...and my Paradigm Shift continues...

I often mention Paradigm Shift, or 'Shift in Worldview'....

And the past couple of weeks has afforded me yet more learning, information, new thoughts, new ideas, affirmation of the importance of this Paradigm Shift.

Firstly, I found myself in a wonderful conversation with a supervisee about his journey in moving from being really left-hemisphere in his life and work, to getting in touch with his right-hemisphere.

Like many of us, he was schooled, educated, socialised, to be left-hemisphere; he was rewarded for being clever, for being academic. And there is nothing wrong in all of this, but our culture just gives far too much weight to the left hemisphere. We get little validation, encouragement or permission for ways of being that are right-hemisphere e.g.

• being intuitive,
• being skilled in holding ambiguity and complexity,
• loving not-knowing,
• loving mystery,
• seeing ourselves as part of an exquisitely interrelated, interdependent world.

And we double down when the culture we work within is also heavily weighted to the academic, the scientific, the intellectual, the abstract, the conceptual, evidence-based.

And we work hard, we 'do, do, do', we achieve, we might even surprise ourselves by how much we manage to do, manage to juggle, to push forwards and get over the line, and we keep going, day after day.

Burnout is perhaps inevitable for many of us, if we find ourselves caught in this productivity, high-achievement trap.

And it's sometimes because we care too much, the work we are doing is important for others and their wellbeing or quality of life.

Burnout is the body's way of saying 'Enough'.

And whilst we would never welcome burnout, the outcomes can be positive; we have no option but to retreat, to rest, to start to work out what it is we need, what changes we need to bring to our life.

That's a big rethink. (Well, much more than a re-'think'.) And unfortunately roadmaps are thin on the ground.

The learning and the healing come from parts of us that are not the parts we have focused on up until then.

E.g. 'What is our body saying?'

That can be such a strange question in our society, can't it?!

My supervisee had had no choice, in a way, but to take time out, to rest, to find another way to be in life. He chose to do deep explorations of mindfulness and Buddhism, to go on retreats, to allow himself to feel into his body again. Amazing. Humbling to listen to.

My second experience of late, was in talking with a coaching client.

He is struggling with big decisions about the work he wants to do in the world. We have a shared language around left-hemisphere and right-hemisphere. As we talk, we acknowledge how the left-hemisphere is showing up:

E.g. wanting answers

E.g. wanting answers now

E.g. analysing - 'If A happens, then I can see B happening, and that should lead to C; but then if D happens, oh no!'

E.g. 'I keep coming back to a tension between X and Y'

There can be a real pressure in coaching to get to 'the answer'. I feel it too, as the coach.

Framing it as a predicament, rather than a problem, can be helpful.

• A problem has an 'answer', that can be arrived at by analytical, rational problem solving.
• A predicament does not have an 'answer'. Predicaments are complex. They have many overlapping, interweaving aspects, they're part of something bigger, a greater whole, and all the interrelationships inherent in that. And not under the control of any one of us.

So my client and I teased out, gave space for, the left hemisphere AND the right hemisphere. And what was beautiful, was that by sitting with the struggle, continuing to discuss and tease out the tension/the struggle, allow it all to be expressed, the right hemisphere emerged in an outburst: 'But I'm not feeling it in here! In my body!' - as he pushed his hand into his chest and held it there.

I mirrored that back, as it was so powerful. And clear!

The body had something to say, and we had given the body the space and invitation to come out. And the sheer clarity of that utterance! It was like it 'swept away' the left-hemisphere's analysis, and worrying, and future-timeline-projections, and anxiety about lack of speed....

Being comfortable with 'not knowing' is prescient in our world today. The right hemisphere is much more comfortable with not-knowing - rather, sensing into something, feeling into it, needing to 'be' rather than to 'do'. And importantly not rushing it.

My third example comes from a course I am doing at the moment, I mentioned it before, and I am just loving it.

The purpose of the course is to learn to tune into our deep, inner knowing, our somatic knowing, our right-hemisphere knowing.

It is the work of the wonderful Dan McTiernan as he applies Transpersonal Psychology and Permaculture principles to this work of reclaiming our embodied knowing.

