My Philosophy
If we are to begin to reverse the ecological destruction we are wreaking on this planet we need to recognise more fully that land and people are medicine for each other. We need to switch our focus to serving life, not capital; and being ecocentric, rather than egocentric.
I believe collectively and individually we have allowed our attention to be hijacked by a sense of not having or being enough, which is never satiated by consumption and creates enormous suffering for all of Life.
We are predominantly in a stage of collective adolescence, where too many of us ‘adults’ haven’t figured out who we are and why we are here.
We are all searching for something, consciously or otherwise. Ultimately, what we are all really searching for, is ourselves - our own wild, soulful, authentic selves.
In a world of mass culture, where ‘fitting in’ is held in such high regard, to be ourselves is a radical and important act. The world has diverse and complex problems, it needs diverse solutions.
This means following our own unique path and giving our unique gifts, our ‘medicine’, into the waters of life, or else they will be lost forever.
How can we BE more, not have more; how can we be of VALUE, rather than of success?
At the heart of my work are the pathways of belonging, awakening, adulting, relating and meaning.
Walking these paths helps us to embrace our reality, build up our inner resources and live the life that we deeply long for. They are lifelong practices (which is why they are called pathways) and they also have immediate impact.
But before we look at the pathways…..
These are the principles and ideas that guide my work:
We are the very thing we are looking for
Slow is the way to fullness
Feel more to be more
Life happens FOR us
Attention shapes our lives
We are responsible for our own experience
Imagination leads us to Soul
The only real adventure is from the head to the heart
We can trust our next step
Land and people are medicine for each other
Now for the Pathways…
The Path of Belonging
Who am I in relation to the more than human world?
To remember who we are, we need to return to the living land, know ourselves as part of a place and find ourselves in the context of the web of life.
Sometimes…we’ve been so programmed by the pressures of society and family that to find our own path, we need to go where there are no paths; to an environment that is utterly neutral.
Mother nature holds the conditions for our natural, wild and true self to come alive and be known. She supports all the other pathways pulling us towards wholeness, presence, relationship and meaning.
With nature as our guide we receive wisdom; we come to humility; we see not what ‘should be’ important to us, but what is actually important to us and then we find the courage to step out.
This is our ecological self. Without connecting with nature, we won’t find our true belonging.
The Path of Awakening
Who or what is my essence?
One of the biggest reasons why people cannot make the moves they want to in their life, is that they keep getting caught in their habitual patterns of distraction and disconnection and the spells they place themselves under.
Present moment awareness gives us the opportunity to pause and recognise how we are thinking, feeling and behaving right now. We can then consciously and responsibly choose our response, rather than react based on our past patterns and experiences.
Presence is essentially our receptivity to what is emerging and wanting to emerge in the ever unfolding wave of the moment. Further still, the pathway of presence (awakening) is to recognise and abide in our being, our true nature, which is a unified field of intelligence that we experience as, amongst other things, joy, peace and equanimity.
Without cultivating presence we cannot grow in any meaningful way (adulting), nor are we able to engage with life as and when it happens (meaning, relating, belonging).
The Path of Adulting
How can I embrace all the different parts of me?
Here we are on the path related to ego-personality and its about healing and growth.
We are made of a multitude of ‘parts’ that have different values and needs, which often feel conflicted. Eg I want risk and I want safety. As maturing adults we learn to negotiate with the different parts of ourselves, hold multiple perspectives and feel comfortable with paradox.
Some parts have been consigned to the ‘shadows’. Through trauma and other life experiences we have backed ourselves into a small corner of our own dark house. We also have negative scripts, self judgements and limiting beliefs, which we need to make conscious. This way we can occupy our whole house again, turning the lights back on as we go. We need to learn to give ourselves what no one else can or could give us; we ‘re-parent’ ourselves.
There is nothing to be fixed, we are already whole and resilient. We learn to listen to all of ourselves, trust our feelings, share our unique perspective and offer the world the gifts of our challenges. This opens us up to the path of meaning.
Without compassionately reparenting ourselves the unintegrated parts of us will continue to sabotage our lives.
The Path of Relating
Who are my people and how can I best tend to my relationships?
We are who we are because of our relationships and our relationships, especially our intimate ones (such as parents, partners, siblings, children), are mirrors to the unresolved and unhealed aspects of ourselves.
Sometimes we aren't taking steps down our own path because of dysfunctional relationship patterns. We can lose our authentic selves in relationships when we don’t set boundaries, share how we feel and ask for what we need. Often it’s not about changing the relationship, but about changing the relational dynamic. The path of relating is intimately linked to the path of adulting.
Healthy relationships keep us accountable and support us in taking risks. Furthermore, we cannot achieve anything in isolation and so through our relationships and community we can offer our gifts to the world, express our values and find meaning.
Without being in relationship we cannot be whole.
The Path of Meaning
What is mine to do?
Many of us take the life we have been given by our parents, schools, communities or society at large. Few of us follow our own path, fewer still … follow our deepest calling and our unique responsibility.
We all come into this world with gifts and a soul level purpose. Soulwork is deep listening to what this is. We get out of our own way and let something bigger than us move through us.
Purpose is not so much a noun or a destination; rather it is an unfolding conversation with deepest part of yourself in how you are being called to serve.
Soulwork’s language is myth, metaphor, poetry and imagination. It is intimately linked to the pathway of belonging. Without the path of meaning the larger life that we are capable of will never be realised.