The people who find my practice are looking for help. They feel as though they are lost, without a map or life vest to navigate the waters of their temporarily turbulent lives. We've all been there. Not everyone seeks support, but those who do will thrive. It's a vulnerable, transparent, and transformative move.
Unfortunately, not everyone has access to healers or spiritual advisors when times get tough. It costs money to work with the best. Talk therapy and psychology practices are mainstream and people like what their minds are comfortable with - plaques, degrees, professional boundaries, one-hour-sessions every so often, etc.
If money is flowing, but an ecstatic life experience isn't, than the money would be rather well spent to employ someone who has what you may currently and temporarily lack; wisdom and clarity.
Providing wisdom, knowledge and clarity is what I do. It's what I am about.
Mother Earth's master plants help us reestablish our lost connection. Then we must integrate in order to make lasting changes.
It dawned on me a few weeks ago that I have to do more to help my community. It's great being paid well for what you do, and it's even greater to share the love of what you do with people who need it most.
A few week ago I signed up for Volunteers of America. I am providing group sessions for at risk youth, Mother's (and their children) who are homeless and detoxing from drugs. When a mother heals, so do her offspring.
When I was at the center last, volunteering in their gardens, I was in awe of the strength and tenderness of the women who were there facing rock bottom. Their silence spoke of their experience. Their physical appearance was agonizing to behold, for it showed the pain they faced deep down inside.
It's strange because on some grocery stores signs it says "Food & Drugs", and aren't drugs supposed to be bad? What a confusing message. Most people can't make the distinction between drugs, pharmaceuticals and medicine. Which is by design, of course.
The women I encountered got mixed up with the wrong people, and succumbed to a horrific fate. They are ensnared in a system that makes it nearly impossible to move up, and that weakens the spirit to a whisper. Despite their life's tragedies, the soul doesn't give up its home so easily.
There is something so powerful within each and every one us, that circumstances will find us in order for the possibility and opportunity for us to grow past what we have known. In the case of the women's shelter, these women are being faced with a rude awakening and it is extremely painful. Some will learn from hitting rock bottom, while others may not because of the influence that drugs and bad company binds them too.
My intention, while offering group service, is to rock their conscious world; for them to experience the divine through radical self-compassion. This is the basis for healing. Approving of oneself and therefore ones choices, is paramount, regardless of what happened yesterday. This is radical self-love. It's a daily practice to approve and accept oneself in every moment.
These women and children are living life moment to moment, which spiritually speaking is the way to go, but when faced with basic survival, creates horrible anxieties and despair.
I tell you this because when we help those who are less fortunate than us, we realize not only how lucky we are to have been given the types of choices that allowed us to flourish, while also sharing our gifts, stories, and lessons in meaningful ways, but most importantly we can impact the lives of others dramatically in the most nutritive ways, in ways that will never be forgotten, and in ways that come naturally to us.
If you want a reminder of how wonderful you are, be of service. It's both selfish and not.
Causing meaning in your life is a noble quest. Meaning leads to satisfaction. Satisfaction sustains us for a time when life gets hard and painful. Pain is inevitable, while suffering is optional. What we choose to do with the pain is where the gold is at. Being of service transforms pain into pleasure, and we need pleasure to enjoy feeling and being human.
Art forms can be a manifestation of enduring a painful process, while being of service provides a medicinal balm to everyone and everything it touches. Both are wonderful and necessary.
I hope you utilize both for the good of our humane kind.
Be well,
Marian
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