824th Week: Returning to Steadiness Revisited

With all that has happened in the United States since January 6^th, it seems a good time to revisit the process of returning to steadiness. Also, it’s a time to keep in mind that where we place our awareness and attention has an impact on the quality of reality that we experience and engage.

For many of us, it’s challenging to even begin to imagine how we will collectively heal the polarities and divisions we see not only in the United States, but all around the planet. I have framed this current situation as a potential “healing crisis”, where we are seemingly stuck in a collective situation that seems not to have an easy or ready solution.

In my recent return to explorations into dynamics that are more “quantum” in nature, I have been inviting myself to be curious as to how to orient myself to the idea of an “optimal human family” living on the planet in ways that support healthy living for everyone, including our non-human earth-kin. I’ve done this in much the same way as I have worked with the concept of the “optimal future self” over the past almost 40 years. 

When I think of the idea of an “optimal human family”, I recognize that I have no way to envision specifics around this potential. So, drawing on what I have done with the “optimal future self” over all these years, I find myself calling on this potential, more than imagining it, and asking for it to move into this reality, holding the assumption that such a process is possible.

I have also been calling on the essence of universal love to enfold the whole planet and to fill the hearts of every living being, including every living member of our human family. Since just about every spiritual tradition I can think of agrees that love is a powerful healing essence, I have felt somewhat steadied within my morning practice of imagining universal love offering its healing presence to our troubled planet and, especially, to our troubled and suffering human family.

Within all of this, a fundamental practice is returning to steadiness many times a day. One of the ways that I have found supports this practice is to remember to make the sound “voo” as many times in the day as needed. I’ve written about this before. “Voo” is the sound that Peter Levine, founder of Somatic Experiencing®, uses as a way to stimulate a healthy parasympathetic response in the nervous system. The parasympathetic system is where we find our natural ability to relax and rest, so I turn to “voo” often to help my system settle.

When you sound the “voo”, it’s a gentle process. A breath in and, on the out-breath, without force, sounding “voo” in a way that allows you to feel its resonance all the way down into your abdomen. I usually do it three times and then spend a bit of time feeling into the sensations in my body, often enjoying the experience of a deeper settling.

As I’ve mentioned many times, it’s a good idea to become familiar with the way your deep internal steadiness feels so that you can locate and orient to it more and more easily when you need it. Given that we’re all in this together, and that we’re touched by our collective human consciousness in every moment, it matters where we place our attention and the frequencies and qualities to which we orient. When we orient in the direction of steadiness, we access support from all those who are already steady and whose experience is part of our collective human field of consciousness.

As with all these practices, remember to bring along curiosity as your constant companion. It helps to recall that curiosity opens, while fear constricts. And, with any judgments or self-criticism thoughts that may arise, be sure to pat them gently on the head and allow them to move on through without your having to do anything with or about them. They are just thoughts and, most often, represent activation rather than useful information.