So many people I talk with are wanting to step into more ‘normal’ activities and return to life after a year of COVID … simultaneously so many feel they have outgrown the life they had. Many feel they have grown a new, more sensitive skin from this life closer to home.
We are, collectively and individually, on the threshold. I experience it as IN the threshold … giving ourself more time to check in and notice the lived experience of being in transition from the place we have been and into the beyond. Calling attention to how it feels in one’s BodySpirit. Noticing what feels good and tolerable as you begin to add new things in your re-entry to life.
Surprisingly, I’m hearing an almost universal theme of wanting to be out in the world – pushing into the things that bring aliveness, joy and meaning … then, some anxiety or overwhelm can come. Over stimulation – if you’re paying attention – and the need to retreat into the now familiar quiet reserve of time at home.
This feels like such important nuance to notice and tend. I believe this is our truest, most refined essential thermostat having a voice, perhaps for the first time in our life. We have been given a reset opportunity. A step outside of our habitual business and route engagements. Paying attention to how much out-in-the-world is enough and how much quiet time with one’s self is required, is the new dance for both extroverts and introverts.
I’m hearing from many the caution of filling life with the habitual busy distractions that aren’t meaningful when given a closer look. This seems to extend to personal relationships, friendships and associations too. So much re-examining is happening. I encourage this. Really evaluating what and who is now in alignment with what matters most. Getting selective.
This is such an important and interesting threshold. I have never felt such a collective opportunity to reset that this massive, global, year-long pause has afforded us.
How do we want to work? Who do we want to spend time with and how? How do we want to show up in the world? What priorities matter most and what do we want to create next? Very exciting.
I am reassured that those I talk with are not rushing across the threshold. They don’t seem to have the tolerance for that. Instead there is a lingering. Something seems to have softened in them … their pace, their perspective and their thick skin.
The ‘little things’ seem to catch and hold their attention. There seems to be a deepening in them. A shift into breathing into uncertainty and giving themselves the time and space required to adjust to what ever happens. What a gift.
We have been collectively ‘worked’. Tumbled and turned really … polished into tender new skin.
There is forgiveness here if we allow it.
There is space here if we keep taking and creating it.
There is connection here if we deem it worth our time and attention.
There is both new terrain here and a deep solace in remembering who we are at our best … perhaps both a discovery and an enduring love affair with the deepest threads of what makes us who we are.
As is always the case, I encourage you to the body, to the breath and to the imaginal ground of your continued becoming.
Time outside in the ebb and flow of nature and the gifts of early Summer, a perfect time to rest in the threshold. Slowing down and honoring your own nature, honoring your losses and struggles, naming your hopes and what you deem worth creating. Letting these essential touchstones tether you to your essence and guide you further into your own life worth living.
Deep and wide blessings to you as you navigate the thresholds in your life.
(Image: The Secret Garden by Stephen Warner)
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