Hello friends,
First of all I want to send love to you and yours in these times. It’s hard to believe, as I write these words, that war has started once again in our world, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I know that many of us in other parts of the world will be really affected by this news. Some of us may even know people who live in Ukraine, but at the very least, we will each of us hear the daily news of the devastation caused by war. For anyone impacted by this news, I want to offer some reflections, supports and resources, that I truly hope will help in these times. I also welcome hearing from you also, with any reflections and suggestions of supports.
I am still trying to come to terms with this, as I am sure we all are. I feel a mixture of heart felt empathy for the people of Ukraine, along with feelings of despair, disempowerment, and rage. I feel anger at what I see as the unnecessary suffering that will happen. It is shocking to my 21st century Western sensibilities, (which I know has been a place of privilege) that war is at the edges of Europe. It is a shock that shakes the roots of the security I felt, where I naively believed that with all the traumas of war in the 20th century, that we humans might have learned.
Instead we see that we are falling back into old forms of domination and violence, war and destruction. This touches on my own history as a Northern Irish woman, growing up in the Troubles. I feel a ferocious cry arise from inside me, a howl of despair mixed with a fierce feminine protectiveness, a voice that wants the insanity to stop, now.
I take a breath, and slow it all down, feeling some relief that these feelings can be acknowledged. Allowing these feelings to be felt, also means that I can also stay more present, versus dissociating and turning away. Thomas Hubl calls this social witnessing, the capacity to stay connected to our inner world, whilst also staying connected to what’s happening in the world around us. Unresolved conflict, he says, has trauma at its root, and we need only to listen to Putin’s language about Ukraine being a Nazi state to know that his actions are in part created by the pain of the past.
To stay present to the conflicts within ourselves, as well as the conflicts of the world around us, is a radical act. It breaks the vicious cycle of trauma’s actions and reactions, and invites a different consciousness to emerge in our world, that we can embody, now.
Here is a map you might choose to follow:
- What is resourcing, or supporting you right now? ( eg, your breath, a loved one, a place in nature, the divine?). How do you experience this in your body? What feelings of well-being can you turn to? This may be the place that you need to dwell in, initially, to care take any shock and distress. Resourcing is a practice that is essential to our nervous systems in times of difficulty- finding where our supports are, holding compassion for ourselves and others, and care-taking our selves as best we can.
If you have the capacity to, you might then like to explore:
- What is affecting you right now?
- How do you experience that somatically? In your body, your emotions, your mind?
- What kind of expression might this place need? A movement, words, or some other form?
- Where is this experience familiar to you, in your own life, in your family or cultural context?
- What are the archetypal aspects at play, in this situation, for you? ( Eg Putin as the Tyrant King, one’s own feeling of being the Child, etc…)
- If you tune in to your heart, and open space for something else to come through, what is the knowing of your heart?
- What creative action can you take? ( Eg, to donate money, to meditate for peace, to work on your own inner conflicts- see bottom of page for other suggestions)
On this last note, about inner conflict. In the face of conflict, lies the possibility of bringing it home to ourselves, and to see where each of us can be the change we want to see in the world, as Ghandi famously said. What’s it like to open to the possibility that conflict is not just out there, but also lives within? What happens when we can acknowledge that inner conflict, and hold it in a more spacious, conscious awareness? What creative, versus reactive capacities, then emerge? Going further, where might we each have internalised power structures, and embody the inner tyrant or the victim archetypes?
As I invite these questions, I also invite a deep compassion. These are difficult areas to explore and to go slowly, with compassion and curiosity, is a practice that can allow us to look at what’s difficult within and around us.
As we see the examples of unskilful and destructive ways, how can each of us embody wiser ways, and be the change? What if we commit to radical compassion for the world? To let ourselves be affected by what’s happening, and see what our own unique response-ability is, in these times? Here are some suggestions that might guide you:
- Donate to funds to support the people of Ukraine in the basics of food, shelter and travel ( eg https://www.redcross.ie)
- Create a meditation practice, alone or with friends, to pray for peace.
- Explore Social Witnessing, joining with others to hold a compassionate witness presence for what is happening in our world- Thomas Hubl.
- Contemplate the inner conflict you might hold and explore how you might work with this in yourself.
- Create an altar to hold a space of love for all those who are suffering
- Reflect on what your skills and capabilities are, and how you might be a support to others.
Whilst our world has really matured in this past century, we still live in a paradigm of unequal and abusive power structures. Whilst what we see in Ukraine is heartbreaking and possibly the result of a totalitarian regime, we see shades of this in our Western world too, in authority structures and abuses of power, in inequalities between rich and poor, and in an economic system that uses and abuses the planet. Russel Brand notes in his recent podcast that Western economic interests and intransigence may well have played a role in creating this war.
This is a hugely complex issue and I don’t claim to understand the politics involved, but instead want to call attention to the power dynamics that permeate every part of our culture. There is no longer an age of innocence of good and bad, right and wrong. When we acknowledge where abuses of power might live, in our own lands, then comes the potential to affect change and bring forth a different way of being. This can begin with each one of us, where we can commit to living by a different code.
I do not believe that conflict is our deepest human nature. Current research is showing that war is neither inevitable, nor natural:
“The aggressive and destructive motives of domination, conquest, control, and profit have been presented to us as unchangeable human nature by historians as well as by sociologists. But mounting evidence from archaeology strongly suggests that human societies were, for the greater part of civilized history, based more on cooperation and reverence for life and nature than on competition and obsession with death and technology.
Sahtouris, Elisabet. EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution . Kindle Edition.
Yes, conflict exists. But nature teaches us that conflict can be a part of growth; that at boundaries and edges are where the most creativity happens. Conflict when managed well can therefore be a creative space, that can help a species to evolve. Those species that can navigate those edges well, are those that survive and thrive. This is the wisdom of the natural world that we as humans could do well to adhere to.
“Let us then follow the evolution of Gaian creation and of our own history as social creatures within this great dance of life. Let’s see what meaning and guidance all this may give in our present crisis, to speed us on our way into full maturity, to a happier future in which we promote our own health and that of our planet within the greater cosmic dance.”
Sahtouris, Elisabet. EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution . Kindle Edition.
I hold the vision of a world where our leaders can be aware of the effects of past traumas on their current actions. Where hardened mindsets can soften and be open to the complexities at play. Where there is a skilful negotiating of boundaries and edges, so that creative spaces can emerge from polarised conflicting opposites. Where we learn enough from the lessons of the past, and hold strong in our hearts for wiser ways.
Feel welcome to share any suggestions and reflections also. In the meantime, sending once again a big hug your way, and love to you in these times.
