Into the new

I start every Saturday clinic by participating in a morning shamanic breathwork session before seeing private clients in the studio. The hourly session beforehand, of conscious connected breathing, is a tool which strengthens my ability to meet myself honestly before I then show up and meet others and hold space for healing.

Breathing in and breathing out with all what is and all what might be, is a tender discipline in being able to surrender to the psyche and its creative play at life. This morning's practice reminded me that we often go about in life thinking we are in control and we try our best to keep everything in the 'right place' whether that is constant strategising and keeping to a 'well-thought-out plan'. However today as I breathed in and let go, and started to begin the normal thinking process around planning what would happen in my sessions, I stopped myself and I wondered to myself what if planning sessions actually limited my abilities and gave me a false sense of control.

I then started thinking about the need to control outcomes and what if this need actually makes life more rigid and more mundane, truly curtailing the gifts of an unfolding life itself. Instead, I thought 'what would it be like to always think that something is out of our control and be at peace in believing in your own fundamental skills to navigate whatever life gives you in that moment?' In these musings, I imagined sailing and being at sea, inwardly comfortable and actually quite excited at not knowing what the changing seasons or challenges would want or ask from you.

The reason I am writing this here is that I liken this insight to being involved in the therapeutic process. Typically you go and see a 'therapist' or an 'expert' and really the therapist should be in 'control' and steer the therapy to its final destination. However, what if that 'control' stops richer things from happening? What if it is more fruitful to see the endeavour as a 'co-creative' process and if both parties are open and willing are able to lend themselves sensitively to the direction of the soul? Could there be a deeper journey waiting when there is no control and less of an 'expert' position? And could there be a richer landscape if the possibilities of any given moment is unmarked, unknown and only just sprouting?

These questions are left to be lived and embodied as I continue to meet myself fully through breath, movement and connection to myself and others. Let me conclude that this is not to say all the techniques and strategies should be thrown out, however, there should be a yin and yang between presence, technique and openness to mystery! My sessions today after this breathwork session were fun, not planned and in my opinion, very rewarding! The clients today mirrored my inward state of being open to creative explorations. We used art (symbols), dance and grounding exercises to really welcome in the New and the Wise as it emerged through our work together.