Bravery and Rebellion

I think a lot of healing has to do with bravery and rebellion: bravery to look at yourself honestly and rebellion against your habits. In this context, when I say 'habits' I do not simply mean the daily activities we commonly think of as habits. I also mean our thought habits, our emotional habits. Our habits that keep us running around in fear, addicted to 'busyness'...these habits keep us from being present in our lives. These are the things that keep us stuck in pain and illness.

This leads me to another issue that comes up a lot in my work: the belief that if someone develops disease, pain, etc, that it means something has gone 'wrong'....that it is 'not supposed to be that way.' My experience in healing work has led me to see this differently. Our pain, disease, illness, distress, is actually a gift. It provides opportunity. Often, it is the only thing that will allow (or force) us to break inauthentic patterns.

If things were always easy and tolerable, we would be challenged to change nothing.

So then, what do I mean by an 'inauthentic' pattern? That is simply an area of your life where your actions or beliefs are not congruent with your deeper truth. All of us have these patterns. It is part of being human. The healing process involves getting honest and looking at them. Once we do this, change can begin. The next step is to work through fear of the situation. This is difficult, but something I ask of all my clients. I ask them to trust the process, to trust life, to trust that their experience is workable, no matter how bad it feels.

From there, when we stop throwing energy into the fears, the regrets, the 'what if's', we can work with what is actually present.

So for today, I encourage all of you to pause and tap into bravery. Look honestly at your habits, where you may have resistance to change, where you are unwilling to be open and receptive. Once you find the places where your patterns are not congruent with the truth of your being, be gentle with yourself. Then, begin performing small acts of rebellion. Try out a new experience. Try out a new thought. Try listening more. Try selecting actions that seem counterintuitive. The next time you have the thought: "I am too busy" (for x,y, or z), I dare you to rebel against yourself. Sit down for 5 minutes in stillness and silence. Do not let fear run you. You have the choice to disengage at any time. Own the responsibility.