Reclaim Your Safety
This isn’t the first and certainly won’t be the last time that I write about reclaiming our safety, specifically our felt-sense of safety.
Today, I wanted to share a simple and powerful way to start doing this in a way that feels authentic, without your nervous system being hyper-aroused (externally focused and/or inflamed) or hypo-aroused (collapsed inwards). Being able to regulate and resource ourselves, and bring ourselves back to centered neutrality is a way to access our own powerful authenticity.
And here’s one way to play with experiencing this.
Allow in the realization that ~
Your values are a portal to your soul, your larger Self.
When you align yourself to your values, you are in devotion to your soul.
By crafting your big + small intentions from your values, you are tuning into the frequency of your soul.
Allowing your doing + living to flow from this place is embodying your soul.
Living a life aligned to your values means releasing the addiction to external validation, to seeking approval and avoiding disapproval.
Living a life aligned to your values means pivoting your sense of safety away from being liked + approved of - a program you unconsciously + sensibly put in place as a child because back then, your safety did depend on conforming to the approval of the adults around you.
Living a life aligned to your soul means gently orienting your sense of safety within, towards your values.
It means becoming ok with misaligned relationships organically falling away, and making space for connections more in tune with the truth of you.
This is living a radically ensouled life, the antidote to the deep dis-ease of Self abandonment.
(Now, don’t just take my word for any of this. Check in and see how it all feels for you. Don’t ever take anyone’s word for something unless you’ve checked in with whether it feels true for you first. So-called objective information still has to reach our awareness through the subjective filters of our sense perceptions - but that’s a whole other conversation. ;))
What I’ve outlined above happens to be a fundamental gateway into decolonial work: it relocates our sense of safety, agency and choice away from the authoritarian mandates of the dominant (non)culture back towards our larger Self, our indigenous Self, our soul.
And soul- centric ways of living + relating were/are a mainstay of earth-based Indigenous cultures the world over. This is what the ancient + cross-cultural symbol of the spiral/labyrinth points to: the journey to the inner sanctum of the Self, inseparable from the World Soul or the Anima Mundi, and the living of life rooted from this place.
Snake spiral petroglyph, discovered in the American south-west region
It’s what C G Jung’s theory of individuation points to, and his decades long exploration into the layered mysteries of the mandala, which is intimately connected to the early petroglyphs of spirals + labyrinths found the world over.
What I’ve outlined above happens to be the pathway towards true community, where souls are empowered to show up in their unapologetic authenticity and share their valuable gifts with each other, much like a thriving permaculture garden.
As with healthy gut + soil microbiomes, true culture thrives on diversity. So too with healthy, life-affirming human culture. The paradox is that by attuning ourselves to our soul-based values, and living life from there, we’re serving the whole through our authenticity - again, much like a thriving, regenerative permaculture garden.
As counterpoint, the dominant, colonialist (non)culture we find ourselves in seems to be hurtling towards compliant homogeneity, a monoculture. Dialogue and curiosity is being replaced with silencing and the tantrum-like behavior of “canceling” that would put Willy Wonka’s Veruca Salt to shame.
The toxic soil (soul?) degrading consequences of monoculture farming practices, and their aptly named “slash + burn” technique are terrifying evidence of the effects of this on the Earth + human - which are not separate from each other.
The journey into soul through our values also happens to be an overview of one of our discoveries from working with the Fisher King story in last season’s Root + Rise: The Membership Space for Mythic Inner Alchemy, including becoming conscious of + leaning into embodying what our evolving soul-based values are.
We’ll be embarking on a new mythic adventure in community on Spring Equinox. More details here.
In the meantime, I’d love to hear about your experience of playing with this simple + powerful practice, including any questions and challenges you meet along the way.