Please Note: Winter Blooms is an educational website in no way meant to replace building a relationship with a trained EFT practitioner, counselor, or therapist. To learn more about EFT, visit the NeftTI website at www.neftti.com, the AAMET website at www.aamet.org, or contact Jane for EFT coaching support.
As we witness increasing incoherence in the larger world, it helps to tune in to the resilience building processes we create to meet our personal, familial/social, and professional needs. Resilience is not simply a word we use to encourage our own or others’ flagging spirits but a noteworthy outcome, at least to those of us committed to mindful attention to personal and professional stress levels and recovery times. Belly breathing, walking in nature, body talking, finger tapping, and other in-the-moment self-regulation techniques allow us to be more present, no matter what might be happening in the moment. And being present invites Presence, that sense of belonging to something so much larger than a species increasingly known for its destructive choices and excessive habits.
Being Present to Presence
I regularly experience the great delight that springs from a joyful marriage with a creative, funny, highly compatible partner. Such was not always the case. In my younger years, I was attracted to men who carried the disapproval and sadness I carried inside, emotions and states of mind mirroring my sense of rejection and exile. When I reached the maturity of my middle years, I found Sacred Circle dance, and with that discovery and the intense commitment to sacred dancing that followed came the slow and steady awareness and release of the negative emotions of abandonment I’d embodied since early childhood. As I reflect on the role dance played in my healing, I consider it pivotal to all the remarkable transformations I’ve experienced since it danced me first into being present to Presence and second, into my sacred marriage.
For many traumatized children, Presence is found in the natural world, an ever-present parent who is both present and Presence. In his memoir/cultural analysis/manifesto A Language Older than Words, Derrick Jensen writes of the solace he received from what Canadian singer/song writer Sarah Harmer calls “the great black night,” after being brutalized by his violent, unpredictable father. My memories of comfort in the non-human world contain the best part of my childhood. Because of these memories of joy and peace in the natural world, I am often moved to explore with students and clients the reality of an ever-present Nature parent to guide them through the challenges and opportunities of a life lived with awareness of Presence, a discovery that in-and-of-itself builds resilience.
As I reflect on my understanding of Presence, I offer the example of my husband because he is an artist who has danced throughout his working life with deep attention to the sacred reality of Presence. Beginning as a not-quite-conventional visual artist and evolving into what we now refer to as Sacred Space Maker, he imbues whatever project that comes to hand with his entire presence – to the work, to the materials, to the site in which the work is to blossom and bear fruit. Before my marriage, I felt somewhat shy about confessing my belief in the sacred nature of all work, the sacredness created by full attention which attracts the sense of Presence that fills us with awe. Now, because of Lynn, and Dance, and EFT, I find myself in a sea of of Devotees to Presence.
The recent solar eclipse has done much to spread this sense of the sacred because so many people were entirely present to the event. It was lovely to hear breaking voices, interrupted explanations, and that wondrous phrase, “it brought me to my knees” during the NPR radio coverage that followed the path of the eclipse diagonally across the United States from Seattle in the north west, to the Carolinas in the south east. We are fortunate indeed to be inspired into wordless wonder as we merge with some aspect of our magnificent Earth Home.
Transforming the Ordinary
Without the fullness of being present to each moment, much of what we do can seem mundane, something to be rushed through in order to get to the truly important activities of our daily lives. I was reminded of this very human habit when I looked out at the world beyond my kitchen window on the morning of the eclipse and thought, “If I forget to make the choice to be present, I might miss the beauty of the sun glancing through the leaves of the birch and maples that thrive in this rural and remote part of Vermont.” Being present to Presence makes every moment sacred.
The world can be tough on the tender hearted, the newly degreed and certified, the optimistic pioneers who want to make our Earth Home a kinder, more just and loving place for all species. Those of us who strive to be present to Presence live in that state of awe much of every day. How awed I am that we are so richly blessed by the sacred nature of our work, by our community, by our common purpose, and by our shared experience of Presence.
Until next time
Jane
Jane Buchan, MA, AAMET Accredited Practitioner, jane@winterblooms.net, 802-533-9277
Jane is a Learning/Performance Coach specializing in neutralizing cultural age, gender, and race constructs to empower learners of every age. To engage her individual or group coaching services, please contact Jane by phone (802) 533-9277 or email, jane@winterblooms.net. Be sure to put Coaching Query in the subject line.