Inner Activism

How are you doing this week? 

There’s been a lot going on in the world, and I want you to know that you’re allowed to feel exhausted, confused, frustrated, and the full array of complex human emotions that could well be coming up for you; there’s wisdom in what you feel. 

With tomorrow’s dark moon, you may experience a further influx of uncontrolled thoughts or waves of stronger emotions that make you feel heated or overwhelmed beyond what you may have been experiencing these last few weeks. 

So take a breath, and allow yourself to witness these emotions within you as much as possible as you remind yourself that you are not your thoughts and you are not your emotions. Take time to practice cleansing your mind and body of things you want to let go of: enjoy a hot shower before bed, soothing music that brings you out of your head, or quiet meditation and self-witnessing practices. 

The more curiosity we can have with ourselves, the more we can soften our self-judgement, inner-critic, and self-imposed shame and the more we can heal those patterns between ourselves and others.

The state of the world weighs heavily on me sometimes, and there are so many parts of me that desperately want it to change, heal and develop with peace and spirit as its driving force. But as I get older and more experienced with my internal system, I recognize that conventional activism is currently not healthy for me. My anger feeds on righteous indignation, conflict, and the “us vs. them” mentality. And when have these things ever brought true healing to the world? How have these things changed our society for the better in any long-term way?

I’m reading a book at the moment called “No Bad Parts” by Richard Schwartz. It’s part of my Internal Family Systems therapy training and my continued commitment to developing my coaching practice. So far, it’s on point in articulating some of my beliefs and feelings about the state of the world. For example, at the very beginning of the book, there are two quotes side by side: 

“If a factory is torn down but the rationality that produced it is left standing ,then the rationality will simply produce another factory. If a revolution destroys a govenment but the patterns of thought that produced the government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves.”

– Robert Pirsig

and, 

“I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and climate change. I thought that thirty years of good science could address these problems. I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, and to deal with those, we need a cultural and spiritual transformation. And we scientists don’t know how to do that.”

– Gus Speth.

I would add that, as far as economic, social and political problems go, selfishness, greed and apathy are also joined by judgement and division. Any one of these things will cause us to go round and round in circles chasing our tails until we’re all too exhausted to do anything at all, and the system will perpetuate.

Yet, what we each feel, believe, or think is not fundamentally wrong, though we may experience strong parts that disagree. There is wisdom within us, needs that have gone unmet, boundaries crossed, and hurts that linger – those parts are speaking to us. It’s up to us to create the internal environment that helps us build relationships with each of those parts, hear them in full, and honour their needs and requests with compassion, courage, and loving patience. They’re not going anywhere and will continue begging for our attention through our emotions, thoughts, behaviours and nightly dreams and will impact our lives, relationships and communities until we give them what they need: our attention.

In my own experience, this practice develops spontaneous creativity, a more profound capacity to hold space, and more energy for external work, community and sharing. 

Within myself, I don’t believe I will ever be done learning the nuances of my system. This is the activism that I will continually pursue from the inside out. I believe with my whole heart that if enough of us are willing to look inwards and heal our internal relationships, there will be more peace, empathy, community, and safety between every single one of us.

Perhaps it’s idealist of me, but this is the work I am called to share with the world.

I welcome you to join me through my winter coaching special, available until February 23rd. There are currently 2 spots available in the 12-session package, and a few spots available for the 6 and 3-session packages. 

Learn more about all three packages and the 15% off special here…

You are also welcome to join me and our growing community in the Women’s Community Membership with a 5-day free trial where we talk about inner-work, the wisdom of nature and so much more face-to-face, and walk our healing and learning paths alongside one another.

With deep love and new moon blessings,

Molly