Advice is such a loaded word, yet there is no lack of it anywhere. It can be like trying to drink from a firehose . There are tons of self-help books, anyone without credentials can hang out a shingle as an expert on change, and some new on-line tele-health, Tech companies are marketing as healthcare companies with no adherence to privacy rules.
I am also not a big fan of the old medical model of psychological diagnoses. Although of some limited help, there is no place in that model for diagnosing the problems in the systems we live in, and yet we are embedded in them. Certainly the last number of years with Covid, and the pace of change has made that ever clearer.
We are designed for developing a conscious mind, a Hidden Spring, as the neuropsychologist, Mark Solms refers to it. “Feelings are a legacy that the whole history of life has bestowed upon us, to steel us for the uncertainties to come”.
Feelings can also seem like a firehose and what to make of them? Yes, this requires practice and slowing down. But there is that “hidden spring” waiting to aid in our aliveness. We inevitably become what we do anyway. We might as well be intentional about it.
September
Then the flowers became very wild
because it was early September
and they had nothing to lose
they tossed their colors every
which way over the garden wall
splattering the lawn shoving their
wild orange red rain-disheveled faces
into my window without shame
—Grace Paley
“I can’t do this. I don’t know what to say.”
“Say anything,” he said. “You can’t make a mistake when you improvise.”
“What if I mess it up? What if I screw up the rhythm?”
“You can’t,” he said. “It’s like drumming. If you miss a beat, you create another.”
In this simple exchange, Sam (Shepard) taught me the secret of improvisation, one that I have accessed my whole life.
—Patti Smith
Be well,
Marlene
Photograph by @rinzizen; rinziruizphotography.com