Spacious Awakening

Recently, I wrote an article called "Working Together with Trauma in a Committed Relationship" for the website Marriage.com. It's a powerful article and asks a lot of the average person. Still, I'm hopeful that we can all learn how to work together with and through trauma in a committed relationship. I'm hopeful that we can become skilled in being with our partners when deep feelings and sensations emerge and this article is one small attempt at showing how it can be done.

Awhile back, this phrase came to me on a walk. I was reflecting on the many ways that we experience different emotional states of being, most often being diving into one while forgetting the other exists. At some point, though, I recognized that our best action is to hold both polarities at the same time. To hold sadness with joy; success with failure; belonging with isolation. And, in this way, we come to the recognition that true freedom is the marriage and balance of opposites. As you reflect on your own life, do you tend towards sadness or joy? For many [...]

“Why are animals in the wild, though routinely threatened, rarely traumatized? By understanding the dynamics that make wild animals virtually immune to traumatic symptoms, the mystery of human drama is unveiled.” -Peter Levine Last week I heard a talk by Jamie Dwyer from Biomimicry 3.8 about how we can learn a lot from nature to solve our problems. It turns out that nature has been solving problems and evolving for 3.8 billion years so she knows a little bit about the process. Besides being awed by the potential behind biomimicry to solve technological problems, or inefficiencies, I came to realize [...]