Being in Winter: How to Stop the World Awhile
Winter is the time of resting in being and waiting. All nature knows this blessed state, even human nature,...
Winter is the time of resting in being and waiting. All nature knows this blessed state, even human nature, but in our modern culture we are lost in a great imbalance, idealizing and over-emphasizing the active, doing orientation in life. We have lost touch with receptivity and being. The initiating active principle is of course a necessary power and principle, but if it is not balanced by the receptivity of simply being, if our doing doesn’t arise out of our deeper being, then all our doing and giving and pressured activity drains us. The more we struggle against life’s storms and currents, the more we exhaust ourselves. .
This imbalance effects everything in our lives and in the world. We do not attune to and flow with the larger universal currents and soul rhythms of our journey; we don’t trust the ground of being within and around us, so we feel like we need to control it all. We must always act and effort to make sure things happen the way we want, which they almost never do no matter how hard we try with our outer will.
We have been taught to eschew the receptive side, pointing to the distortion of the receptive principle which is a kind of collapse we label laziness, stuckness, depression or irresponsibility. We are so tired of the struggle we are afraid if we stop we will never get up again so we keep driving ourselves. The state of collapse is a lawful result of living life from the distorted state of over-activity. Even when we stop the outer movement we often still feel turmoil within. It feels better to just keep moving. Inside we are divided against ourselves and fear to feel and face what is in us.
The solution to this dilemma is to learn a skillful will, a way to work with these conflicting energies within us. We need to learn how to stay present to, instead of running or fighting with what is inside us. The Pathwork Process Meditation I developed is a great tool to learn how to do this. I teach this in my seminars, sessions and groups. Used in conjunction with Forest Bathing this work will make a real difference in your life. Contact me if you are interested in a free trial session. earthwalkways@gmail.com
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Nature is a great teacher of being. You can feel how nature simply rests in being and that her doing arises out of being, moment to moment in the now. There is a dimension of stillness in nature that we can feel that helps bring us into our own stillness and being. We stop thinking by shifting our awareness into the feeling domain, and we are in immediate sensory contact with this moment. This is called being present. That will open us to the dimension of being. At any time you can become present. Just feel and follow your breath with your awareness into this moment within and around you. Practice pausing for a moment here and there through out the day. Get present to yourself, notice your inner landscape of the moment, and then listen and look at what is around you. Your doing will flow from there.
Until we can realize another way of being, we continue to “do” our best to force ourselves to do what we think we have to or should do. It’s hard to imagine another way. It seems to be some unfortunate reality of life. When this happens we are pushing ourselves through an activity while at the same time resisting it. When we are aware that we are in self-conflict more options present themselves.
When one part of us is trying to manipulate control or force another part of us, it never really works. If your yes is being forced or coerced, your no is rightfully refusing. Instead of continuing an unconscious power struggle, allow both your yes and your no to speak. See if you can find truth and distortion in both sides. Let your conscious awareness bring the third perspective that can see the whole. Seek the Truth of each side and notice the energy with which you express it. You may be trying to express truth through your fear or pride or self-will and then your truth cannot be heard. Until we unify the inner split, we will project it outside of ourselves as well.
We need to learn to function at the level of choice or intention rather than outer will, setting things in motion with our grounded heart felt choice, then allowing the larger forces to bring it to fruition. We do need to plant the bulb in the ground, but we cannot will the bulb to bloom in spring, but need to trust the larger forces of life. When your doing cannot flow then you need to probe your unconscious depths for the part that is saying no, and seek to resolve the objection or see clearly that it is no longer an issue.
This process is a balance of the two principles of activity and receptivity. Every experience in our life is met with one or the other but ideally an alternating balance of both. Seek to apply this to everything in your life. Surrender, waiting, being and stillness are all qualities of the winter. Ask nature to show you the way. And for a more in depth exploration of this topic please feast on Pathwork lecture 163. The link is below.
http://pathwork.org/wp-content/uploads/lectures/pdf/E163.PDF
This lecture is amazingly comprehensive about the pulsation of the active and receptive states and how we can unravel our one-sidedness.
This Earthwalk is a journey, of self-exploration and self-knowledge. As we stop running from or fighting with these inner forces within and around us and learn to pay attention to our inner movements or blockages, our inner splits and unconscious motives, we discover how to free ourselves and how to live in much greater balance and harmony on the inner and outer levels. We learn to flow from winter to spring and back to winter again as part of the nature and wisdom of life.
Here is link to a review of a wonderful children’s book for everyone on the lesson’s of the north.
