Quarantine Reflections

“What we are reluctant to touch often seems the very fabric of our salvation.” One of the gifts of this time period is spaciousness in our days. Without being in normal “hustle and grind” mode, for some of us, this may be the first time in our adult lives that we have had this much space to be still. Being busy is often used as a coping mechanism to run away from what we would be forced to feel if we slowed down. Now that we have all slowed down, there is much more space to feel. We can either see this as scary and overwhelming, or we can see this space as an opportunity to step into deeper healing work and ask ourselves, “what are the parts of my being that I’ve been denying and pushing away?”- and then giving those aspects of self your full presence and holding space for yourself just like you would for a dear loved one or close friend. When we give our own big emotions a safe container to be felt: one that includes compassion and kindness, we then have more tolerance for our difficult emotions that may become stuffed down when we judge or shame ourselves for having them. We all have aspects of our internal experience that have been hungry to come into the light, to be seen, acknowledged, felt, so that they can then be released. What we push away and repress, will not disappear. We can practice during this time noticing what it’s like to accept our feelings by offering an internal,”yes, this is what I really feel.” “This belongs.” “I’m allowed to feel this way.” We now have the space. Space to breathe, space to feel, space to expand, space to heal.