When I find myself in times of trouble……

When troubles seem to be on our back, it can lead to frantic activity or paralysis or yo-yo-ing between the two. The state of the world in particular is a place where it looks like we can be flung about on a roller coaster of emotions from denial to anger to deep gloom, grief or a sense of panic and urgency. 

My own journey with climate change began in the 1990s. Getting involved in organic farming led to finding out a great deal about soil and the changing state of the planet.

Busy raising and processing organic food, I didn’t feel I had the capacity to take on the bigger picture but I felt the fear associated with the ‘armageddon narrative’. Even back then in the early 2000s I felt how disempowering it could be to just consume that information without having some creative response or outlet.  

What I didn’t realise back then is, whether the troubles look internal (my mental health difficulties) or external (climate change); tiny (I’ve run out of coffee) or insurmountable (rising temperatures), our experience of them is always coming via the power of Mind, Thought and Consciousness (even when it doesn’t look like it). 

How does that help, especially with the ‘big’ stuff?

It helps because we begin to see how changeable the mind is. How unreliable ‘reactivity’ is in giving us information about ourselves, others or the world and how when we look towards the source of our experience.

How there is an infinite supply of new thoughts, fresh ideas, new perspectives when we get less fascinated with our personal thought dramas and more interested in what is constant (the flow of thought).

It won’t stop us feeling the whole dynamic and diverse range of feelings but an understanding of what is going on helps us allow those feelings to roll through knowing there is a deeper wisdom at play and to take the next step (whatever that may be) with more ease and less angst.

In these times, we need more innovation, connection and love

And more people out in the world who can bring that example to every day life. What helps us do this, for ourselves, our loved ones, in our workplaces, communities and in the wider world, is a deeper understanding of our true nature.
Gathering with others who are looking in this direction is nourishing and nurtures that reflective, relaxing and deepening gratitude for being alive. Something we begin to look to more and more, in times of trouble or not. 

Experiencing for ourselves how practical ideas and solutions show up in real time lays the groundwork for a deeper knowing that we can get into life and take the actions that occur to us from that more solid sense of what’s next.

Knowing that in an enraged state of mind we will, of course find more things to rail against. From a state of hopelessness: the challenges will seem overwhelming.

It’s not that we can necessarily ‘snap out of’ those states but we get less enamoured of them, trust them less, judge them less and as this happens we get more discerning about when to pause, when to rest, when to reflect, when to gather information, when to cease from consuming, when to act, when to make changes, when to reach out to others, when to retreat into silence, when to mourn.

As we get better at tuning into a deeper wisdom, we can’t but get better at nurturing others and the planet we share and responding to what shows up (whatever that may be) with more resilience, love and clarity. 

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Juliet Fay is a 3 Principles Facilitator & Mental Health Educator facilitating healing conversations via poetry, illustration, walk ‘n talk, group programmes and 1:2:1 mentoring sessions. She lives in a small village on an estuary in West Wales and works in her local community, at a mental health charity and online.

Sign up to the email list for original visual poems and articles and updates on programmes and products. Join Juliet and a small group in August 2019, for the next 4 week, online programme, Love Your Life Again, exploring how daily life is our best teacher pointing us towards a deeper wisdom. Get in touch for details.