YOU CAN LIGHTEN YOUR OWN LOAD – No one can do it but you. You are serving as prosecutorin your own life and guess what? – that’s not fair. Fundamental Attribution Error is people blamingindividuals for actions that were the result of mass decisions or circumstances over which they had noactual control. Look into it, if you want to. (Sometimes we need to.) Or you can just forgive yourselfand move on. After all, we’ve got the future to think of. CHALLENGE – What would you change NOW? How do you WANT to change? Forgiveyourself. You were held hostage by fortune (we all were) and you went full-on StockholmSyndrome and identified with your attackers and tried to please them. (We all did. It’scalled Society.) Now you’re madder at yourself than you are at them. Forgive yourself. DANGER – You’re in another part of the forest. Surprise! This wasn’t the plan but here you are. TheDanger is – you’ll give up. Don’t. You can easily see from every fairy tale and hero’s journey you’veever studied that now we’re getting to the Good Part. By testing your muscle you get to grow yourmuscle. If your muscle is never tested, it withers. Get ready. OPPORTUNITY – We don’t know everything. Even Jesus demonstrated surprise about the way thingsturned out. Be gentle as a dive, he advised, but wily as a serpent. Serpents can get out of anything. (Ask a herpetologist.) And so can you. It’s just a bigger world than we knew – both inner and outer –so get mapping. I guarantee you – IT GETS BETTER. MEDITATION – #Haiku: Regret Coulda Woulda Shoulda Didn’t. Now you Wish Things Different. Clean slate. Write.
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#Haiku: Fear of Falling Makes You Fall
Lemmings study cliffs; Caucus, Debate, Agree, Surrender Close eyes Jump
· Have low self esteem · Have a harsh inner critic · Don’t love yourself · Feel unlovable, misunderstood, rejected, insignificant, unseen? ARE YOU: · Used to conditional love + reward/punishment patterns? HAVE YOU: · Codependency issues & poor self-emotional regulation · Unresolved issues with a caregiver (maybe a narcissist) & unresolved trauma · Other deep rooted fears & wounds You need deep inner healing. Welcome to the Healing Journey. No ego, says the yoga coach when they want us to stop judging ourselves. Clinging Vine – Dependency – Do you dream of abandonment? Are you afraid of being alone? In DreamTarot, the Clinging Vine card reminds us of all of the unpleasant aspects of needing others’ constant support to function. The clinging vine can’t stand up by itself, it needs an immoveable shoulder to cling to. We Americans prefer the fantasy of independence and self-determination. It’s just too threatening to imagine what might happen if the wall we’ve been clinging to comes down.
No One Stands Alone – The truth is, we’re all in this together. Billionaires, leaders, CEO’s, all actually need more support than we do. So it’s time to divest of pointless shame and acknowledge the truth that humans are, for good and ill, social creatures. Challenge – The more we cling to a fantasy of who we are, the less we can see the true reality. Make an experiment of listing your dependencies – bank, mail system, social security? Vehicle, gas availability, fuel affordability? Grocery stores, restaurants, our own two ambulatory feet? Weather, peace, law enforcement? Danger – Refusing to recognize the fragility of these systems is one danger; the ruthlessness confronting fear creates is another. We are accustomed to the American need to muster a personal armory just in case the daily struggle for existence becomes a shoot-out; think of the long-term effects THAT fantasy will have. Challenge – Are we hanging ourselves in loops of dependency? How can we free ourselves? What could we do to claim more psychic and physical independence? Mormons require a “year’s worth” of canned goods in the basement, the rest of us recognize the need for an emergency savings account. We are beginning to understand how a threatened supply chain can snap. Begin imagining some future failure scenarios and hash out the possibilities; if the elevator fail, is it possible to take the stairs? Your dream life will reward you with a lessening of existential anxiety. Meditation - #Haiku: The Clinging Vine Lean too hard on me Fall together Let me be free, we’re Supported
YOU ARE A SEEKER – You are self-defining. You are on a quest. You wish to experience to the fullthe nature of having a self. You are becoming alert to the possibilities inherent in this particularincarnation and you wish to explore them. DANGERS – The danger of solipsism is that in turning our eyes inward we miss important signalscoming from other people and the world around us. Yet “retreating inward” is a vital path to self-knowledge and growth. CHALLENGE -The solution to this challenge is to set a Spirituality Schedule to reflect our needs andinterests. Appoint time to be absolutely alone, for meditation and reflection. If you cannot find a roomto yourself, a closet will do. You can sit in the meditation position or assume any position that allowsyou to be comfortable enough to become physically forgetful. Concentrate first on building a life thatallows both inner and outer growth. Surround yourself with people who respect this decision. OPPORTUNITIES – This is a journey. Accept it. Begin a journal with 1. “I” and write down yourmeditation thoughts and desires. Tis can be a poem, a fantasy, a checklist – whatever pattern occurs toyou as supportive of your desires. Make a list of goals. Push shame away. This is about YOU. Ofcourse as you evolve, your goals will evolve, and your journal will reflect that. When you havecompleted your Time Alone – ten minutes to an hour – whatever works for you – pat yourself on theback. What an achievement! You are started on a path of making changing Nightmares into Dreamsand making dreams come true. MEDITATION - #Haiku: Ego Pry: Beneath Eye: Compare My Shy Inside To your Wry outside. Cry. Why? |
Alysse AallynAlysse Aallyn is the author of four well-received thrillers,Find Courtney, Depraved Heart, WomanInto Wolf and I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, one historical novel (Devlyn) and a book of short stories (Awake Till the End.) She has three published books of poetry – The Sacred Quiver, The Hot Skinand The Five Wounds and edited another (The Feathered Violin.) She trained in theatre at Circle in the Square Theatre School and Martha Graham School of Dance. She appeared in the part of Isabella in Jean Giraudoux’s The Enchanted at the New Yorker Theatre. She has held writing fellowships at Brooklyn College and LaSalle University. Her novel Depraved Heart won a 2011 CT Press Club fiction award and her play Queen of Swords was a semi-finalist in the 2014 National Arts Council First Play award. Woman Into Wolf was a semi-finalist for The National Playwrights Conference (2016). She has also appeared as a crime commentator on IV-TV’s Blood Relatives.Her play, Let’s Speak Vietnamese was published in Dramatika Magazine. Other plays she’s written are The Honey & the Pang about Emily Dickinson’s posthumous career, Cuck’d– a modern Othello,and Caving, in which the theatre is transformed into a cave for a spelunking dare. Her latest play, Rough Sleep, (based on her novel I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead) was produced by Manhattan Repertory Theatre (W. 45thSt) April 18, 19, 20, 2019. Her newest poetry collection, Haunted Wedding, will be appearing in 2022 from Thriller Library. Archives
September 2022
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