Be Like the Ocean
Energy. Emotions are energy, they need to move through us or they get stuck leaving us feeling numb, incapacitated, paralyzed, agitated, unable to clearly focus, depressed, anxious. So we turn to things that appear to take all these feelings or energies away and unfortunately they aren’t always in our best interest. Distraction probably being the number one culprit to avoid what we fear we can’t get a hold on or manage within ourselves. We consume high quantities of sugar or alcohol, over caffeinate; we chase the high in belief that our world will be somewhat tolerable. The ocean, which holds an enormous amount of energy, goes in and out, ebbs and flows, crashes and calms, it can stay in a state of equilibrium with itself. It can manage the energy of itself because it naturally allows itself to BE all of the enormity that it encompasses. It does not get lost in any one way of being: sad, happy, sorrowful, overjoyed, confused, depressed. If we listen and watch and become like the ocean we can allow ourselves to come back into equilibrium.
This is the significance of a grief ritual. It creates the space for us to be our ocean. It is because of societies fear of feeling anything but “happy” that we really don’t feel much at all. We are guided into a false sense of inhabiting our bodies when all we do is strive for the quick fix to feel good. When we can allow ourselves to deliberately be awash of all our energies, thus all our emotions, we come back to the calm restorative place, like the ocean, in all our powerful magnificence of being exactly what it is we are supposed to be: a vessel of life. Expressing itself in each present moment with what arises. Taking with it what it needs to nourish the continuation of existence and allowing what has served its purpose to be laid gently on the shore, to be recycled and transformed into something new and more brilliant.
Nature teaches us that after the storm has passed, new life comes into being. The air is washed clean and the feeling of freshness becomes apparent. We must come to a place of comfort within ourselves, to allow our storm to play out, so we can begin to become the brilliance that we are after our torrential rain has washed us anew. Storms never lasts forever. Therefore, there doesn’t have to be the fear of getting sucked up by our own downpour of intense emotions. It might last a bit longer that we find comfortable, but if we aren’t allowing it to recycle us with its cleaning and clearing, with its oceanic ebb and flow, its waves and calm, then we lie amongst its never ending riptide. We are spun into a state of denial, distraction, confusion and resistance to what is trying to come up from the depths. Nothing ever stays the same. Allow your riptide to transform you into a cohesive representation of ebb and flow and trust in the supportive, nurturing ability of the shore to catch you and hold you in ALL of your magnificence. We’ve all seen the sparkle in the shoreline. When we allow our ocean of emotions to represent in full form in the moment, as opposed to denying them and becoming like the riptide, we always come out sparkling like the shore. This is our essence. This is our birthright. To sparkle. Not the contrived performance, worthiness based on another’s perspective sparkle, but the one that comes as the Phoenix, the alchemical transformation that occurs when we allow are vulnerabilities and power to coexist.
Our lives are not one dimensional. We are meant to experience and feel all that arises within us. Somewhere along the way, we moved away from our instinctual, indigenous, connected hearts. We have been taught to believe that anything that hurts too much or isn’t easily understood the first time around, must be ignored and discarded. This actually creates the perpetual angst of that which is trying to be revealed. This hurt and confusion, instead of being recycled as the ocean tells us, in its continual display of waves and calm, in ebb and flow, in its ability to constantly recycle that which lies within its majestic presence, instead, exists at the effect of that which we avoid. The pain, the hurt, the confusion, the misguided understanding lies within us as a riptide of emotion with nowhere to go, nowhere to process, but leaving us with a feeling of violent disturbance. Our society teaches us that the only way to meet this disturbance is by covering it up with more disturbances: alcohol, drugs, addictions, constant busyness or striving. It’s not that some of these methods aren’t effective in reaching success in certain areas, but when used as a means of avoiding what is at the core that drives the behavior, this is what becomes problematic.
Therefore, when a person tries to break out of this habit or pattern of existence it feels like their entire world will go down the drain, never to return to “normalcy.” We must remember to see clearly and learn from one of our most “like” ally, in terms of our shared capacity to hold all that we are, all that we encompass: the ocean. The earth and our bodies are both comprised of 70% water. Be like the ocean. Trust in your innate capacity to grieve and thrive without getting lost at sea.
Allow me, Jennifer Grais, Emily Cox Turek and Tessa McClary to guide you on your way to holding and honoring your magnificence.
Spring Wellness Workshop
Tending to Your Soul
April 8th, 2018
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