Freud said that the happy result of therapy is
“Where it was, there shall I be.”
At the Mankato Women & Spirituality Conference this past weekend and teaching this morning at St. Kate’s Staff Circles, I was sharing practices to move from being caught in “it,” in what Dave and I call “normally neurotic ego,” to wholeness.
Moving from Criticism to Compassion focused on the Inner Critic and how it keeps us stuck and separate from ourselves, most directly from compassion. Welcoming Joy in Your Daily Life focused on how we keep ourselves from opening to joy as our essence, our very being.
In each workshop, I was struck how the participants had moments of reclaiming their true sense of the “I” Freud refers to (the Self, our True Nature, our Buddha Nature, Divine Nature, etc.)–
- Through mindful attention to the ways the Inner Critic talks to us.
- Through acknowledging the ways we unconsciously react to try to get the Inner Critic to stop.
- Through trying on something new to open up the heart to joy.
- Through seeing clearly the ways we check out and leave presence.
- Through creating a different more conscious relationship with ourselves.
Consciousness moves “it” towards “I.”
Understanding opens.
Compassion blossoms.
Tensions melt.
Moments of being in touch with Who we are shows us a new way of being, which can hold, contain, and respond compassionately to “it.” We are reclaiming these lost parts of ourselves, coming more deeply home by including “it” as “I.” No more separation and fighting against shadow parts or ourselves.
All are welcome.
Moments of grace arise.
As my Diamond Approach teacher would say–
we do our practices so we can be “accident prone to grace”
and reclaim our innate wholeness.
Nourishing Wholeness 