“To let myself feel what I feel without judging it…”
This past week we saw — and some experienced first hand — a huge storm hitting the east coast of the US, and the aftermath of challenge and suffering, still continuing.
In the midst of that I was touched and inspired by a beautiful blog post by Jo Davidson, composer, singer/musician, producer, photographer, and creator of Zentertainment Talk Radio. I had the pleasure of speaking with Jo a few weeks ago, and had been very impressed with her commitment to bringing healing and growth processes to all who need them.
Her story of riding out the storm both physically and emotionally turns out to be a great example of how to use Focusing in suddenly stressful times… so I’m sharing her words with you. Especially since she has just put an interview with me on her website!
Jo writes:
“If we are alive and safe, that matters most of all. But not giving ourselves a space to share our pictures, our stories, our tears just as they are, not giving ourselves time to process that, means something in us gets pushed down, denied and buried only to surface later in other ways.
“It’s ok to sit with what feels sad and let it be sad. It’s ok to be scared or feel overwhelmed. We don’t have to fix it to heal, or tell it why it shouldn’t feel so sad, we only need to let it express what it feels.
“To heal, I have to love all of me, and allow my body to speak not just when I love its messages but even when I don’t. It just wants to be heard. Then it can breathe again. This is the way to emotional healing.
“I wish I had known more about how to heal emotionally in this way after going through the 1994 earthquake in Los Angeles or after witnessing the 9-11 terrorist attacks from my window in downtown NYC. I recently learned a healing technique from Ann Weiser Cornell called “Focusing.” It’s a way to access body wisdom and make peace with yourself. It is one of the most profound discoveries I have come across for emotional healing. At times during this mess, I couldn’t do it. I was too deep in survival mode. Other times I could. It was been so very helpful. Find out more:
Making Peace with your Body through “Focusing” with Ann Weiser Cornell
Jo improvising music the day after the storm
Dear Jo,
I couldn’t agree more about the power of allowing what we feel to be as it is.
I don’t have much to add…except to say how much I agree that in times of extreme stress it’s great to have skills of giving ourselves company and allowing how we feel.
Going through hard times, best of all is when we go through it with a friend and come out the other side.
We can use all the friends we’ve got…and Focusing gives you one more friend: yourself.
