Time To Integrate
Aug. 9th, 2005 06:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carocrowToday's Daily Om is a gentle cuff against the head by a mother bear to her cub for me. When it is time to lie down and be still, then lie down and be still.
We have this Siamese youngster, Koji, who is so full of life and energy that he overflows with it, disturbing the peace, as it were. He gets overstimulated and just slap crazy, running around, jumping, wild. Often he will sneak attack the older cats, or he'll approach them with offers of grooming and then get carried away and start wrestling and chewing on them. He is hardheaded. Sometimes, he gets a "time out" in the carrier. He will sit there and moan for a few minutes, every muscle tight as a lute string, clawing at the netting, and then he will stop, relax, and lie down. When he is quiet, we know he has regained some control of himself and can come out again and be social.
What are we learning from this? I think we are learning that sometimes when we are overwhelmed we just need to step away and regroup. I think that when we are not doing that for ourselves, the universe does it for us... we may want to keep dancing until we fall down, but eventually the band has to take a break (and our feet do, too). I am going to try to be less critical of where I am right now and look forward to some things I have planned for myself, including the Barbara Brennan reading group, a Charlaine Harris reading group, and perhaps water aerobics at the college this fall if we can afford it. Some of our crises have passed, and we are grateful for that. Things will get better, even if in the moment I am unsure what is over the horizon.
I just have to keep breathing, and if I can't keep dancing, then at least lie down and be still.
Spiritual Plateaus
It is a natural part of spiritual development to have periods of activity and growth followed by periods of relative quiet. Sometimes we need to rest in order to integrate a new vision of the world, or ourselves, taking time to assimilate new realizations and to let old patterns and habits fall away. The purpose of times like these is to stabilize our new growth. While it may appear that nothing is happening, these can be necessary periods of rest and integration.
Sometimes, though, slow growth or no growth can actually be stagnation. We may have become attached to keeping things as they are, afraid to invite more change. And yet, change is the nature of reality and when we resist it, we fall out of sync with what is. Just as a plateau is a good place to get our bearings, to see where we've come from and where we might go next, it is also a place we must not be afraid to leave if we are to move to the next level.
There is a Zen expression: Practice as if your hair were on fire. What this is meant to inspire is the sense that there is no good time not to be on your spiritual path. This doesn't mean that you can't ever rest, or stop. It is not about overachieving or overworking yourself. It is just about challenging yourself to always be awake in your life, to keep showing up in the moment. If you need to rest, rest in the moment. But if you are stagnating-numbing out, escaping, or being unconscious-it is up to you to acknowledge it.
Often, stagnation settles in just before an important breakthrough. It may be a symptom of fear, one last wall thrown up by our small self in order to protect us from a life-changing realization. Sometimes it helps to explore the stagnation in order to move beyond it. Have compassion for yourself as you work to remove the obstacles to your progress. With persistence, you will be on your way to the next plateau.
We have this Siamese youngster, Koji, who is so full of life and energy that he overflows with it, disturbing the peace, as it were. He gets overstimulated and just slap crazy, running around, jumping, wild. Often he will sneak attack the older cats, or he'll approach them with offers of grooming and then get carried away and start wrestling and chewing on them. He is hardheaded. Sometimes, he gets a "time out" in the carrier. He will sit there and moan for a few minutes, every muscle tight as a lute string, clawing at the netting, and then he will stop, relax, and lie down. When he is quiet, we know he has regained some control of himself and can come out again and be social.
What are we learning from this? I think we are learning that sometimes when we are overwhelmed we just need to step away and regroup. I think that when we are not doing that for ourselves, the universe does it for us... we may want to keep dancing until we fall down, but eventually the band has to take a break (and our feet do, too). I am going to try to be less critical of where I am right now and look forward to some things I have planned for myself, including the Barbara Brennan reading group, a Charlaine Harris reading group, and perhaps water aerobics at the college this fall if we can afford it. Some of our crises have passed, and we are grateful for that. Things will get better, even if in the moment I am unsure what is over the horizon.
I just have to keep breathing, and if I can't keep dancing, then at least lie down and be still.
Spiritual Plateaus
It is a natural part of spiritual development to have periods of activity and growth followed by periods of relative quiet. Sometimes we need to rest in order to integrate a new vision of the world, or ourselves, taking time to assimilate new realizations and to let old patterns and habits fall away. The purpose of times like these is to stabilize our new growth. While it may appear that nothing is happening, these can be necessary periods of rest and integration.
Sometimes, though, slow growth or no growth can actually be stagnation. We may have become attached to keeping things as they are, afraid to invite more change. And yet, change is the nature of reality and when we resist it, we fall out of sync with what is. Just as a plateau is a good place to get our bearings, to see where we've come from and where we might go next, it is also a place we must not be afraid to leave if we are to move to the next level.
There is a Zen expression: Practice as if your hair were on fire. What this is meant to inspire is the sense that there is no good time not to be on your spiritual path. This doesn't mean that you can't ever rest, or stop. It is not about overachieving or overworking yourself. It is just about challenging yourself to always be awake in your life, to keep showing up in the moment. If you need to rest, rest in the moment. But if you are stagnating-numbing out, escaping, or being unconscious-it is up to you to acknowledge it.
Often, stagnation settles in just before an important breakthrough. It may be a symptom of fear, one last wall thrown up by our small self in order to protect us from a life-changing realization. Sometimes it helps to explore the stagnation in order to move beyond it. Have compassion for yourself as you work to remove the obstacles to your progress. With persistence, you will be on your way to the next plateau.
