Listen & Be Heard Weekly Archives

[tag]Compassion [/tag]is a quality that runs like a thread through all attempts, all efforts to alleviate human suffering. To suffer means, among other things, to ?carry.? Compassion means to ?carry with.? When we experience compassion, from others or in relationship toward ourselves, we are experiencing the support of another who, by truly listening and attending to our suffering?witnessing it?helps to relieve the sense of being overburdened and alone. Not only that, but the experience of compassion serves to renew and revitalize us, restoring our sense of abundance, joy and possibility.

Compassion may seem hard to come by. Therapists and counselors of all persuasions have busy work lives servicing the community as professional ?compassion providers.? Not to discount the need for those practicing the healing arts, but we humans have this wonderful, easy-to-access connection to compassion that we too easily forget once we become adults. As children, we are daily in touch with our capacity to self-renew through play and the freedom to self-express. This freedom to self-express serves as a direct link to the compassion that unfolds to support us when we are in touch with our abundance, our creative wellspring.

Exercising creative expression takes us down into the well that lies below our conscious, logic-bound identities. Music, dance, poetry, drawing or painting?all the forms of creative expression?open our hearts to the creative rhythms that connect us to the joy, the heartfelt feeling, and the physical juice of being alive and connected to life. We find that we are never alone when we tap into our creative wellspring.

[tag]Exercising creative expression[/tag] even in the simplest ways, humming while we wash the dishes, or simply swaying back and forth to music, opens us to the creative parts inside of us that want or need to blossom and be expressed. When we lower ourselves into the creative ferment of self-expression, we release the waters that lay trapped beneath our fears, our worries and our day-to-day preoccupations. These waters can then flow to the surface, buoying us along with renewed confidence that, somehow, despite life?s struggles, everything is going to be okay after all.

Exercise?Going to the Well

Pick a private, uninterrupted spot that you feel comfortable in. Light a candle and gather around you some objects that have special meaning to you or that you appreciate for their beauty, utility, or other reason. Take a few moments to be still and give thanks to those people, places, experiences, and relationships that support you, uplift you and help keep you feeling sane and whole.

In stillness and silence, bring your focus to the candle. If you feel comfortable, allow yourself to hum or sing a tune that occurs spontaneously or perhaps one that comes to mind. Allow your body to move in rhythm with the song. Begin with a simple, gentle rocking or swaying. Allow the sound and movement to expand or contract as you feel so inclined with a focus on what ?feels right.? Note any images, thoughts and feelings that arise. Feel yourself a part, or at one, with the flow of energy. Continue with this as long as you feel your energy ?wants to move.?

As your energy begins to settle, find yourself back into a seated position in front of the candle. Close your eyes and allow the energy to settle even more. Take a few minutes to reflect upon your experience. If you have a journal or some paper to write with, you may want to ask yourself, ?What was this experience like for me? Did it bring up any feelings? Comfortable or uncomfortable? Did any particular images, thoughts or feelings catch my attention? How do I feel now??

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