This Week, there is a very powerful talk, then a meditation/visualisation practice, supporting us to find our embodied ways of knowing.

It's gold!

Some of my takeaways:

• The concepts and logical, rational thoughts which our heads give us, actually distance us from the world, they keep us 'once removed' from the world. They are 'representations', not reality
• 'Words' aren't actually the world either - they also represent things, in a 'once-removed-way'
• The body has ways of knowing; these aren't 'conceptual'. The body FEELS
• The body is energy, as much as it is flesh and bones and organs
• We in the West undermine the intelligence of the heart and gut and only really value the intellect and abstract/intellectual ways of knowing
• Indigenous peoples' bodies and head-brains perceive IN UNISON!
• OUR BODIES AND HEAD-BRAINS DO TOO, it's just we're not conscious of it

Here's an experiment for you:

• Find an object (indoors or outdoors). It's helpful if it's fairly close to you, so you can observe the detail in it.
• Ground yourself, perhaps close your eyes, take a few deeper, slower breaths. Imagine moving from your head-brain, down into the trunk of your body, right down into the base of your spine, into your sitting bones. As you exhale, see if you can sink even more, into your sitting bones. Allow the gravitational force to pull you down.
• And of course, your head-brain will be busily sending you messages! As thoughts come into your awareness, see if you can firstly, thank your mind, for giving you this thought, then allow it to pass on by. Like a cloud floating on, in the sky. And return to your awareness of your sitting bones, anchored to the ground. That being your centre of gravity.
• And then, without losing this sense of deep embodiment and grounded-ness, slowly allow your gaze to rest on the object you chose.
• It's ok to name it, label it, as we normally do.
• But then, what is actually your experience of what you're looking at. E.g. the shape, or texture - what happens in your body when you notice the shape or texture? Can you 'feel the shape' as an experience? E.g. you might feel the angular, sharp nature of it. Or the resonance in your body of the texture of the object - smooth, spiky, soft?
• You'll probably find yourself analysing what you're experiencing. That's ok. If you realise you're doing this, just come back down into your body again.
• Let the object come to you, you're just 'receiving the experience'. You don't have to label it. you don't have to conceptualise or analyse it.
• And see if you can feel into the experience, where there aren't two objects - 'You', the observer, and 'The Object', the observed. Can you feel a kind of connection there? (Ok, it's a 'separate object', but FEELING into it, you might imagine/feel a flow between you and the object, or feel something in your body, in response to your connection with the object.....)

Were you able to sense into something different? A connection? A warmth in the body perhaps?

Were you able to let go of 'separate observer'?

I believe this to be a beautiful practice, for tuning in to our right hemisphere. It's not necessarily easy, 'nothing' may happen for you, but if you keep experimenting with it, I guarantee you will start to feel frissons of 'something'.

You will be building your somatic awareness, your embodied wisdom, your unique way of experiencing the world and accessing your inner knowing.

And how amazing is that?!

This idea, or practice, as well as demonstrating 'right-hemisphere' being/experiencing, also gives us an antidote to our society's Story of Separation.

This is a long story, going back at least 2,000 years to the Ancient Greeks, I've written before about this. We're taught to separate. E.g. head from heart; mind from body; me from you; me from nature; humans from other lifeforms.

It is healing, it is liberating, to realise suddenly, you're not separate! No matter how hard you might try!

You are a beautiful, unique part of the wonderful Web of Life.

And your heart, your gut, the fibres in your body, know things, your right hemisphere knows things, which may be the things you are looking for. Crying out for.

I hope you find these words and ideas comforting, enlightening, helpful, perspective-giving. Food for thought.

Don't ever hesitate to drop me a line, reach out, if you have questions on what I write, or just need to talk something through. I really welcome that.

I'd also love to credit the amazing Manda Scott - for strengthening my belief in the 'heart-mind' and 'gut-mind', and indeed, normalising them so much for me! And, for her engrossing Podcast Accidental Gods, where I first heard Dan McTiernan speak. Links below in Resources.

'Til Next Time....Go Well.

[email protected]

Resources:

Dan McTiernan's website:

https://earthbound.fi/home

Manda Scott's website:

https://mandascott.co.uk/

Manda Scott's Podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/accidental-gods/id1492827360