Staying open

These pictures are from a store in downtown Austin called Succulent Native. I didn’t tag it because the thoughts expressed in this post aren’t reflective of the store owner or staff (just to be clear) 🙃

I do highly recommend stopping in if you’re ever in the area, though 🪷✨️

A few thoughts for people in the helper/healer world, and for anyone else who feels drawn to read this:

Over the past few years, we’ve seen firsthand the importance of getting clear on our beliefs, knowing our lines in the sand, and standing strong in our convictions.

This is beautiful and perfect, and I hope everyone got what they needed from that.

AND.

I’ve seen in my own life how holding on too tightly to a belief system can actually block my growth and evolution and act as a barrier to connecting with and holding space for others.

While we all have our deal breakers (as we should) I personally have benefitted from a periodic check-in of whether or not they’re really serving me in the particular phase of life or situation I’m actually in.

Holding a belief tightly feels good in my body. It gives solid form to what I often experience as vast openness. It’s something to hold onto; a life raft in turbulent waters.

I feel very empowered in knowing I have taken. a. STANCE.

However, at what point does it become limiting?

I mentioned how we can unintentionally stunt our own growth by clinging to certain ideologies and blocking out anything that may contradict them, but I’ve also seen this when it comes to being present with others.

See, if we are holding a belief that things are THIS WAY, or they SHOULD be like x, y, z, then we really aren’t leaving room for the process to unfold naturally (ours or other peoples’).

The second we have a goal attached, or destination to arrive at, we’ve altered course.

When we become overly attached to a belief system, we’re no longer acting as a clear vessel for love and guidance to flow through.

We’re actually compromised and therefore not safe.

We run the risk of inflicting our views on someone else when they’re in an extremely vulnerable state and/or interfering with their experience.

The safest people I know stay open to possibilities and offer me the same expansive permission field that they’ve given themselves.

The least safe people are the ones who feel they know for sure how things are and how they should be. They have disowned their humanity in service to an ideology- and in doing so, have insured there is no room for mine.

They will try to manage and police me as they do themselves and will have very little tolerance for exploration, experimentation, or mystery.

In conclusion: Beliefs and ideological frameworks can help us conceptualize and make sense of our reality, find meaning and purpose, and give us hope.

I’m just choosing to hold mine with a loose hand these days to allow for the growth and transformation required to navigate these wild times ✨️