Week 6 Going Deep
This clumsy living that moves lumbering
as if in ropes through what is not done,
reminds us of the awkward way the swan walks.And to die, which is the letting go
of the ground we stand on and cling to every day,
is like the swan, when he nervously lets himself down
into the water, which receives him gaily
and which flows joyfully under
and after him, wave after wave,
while the swan, unmoving and marvelously calm,
is pleased to be carried, each moment more fully grown,
more like a king, further and further on.Translated by Robert Bly from David Whyte
“Resilience is based on compassion for ourselves as well as compassion for others.”
― Sharon Salzberg
Perspective
This week is a repeat of week 5 with the additional information gathered by attempting our stretches in the whirlwind of our default life and relationships. Reset, realign, review, and GO DEEP.
We will practice checking in and learn to use the BASIC method to respond more Self-led to what comes up from our embodied stretches.
As with every group, all you have to do is show up. But this week is usually energetically a breakthrough week, during which leaders are able to go deeper than usual or prepare to do deeper work in their lives and relationships.
We intend to reset, realign, and review what was uncovered from our shadow and the protective parts of ourselves when we found our edge and attempted to embody our stretches.
We are going deep, editing our stretches, and discovering new and creative ways to win the war on our parts childhood protective projects.
Remember: This work is a practice. There is no failure. There is only what you can perform in the present moment, and learning to work with and from that trailing edge. Often, leaders work on weeks 1, 2, and 3 for six months, focusing on Befriend, Attend, and then have significant breakthroughs where they can fully embody or show up in a new way with Shape, Integrate, Connect.
As always, we focus on a specific situated awareness of our practice in each weekly section of our program. Still, we always move through the basic method in an evolutionary and continuous dance.
This week, we are applying our attention intending to go deep, knowing that as the season transitions into the presence face, we will transition into a new way of applying our intention and attention over three different situated awareness during the presence phase: week 7 ~ reviewing results, week 8 ~ integrity and accountability, and week 9 ~ celebration, appreciation, and commitment.
The tools you are learning here are not honed linearly, even if I’ve displayed them this way to help you learn them.
Learning Objective:
Learn to use the BASIC method to focus on Shape, Integrate, and Connect. Diagnose, shift, or change your stretch to reset, realign, and retry again in the whirlwind of your life and relationships.
Embodied Practice:
Attempt your stretches a second time. Practice co-regulation, self-regulation, and the BASIC method. Intercept your protective parts, actively shift your state, and use constructive vs destructive actions to respond with more resources to challenges, tests, and triggers brought up by your stretches. What do you discover at your edge
Journal Questions:
1 . What is an example of using self-regulation to care for a part, find your edge, and remain open and connected?
2. What are you noticing in or on your body when you find a protective part or find your edge?
3. What is it like to notice the story in your head while finding your edge and intercepting a protective part?
4. Are you able to resource yourself during a parts attack? Describe your inner and outer somatic experience, the story in your head, and the embodied action you take to resource yourself.
5. Describe a loyal soldier, managerial part, lion tamer, firefighter, inner critic, or inner flatterer, and share how you learn to befriend and care for them.