The process of therapy is often frightening, overwhelming, even awkward. Opening ‘out’ to an unknown person is not easy. Latent insecurities and fears of judgment whisper to us while wrestling with the logic of the mind that tells us, “it’s okay.”
We humans are held together by the names, forms, meanings, emotions, wounds and stories we tell ourselves and others. We seek relief from our suffering or even refuge prompting us to act. There is uncertainty in this action. We all want a clear and definable path to feeling better.
We are also social creatures desiring deeper ways to connect. Our movement towards connection becomes halted as the tendrils of rejection, dismissal, shame, criticism wrap around the tender parts of ourselves and soul.
Therapy is really a restoration of the self, the system and the soul. When the deeper calls of the soul are heard, the wisdom of our suffering can be observed. What is observed, when remembering how slow and settle, is what our soul has been seeking all along.
The process of restoration is unique, just as each individual human is unique. It begins with connecting to our internal witness, the witness is the wisdom of the self. When self is provided permission to be nurtured, we can move though life with a greater sense of embodiment and calm.
The following poem written by Juan Ramón Jiménez, can be seen as a salient tribute to our humanness.
I Am Not I
I am not I.
I am this one
walking beside me whom I do not see,
whom at times I manage to visit,
and whom at other times I forget;
who remains calm and silent while I talk,
and forgives, gently, when I hate,
who walks where I am not,
who will remain standing when I die.
Juan Ramón Jiménez, “‘I Am Not I’” from Lorca and Jiménez: Selected Poems.
