This is a world of movement. Stars and planets swirl and hurdle through the vast reaches of space; water rises in the heat of the sun and falls back to the Earth in cycles of perpetual motion; molecules, atoms, electrons and photons whiz and whirl - bound by the physical laws of the universe: never to be at rest. Life, as well as the inanimate, is informed by the most fundamental truth of this universe: Change. Movement. Motion. ∆ .
And as with the physical, so to is it with the meta-physical - the psyche, the mind, the soul, the mental-emotional realm, the dreamscape, the astral realms, consciousness; whichever conceptualization we may use to contain our understanding of the Otherworld, the inner world - it is driven by movement.It is one of the follies of being human, that we think that we can press pause on processes and experiences. That when we move them out of sight, out of mind, they remain in stasis and will stay as they were when we eventually return to them. In truth the principle of motion is at work on our internal processes as much as it is in the outer world. There is no standing still in our internal processes - trust, grief, awareness, love, joy, pain, fear, authenticity, manipulation, trauma, healing, vulnerability, learning, growth, decay, stagnation, Life and Death themselves - we either move away from them, or we move towards them.
When we numb, when we repress - our fears, our shame, our pain; when we disengage from our connections; when we turn to work, productivity, external validation and accomplishment as a means of managing grief or difficult emotions; when we actively use new experiences to push out the current experience that we can't or won't hold space for; when we become rigid and aggressive in our beliefs; when we become mired in our internal narratives; when we cling to our comfort zones - we move away. Away from ourselves, and the life-seeking force that is within and without.
When we ground; when we check in with ourselves - what am I feeling: in my body? in my heart? what are the stories and narratives I am telling myself?; when we practice awareness and mindfulness; when we lean into our emotions - joy and pain; when we engage with curiosity; when we set aside craving and aversion to embrace the unknown; when we balance dualities and hold space for contradiction - we move towards.
We aren't in stasis. We don't remain the same person we once were - we develop and we decay. We are in constant motion.
Perhaps the most courageous act we can undertake is to move towards. To move toward our shame, our fear, our discomfort, and against the powerful force of our habituation to move away. Newton's 1st law states that an object in motion tends to stay in motion, unless acted on by an external force. Inertia. It requires energy to change direction- an outer force acting upon the object in motion.
When we move towards our fear, our discomfort, our grief, our shame, we feed the inertia of moving towards. And when we run, when we move away, we fuel the habituation of running from everything else as well - from ourselves, our authenticity, from our growth, and our joy, love, purpose and fulfillment. When we repress and numb - when we put an internal process or experience into the closet, out of sight and out of mind - we are not pressing pause or putting it on ice, we are moving away. Even not choosing is making a choice, and similarly the attempt to stand still in our internal processes becomes an act of moving away.
Because our processes and experiences are not static - even when we hide from them, run from them - they continue to develop and decay: to change. Outer forces are at work on our internal worlds at all times: the external universe impresses upon us a ceaseless stream of experiences which continue to act upon and inform our state of motion. This means that grief and trauma left on the back-shelf continue to develop, to ferment and off-gas and grow. And joy and gratitude placed aside for later can decay and decompose.
Just as a muscle that goes too long without use atrophies, when we spend all our time and efforts moving away, we lose the strength and resiliency that allows us to move towards.
To move towards is to come into harmony with the forces at work in the universe. A resonance which releases tremendous energy, wherein the system becomes greater than the sum of its parts. This is the Tao. The act of moving towards is the process of peeling back the layers to discover the core of our authenticity - Te.
The process of authenticity requires self honesty and shame resiliency. It is an uncomfortable process: humanity is messy, no one is perfect or always in control, and often our ideas of who we are, or who we would like to be, are not entirely in alignment with objective reality. When we look closely at ourselves, we will find parts that dont fit neatly into our values and ideologies. It is tempting to cut away these parts that don't fit our narratives. To ignore, or repress them. When we do, we relegate them to the unconscious, and they become what Carl Jung referred to as the Shadow. These parts of ourselves that we reject do not cease to be, it is only that we cease to be conscious of the ways in which they affect and influence us. To truly change the parts of ourselves that dont conform to our values requires us to firstly accept that these parts exist. We must work with them consciously, wherein the skills of self-honesty and shame resiliency become indispensable.
One may ask, what is the purpose and value of moving toward, of "coming into harmony with the forces of the universe"?
We exist in, and because, of community; as a part of a system that is larger than us.
True self sufficiency is a corrupting myth, a lie. Nothing exists in a vaccuum, not even photons in the furthest corners of concievable space. We impact others, and the world around us, just as experiences and the people in our lives mould and influence us.
Moving toward is to choosing to consciously interact with the process of feedback and change that is occurring at all times, inwardly and outwardly. The resonant awareness this process creates holds great constructive and deconstructive potential not only for Self, and the inner world, but also within community and thus the outer world as well.
We exist in, and because, of community; as a part of a system that is larger than us.
True self sufficiency is a corrupting myth, a lie. Nothing exists in a vaccuum, not even photons in the furthest corners of concievable space. We impact others, and the world around us, just as experiences and the people in our lives mould and influence us.
Moving toward is to choosing to consciously interact with the process of feedback and change that is occurring at all times, inwardly and outwardly. The resonant awareness this process creates holds great constructive and deconstructive potential not only for Self, and the inner world, but also within community and thus the outer world as well.
