Expanding our awareness – which often fixates upon painful sensations, emotions or thought – to include the health of the system, is very curative. Whilst this is pointing out the obvious, time and again, in my own process and those of others I see that we seem to find ourselves wading deeper into the quagmire of suffering, moving further and further away from shore whilst we wave our arms around, act confused that we are sinking and shout for help. We go around with sensory blinders on, ignoring our own signals of when to slow down, to pause, to redirect. We live in a trance of habit, and don’t think to question the logic of wading out into an Ocean of sharks to ‘enjoy’ a quiet morning’s swim and then wonder why we keep getting chewed up.
Wading further into dysregulation or a problem in order to fix it is a bit like this. Sometimes I think we think that we can fix a problem by focussing on it, rather than letting our awareness orient to health. I’m not for spiritual bypassing, but I am for bypassing ingrained habits of response that no longer support growth and connection.
The alternative? Focus on the health, on joy, on acceptance and compassion. Let the mind rest. It’s actually not it’s job to work so much out. Resource yourself so that you can feel both a wider field that can hold pain or uncertainty but not become it. Freedom from fixation. It is like adding more water to a concentrate –it disperses and the more water you add, the more it disperses, and the more flow you experience.
Letting go of fixation means committing to trusting in health, rather than our fear and control, to manage, direct and run our lives.We can let go of focusing on the dysregulation and constantly trying to manage and cure it, and instead commit to regulating, bringing awareness to sensation, trusting the solutions will arise from the greater intelligence that animates and breathes all beings and posing the question –
-what in all of this lets me know that I am ok? – and then…… how do i sense this, experience this sense of okay? …. and allow it to expand….
thereby orienting to resource and health and widening the field of awareness..in doing so increasing the possibilities and support available in any given moment.
Fixation –in any state –even pleasure –can bring dis-ease. How do we get out of it when it is well established and holding us in its grip like I held a chocolate bar as a 6 year old?!
In these moments, we can recognize and name the fixation, breath, see if we can step back even a centimeter, appreciate ourselves and it, and gently open our awareness to pendulate between the fixed sensation and other more neutral or resourced areas of our body such as the feet, finger tips or desired emotional state, or even our memory of ourselves before the dis-ease/ fixation. I have several free recordings on my site which can help you with this.
This movement between the fixation and resource/flow/neutral state can free and open our nervous system and therefore awareness and open us to the creative intelligence that can support us in maintaining our flow and ability to keep digesting life. Practices such as body low sloop loop and other nervous system regulating practices can be practiced until the nervous system naturally orients to regulating this way.
As R. Stone said” Running water clears itself.”
Keep on flowing,
With love,
Elise