love uniquely moves through me and into me. I’m now trying to move through the world welcoming every feeling, situation, event, emotion, thought, and awareness as it is, letting them exist without any interpretation, label, or name. The key to this unfolding is to be in my body, to give it the attention it has always craved from me. I relax into its pains, hungers, contractions, and tensions. I witness them, breathe into them, and simply allow them to be. What arises is more spaciousness between me and the experience. I’m learning the sensations, emotions, and thoughts are not me, they are simply things the body, mind, and heart are doing in any given moment. This way of being opens me up to all of life and I’ve never felt so alive.
Beginning September 22, I’m offering a class called The Sacred Spectrum of Love: Discovering Your Relational Signature. In this four-week class, we’ll explore our unique relational signatures and create a physical map of how love evolves through us and we evolve through love. We’ll look at where life may be calling us into closer relationship and discover the threads of how we love that may be woven deep into the fabric of our lives. If you feel called to join us, I’d love to have you on this amazing journey. Please reach out with any questions.