"When we feel stuck, going nowhere -- even starting to slip backward -- we may actually be backing up to get a running start." ( I love this quote~w)
-- Dan Millman
To change, we must go through a transition zone. It's not easy being in transition. Thoughts, beliefs and habits are all in flux. It can create a sense of groundlessness, of being in a void that can be quite uncomfortable.
When we’re in the void, our first impulse will be to revert to old habits because they feel comfortable. Our goal is to hang in there until the change is complete. Knowing that TRANSITIONS ARE PART OF THE CHANGE PROCESS helps us muster the courage to put up with the discomfort, the uneasiness, the void.
Change requires a letting go of what we’ve always known and done to allow in something new. We need to trust ourselves and higher forces to unfold a new reality for us.
"Every positive change - every jump to a higher level of energy and awareness - involves a rite of passage. Each time to ascend to a higher rung on the ladder of personal evolution, we must go through a period of discomfort, of initiation. I have never found an exception."
-- Dan Millman
This is so right on for me. Years ago, while in therapy to help me understand by SO's ptsd, I went thru some very bleak periods. I had felt I'd lost my HP that I could connect with during that time. I was feeling this great emptiness where once I had felt a Higher Power reside. I didn't understand, at the time, that it wasn't a lack of an HP that I was feeling, but a loss of "self", being buried under someone else's extreme demands. My HP was still there. My therapist told me to "trust in the void". It was like a weight lifted off. Having nothing else I felt secure in at the time, I turned it over to that void, and the end result was a major understanding of my own personal depths, issues and needs, apart from my ailing relationship. When I have spurts of doubt, I return to that void, looking for the lesson, looking for "me" in there, and to re-establish my Connections. No matter how horrible it seems during the experience itself, relaxing into the void brings such insights and gifts in the long run......Wren
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i found god in myself/and I loved her/i loved her fiercely--Ntozake Shange
Pretty scary stuff. Sometimes fear drives me to try new things because the end result of doing things the way I've always done them is usually bad, to say the least.
Well this and your Post of yesterday, Soul Prospectives, reminds me so much of the parralels in the Book, "Care of the Soul" by Thomas Moore, today's Thomas Moore, Former Theologian, now Philosopher/Author.
In his book, he speaks of the Soul as this very precious, and oh so Vulnerable aspect of Self. And the jouneys in our lifes, and to be acutely aware of how we are caring for our Souls.
These are not quotes, but memories of some of this book, the one that stood out for me the most, was when the Soul is in a Vulnerable state, we need to hold it like the most fragile, delicate part of us, and take GREAT care in the Protection of our own Souls during these transitions. They appear as Transits in our lifes, and we are aware of the transits, the major shifts, that are going on, whether it be in a Physical move, adjusting to a major life changing event, sudden grief, whatever, but we are aware of this change or Transit in our Journey, nothing ever remains the same, change is a contant thing in all of our lifes, just as we embrace with all our hearts, those moments that come that bring us such joy, I believe we learn to cherish them, because we do believe in this gift as just temporary, and be followed my a new mystery, a new unfolding and a new sensation, and over the years I have learned the Process of at least attempting to celebrate all the wonder of any new Transit the soul may take. And the only time we need to take very special care is when we feel, any change that will put the soul in a need for us to be aware and protective.
I hope this made sense to someone, speaking from the heart about our deepest and highest core, our soul, is just a little difficult to put words to.
Just as this was one of the most difficult books, I have ever read, but that difficulty, made it more worthwhile.
i feel like i am in a VOID.....never thought of it this way, and it makes SENSE...i mean i can really resonate on this....."trust in the void" cuz a VOID has been what i feel like i am stuck in
like being in the "hallway" when bad doors are closing behind me and none are opening.......thank U so much.........ur friend in recovery, rosie
