This is the fourth of a four part series.
4.) Cultivate Love
Now that you are identifying and exiting black holes, you will have more energy.
What to do with it?
Cultivate love.
Duh, duh, duh.
What does the world need? LOVE. How do we do that? By loving ourselves so much that we have lots of extra left over. By loving ourselves so much that we have oodles and oodles of practice so we can love others too. By being so practiced at loving the screwed corners of ourselves that we can love the screwed up corners of everyone else too. By diving deep into what it means to deeply love ourselves, all the complexity and simplicity of it, so we can have deep empathy for everyone around us.
Love comes in every flavor. It is needed everywhere, all the time. It can come in the shape and size of a job, a passion, a hobby. It shows up in activity and stillness. It shows up at rest and at play. And it can be absent from all of those places too.
There is endless demand for love, and endless supply, too. When we care for ourselves deeply, we get better and better at hooking up to the supply, nourishing ourselves with it and channeling it to others too.
Many years ago, I was struggling with a problem. I did not know how to solve it. I wrestled and wrestled. Finally, I laid it at the feet of my body.
Through a guided imagery session, I saw a knot (my problem.) The more I tried to untie it, the more it grew. The knot, like any problem, wasn't an inanimate, static, object: it had life to it, and the more attention I gave it, the more it thrived and grew, becoming ever more complex, like a happy, evil houseplant. As the knot grew larger, I grew more frustrated.
Then I heard a voice: "Leave the knot, follow the light." A light appeared a little ways off. I let go of the knot, and walked towards the light. To my surprise, as I walked towards the light, the knot grew smaller and smaller, until there was no more knot, only me and a brilliant light.
This visual lesson has stayed with me, and I have come back to it over and over. The way to defeat darkness is not to fight it, but to move towards the light.
"Disengaging with the fight" and creating a beautiful alternative is the most effective way to create the change we long for. This can happen in so many ways, and on many levels. It can be misinterpreted to mean avoiding participation in life's challenges. Not so. It means dropping the fight within ourselves, our ever-present internal fight to resist love, so we can carry Love with us and within us everywhere we go, and join forces with others doing the same.
* * *
The political, societal, environmental, economic, and many other challenges in our world today are absolutely real. It is understandable to be upset by them, to feel the suffering, to be challenged, to feel angry and sad and despairing and hopeful and confused.
Ride the waves. Be gentle with yourself.
Cherish your sensitivity. Listen to your body and care for it deeply. Dispel black holes, and cultivate Love.
What the world needs now in these challenging, fractious times is Love. Deep, present, multifaceted, fierce, brave, soft, gentle, quiet, loud, unrelenting Love.
We don't get to make anyone else's choice for them, so the only place we can ensure remains dedicated to the cultivation of Love in all its forms is within ourselves.
And if we show up fully for that journey, we are doing everything we can.