Beautiful❤️. This piece seems to speak to the opening and expansion of new possibility arising through digesting, and also to the need for spaces in the collective field (the cup) to host this process on a larger scale. I was in a call with Thomas earlier this week around the collective healing labs and I was resonating so strongly with what he was sharing and feeling so much excitement around potential rising in collective healing. It’s funny that I just saw this piece here that you wrote and I had just literally finished posting about an experience of recognizing the fear of a younger part of myself arising in the last week around survival(the right to be/exist.) so it’s moving in the field!
Let me be honest. This is very important stuff. Those of us that tend to cope by internalizing need to know these things and we need time and support and reinforcement to learn the behaviors you speak of so that we don’t multiply our problems with self-inflicted wounds. The loathing you speak of is a large part of those self-inflicted wounds and traps us in a cycle of powerlessness that is ineffectual or worsens the situation through rage. I know about this all too well and I am sure many many of us share these experiences.
As I read through your essay with great interest and appreciation for your clarity and honesty I began to allow myself to enter the flow of my own loathing and resentment. This comes from a recent and still live experience and of course here in the United States all of this is compounded by an intensely abusive social and political scene that is giving all of us very little recourse and validation except through more anger and loathing.
Well, I wanted to comment that as I begin to open up to my own experience of loathing by the end of the article, in the last several paragraphs, I fell out of the flow of understanding and was left activated. This is a result both of the power of words and my embrace of them but also is a reflection of my own not fully resolved trauma. I would like you to consider those last few paragraphs in light of this very personal reaction because maybe there’s a little bit more to it, a little more to be said or a little bit more to be felt in order to leave your readers with an anchor in a safe container for those feelings. I don’t need to tell you that you are a gifted writer but I wanted to offer this reflection. This is not blame or criticism. This is an attempt at wisdom and reflection, and honesty, which I believe we must hold onto now more strongly than ever.
Thank you again for your beautiful devotion to collective healing and the unraveling of the deeper causes for both the trauma that we experience and our innate ability to heal.
Thank you Jim! Appreciate very much you taking the time to share this resonance, and response to what I wrote, and also your commitment to the healing path. Wishing you as smooth sailing as possible through the choppy waters in the US.
This is great Matt – and landed just after I got off the phone with a friend discussing how it's the young parts that tell you when something is really off, and however tough and rational your adult version might be, it's those young parts that you have to protect...
You realise you are still victim-blaming yourself for this trauma? This only sounds like a solution in a world where there is no hope that perpetrators be held accountable for their actions and instead the victim has to devise a complex psychological structure just to make themselves feel better. Alone.
Rich, I really appreciate you taking the time to read and comment on my post; and I sense a strong commitment to clarity and justice informing your response. Would you be interested in hearing some further reflections from me in response?
Beautiful❤️. This piece seems to speak to the opening and expansion of new possibility arising through digesting, and also to the need for spaces in the collective field (the cup) to host this process on a larger scale. I was in a call with Thomas earlier this week around the collective healing labs and I was resonating so strongly with what he was sharing and feeling so much excitement around potential rising in collective healing. It’s funny that I just saw this piece here that you wrote and I had just literally finished posting about an experience of recognizing the fear of a younger part of myself arising in the last week around survival(the right to be/exist.) so it’s moving in the field!
Let me be honest. This is very important stuff. Those of us that tend to cope by internalizing need to know these things and we need time and support and reinforcement to learn the behaviors you speak of so that we don’t multiply our problems with self-inflicted wounds. The loathing you speak of is a large part of those self-inflicted wounds and traps us in a cycle of powerlessness that is ineffectual or worsens the situation through rage. I know about this all too well and I am sure many many of us share these experiences.
As I read through your essay with great interest and appreciation for your clarity and honesty I began to allow myself to enter the flow of my own loathing and resentment. This comes from a recent and still live experience and of course here in the United States all of this is compounded by an intensely abusive social and political scene that is giving all of us very little recourse and validation except through more anger and loathing.
Well, I wanted to comment that as I begin to open up to my own experience of loathing by the end of the article, in the last several paragraphs, I fell out of the flow of understanding and was left activated. This is a result both of the power of words and my embrace of them but also is a reflection of my own not fully resolved trauma. I would like you to consider those last few paragraphs in light of this very personal reaction because maybe there’s a little bit more to it, a little more to be said or a little bit more to be felt in order to leave your readers with an anchor in a safe container for those feelings. I don’t need to tell you that you are a gifted writer but I wanted to offer this reflection. This is not blame or criticism. This is an attempt at wisdom and reflection, and honesty, which I believe we must hold onto now more strongly than ever.
Thank you again for your beautiful devotion to collective healing and the unraveling of the deeper causes for both the trauma that we experience and our innate ability to heal.
Thank you Jim! Appreciate very much you taking the time to share this resonance, and response to what I wrote, and also your commitment to the healing path. Wishing you as smooth sailing as possible through the choppy waters in the US.
This is great Matt – and landed just after I got off the phone with a friend discussing how it's the young parts that tell you when something is really off, and however tough and rational your adult version might be, it's those young parts that you have to protect...
Yes to protecting those young parts! And listening to their wisdom.
Yes! I should have added that too – for protecting and listening to!
You realise you are still victim-blaming yourself for this trauma? This only sounds like a solution in a world where there is no hope that perpetrators be held accountable for their actions and instead the victim has to devise a complex psychological structure just to make themselves feel better. Alone.
Rich, I really appreciate you taking the time to read and comment on my post; and I sense a strong commitment to clarity and justice informing your response. Would you be interested in hearing some further reflections from me in response?