I’m in a class this quarter called “Cultivation of the Practitioner.” Understanding the connection between mind and body, this class is designed specifically to help students identify and then deal with their “shit” (in the instructor’s words). The idea is that a person who hasn’t dealt with their issues and hang-ups is not in any position to help others with theirs, and that in order for us to become effective practitioners, we must first look inward and heal ourselves. I’m all over this stuff.
We did an in-class exercise this week in which the instructor brought in an assortment of rocks ranging from pebbles to boulders. She lined them up in the front of the room and then asked us to imagine the singular most painful or hurtful event in our lives. She asked us to choose the rock that best represents that event, and then said, “Now imagine carrying that rock with you forever.” I don’t think anybody in the class was too excited about that prospect.
Although the painful experiences of our lives do not have any physical weight, they weigh down our emotional and spiritual space much as a rock weighs down our physical body. Over time, this emotional weight can manifest in the form of disease. Some rocks are important if they remind us of an unsafe situation in which we might otherwise find ourselves again, but the large majority of them have no function other than to make us miserable! Furthermore, carrying this weight makes dealing with other pebbles that may come along all the more unbearable. We can choose to carry that weight with us and allow it to burden us, which likely prevents us from being open to the fresh and new, or we can practice letting go of what no longer serves us. In this way, dealing with the smaller pebbles of every day life is much more manageable. Easier said than done, perhaps, and yet, as a start, I feel that imagining a giant boulder in your backpack every time you feel like stewing in the sludge of the past is good incentive not to go there. The first step in this process, of course, is identifying what it is that is burdening you.
Step #1: Know thy shit.
Then decide if you'd rather carry your shit or (excuse the metaphor but I'm on a roll--) dump it.
We did an in-class exercise this week in which the instructor brought in an assortment of rocks ranging from pebbles to boulders. She lined them up in the front of the room and then asked us to imagine the singular most painful or hurtful event in our lives. She asked us to choose the rock that best represents that event, and then said, “Now imagine carrying that rock with you forever.” I don’t think anybody in the class was too excited about that prospect.
Although the painful experiences of our lives do not have any physical weight, they weigh down our emotional and spiritual space much as a rock weighs down our physical body. Over time, this emotional weight can manifest in the form of disease. Some rocks are important if they remind us of an unsafe situation in which we might otherwise find ourselves again, but the large majority of them have no function other than to make us miserable! Furthermore, carrying this weight makes dealing with other pebbles that may come along all the more unbearable. We can choose to carry that weight with us and allow it to burden us, which likely prevents us from being open to the fresh and new, or we can practice letting go of what no longer serves us. In this way, dealing with the smaller pebbles of every day life is much more manageable. Easier said than done, perhaps, and yet, as a start, I feel that imagining a giant boulder in your backpack every time you feel like stewing in the sludge of the past is good incentive not to go there. The first step in this process, of course, is identifying what it is that is burdening you.
Step #1: Know thy shit.
Then decide if you'd rather carry your shit or (excuse the metaphor but I'm on a roll--) dump it.
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