Through the Shadowlands

the shadows will stay to haunt us… until we confront them…

and let’s confront them with Love

This week I’ve been having many challenging conversations, since I started to voice my opinions publicly on global events and what I perceive has been happening in the world.

I’ve had abusive private messages launched at me, for my opinions. I’ve also had friends and strangers alike reach out to me, warmly and lovingly, even where we’ve diverged on views.

All of these conversations have strengthened me and taught me how to drop deeper and deeper into my heart, and how to practice compassionate communication despite sometimes feeling very charged emotions.

We are all human – it is perfectly okay to feel anger, fear, hurt… What I do, when I feel these emotions, is to come back to myself – instead of reacting and projecting those feelings onto the person I’m talking to. Lashing out at other people, and blaming other people for our emotions, simply perpetuates cycles of trauma and negativity.

If I feel a strong reaction, I take some deep breaths and turn inward. When I feel anger, I ask myself, what lies beneath it? Normally I can find a fear, and when I dig deep and examine that fear, I find it’s antithesis: love. I use a variety of tools to process strong emotional triggers: including music, writing, and various somatic techniques to release stress and tension stored in my body.

Challenging times call for deep, heart-based communication, for us to drop deeper into love as we confront all we think we perceive as darkness and instead move towards integration, unity, and transcendence of polarities.

With open arms, embracing all. Not running, not hiding, not staying silent: but sharing kindly, compassionately, authentically, to work together towards our underlying common desires.

We exist here on this earth as part of a complex and interdependent ecosystem, and the health of that ecosystem calls for each of us taking the individual responsibility for our puzzle piece, and learning how we work together with the other puzzle pieces. In these challenging times, let’s unite across the world, with love and compassion and magic.

Sending you my love and blessings.

Thank you to Jose for the beautiful photo of Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica (if you’re interested in his graphic designs, see @chops.design on IG; or for SUP nature tours of this magical land @cote_sup_safari). You can also find me on IG now @songsofgaia for more of my poetry and sharing.