...and if you cannot find your way out of the darkness I will sit there with you and show you the stars."
~ N.R. Hart
Photo by Juan from Pexels
And I can help you see the "stars" in your own psyche.
Symptoms as love notes
"I love you."
~ Your body
Photograph by Robert Maplethorpe
I got the vaccine for Covid-19 recently, and felt sick afterwards. When I tuned in to what was happening, I sensed my body's love for me! I sensed its drive to preserve ME.
Even if we are in pain, even if we don't honor ourselves, even if we feel sick. we can trust that our bodies love and cherish us... til death do us part ;-)
What if we thought of symptoms as love notes?!
Life is like a beautiful melody
“Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up."
~ Hans Christian Andersen
Art by Mel Bochner
What else is nature but God?
"What else is nature but God?" ~ Seneca the Younger
Photograph by Elliot Porter
... and aren't we of nature?
Let us both gaze lovingly at the beautiful brokenness that is you
“There is no perfection, only beautiful versions of brokenness.”
~ Shannon L. Alder
Let us both gaze lovingly at the beautiful brokenness that is you.
You are the Truth
"You are the truth from foot to brow. Now what else would you like to know?" ~ Rumi
Photograph by Edward Weston
Chaos and Creativity
"Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit."
Henry Adams
Art by Willem de Kooning
Another way of saying "the body remembers"... and it is for us, not against us!
"The important thing to remember about dragons is that they guard our treasure. When a dragon appears, it means gold is right behind it -- if we have the courage to stand our ground and fully meet it.
Sera Beck, from Red, Hot, and Holy
Art by William Blake
What is the gold behind the dragon that is Covid-19?
And what do we gain by having the courage to fully meet our own inner dragon(s)? We come to realize that the dragon is not all that scary...that facing it tames it. And the gold is knowing that we can tame it.
By facing traumatic or scary memories, by feeling our own pain, we come to know that "behind" those dragons is our magnificent, victorious, true self.
Listening
"...the traumatized body can be reawakened thanks to the attention, sensitivity, and capacity of the other/analyst to really believe in the painful story that the patient brings to therapy; it is the emotional participation of the analyst that makes the body a sentient body and restores unity where there was fragmentation."
Sandor Ferenczi (from https://doi.org/10.1080/0803706X.2017.1362502)
Photograph by W. Eugene Smith
