Something teaching taught me is how NOT alone we are in our human experience.
When I first began opening up “check in” space in my classrooms, where we would spend the first 30-60 minutes of class with open space to talk about how we were doing/feeling in our human experience, I was SHOCKED by the amount of students who were deeply struggling…and even MORE shocked (pleasantly) by the connections students were able to make with one another through these “check ins”. I watched student after student, semester after semester, year after year, slowly begin to see they were not alone in how they were feeling - they were not alone in the ways they were struggling. Together we created a mini community, and for at least those few hours together, in that temporary space, we were not alone. This simple activity fundamentally changed my life, and I watched it change students’ lives too.
Embodying this learned wisdom within my OWN personal human experience has been an ongoing journey/challenge for me, and taken me down into the depths of my shadow/trauma wounds at some points along the road.
I understand intimately how easy it is to feel alone along this human journey. I know intimately what it is to feel like the only one who sees things a certain way, feels things a certain way, has hopes & dreams & desires to live life a certain way… I sometimes STILL feel like an alien - like the only one of my kind. And to a certain extent, that’s true. We ARE all unique individual contributions to the web of life, so we ARE all alone in our own unique ways.
But what I’ve learned is that there are pockets & spaces where “my people” (& “your people”!) live, work, and play.
The challenge was actually first discovering who I truly WAS in my alien uniqueness👾 (underneath all the gunk socialization covered it up with), and then beginning to seek out & explore those spaces. THIS is how I’m finding my people, and the more I explore, the more of my complete & utter un-aloneness I discover.
If you can relate to the alien👾 experience, here is what I wish someone had helped me understand:
Your feelings are so, SO valid. SO many of us grow up in this colonized cookie-cutter culture feeling as though we don’t fit in - literally CAN’T fit in [without very real health consequences]. If all of humanity were a sea, at first glance that sea appears to be made up of sameness. There are many, many, many of the same types of people out there, floating around on the surface - meaning they’re the ones we see first & the most. (Think: news, TV shows, commercials, “professionals,” your hometown.) But when you venture a little deeper below the surface, there are levels, layers, and alllllll kinds of pockets of weirdness & wildness under there to explore. If the surface people aren’t your people, it’s because YOU are not a surface person. It’s because your people are waiting for you somewhere underneath. And the more you allow yourself to be who you truly are, and to follow the spaces that truly feel GOOD to your authentic self [with LOTS of discernment about healthy vs unhealthy community spaces, because there are plenty of both], the more you will find those underwater pockets containing your unique brand of weirdo🥸👾🦄💜
THIS is how we can create restorative re-experiencing opportunities for our hurt inner child. THIS is how we can heal in community. THIS is how we can co-regulate. THIS is how we can attune - with and through one another, and ultimately to ourselves🙏
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Two spaces of deeper exploration I am CURRENTLY finding [safe, healthy] belonging in, in my own deep sea diving👾:
Thomas Hübl Practice Groups: pocketproject.org/practice-gr... (for those looking for places to share their tender hearts💞)
Artist Power: garrainjones.com/join-artist-... (+ Garrain Jones in general🤗 - just watch the video & see if it speaks to you💜)
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#corewounds #healing #innerchild #innerchildhealing #community #communityhealing #findmytribe ugh