QUESTION?

What should I do with my discomfort?

ANSWER

Explore it!

“The chief cause of human error is to be found in prejudices picked up in childhood” – Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method

None of us welcome discomfort, mental, physical or spiritual. Most of us will do all we can to avoid it, employing a whole gamut of strategies to ward it off. Distraction, denial, displacement, we have likely tried them all. And yet, discomfort has much to tell us. It’s our body’s way in fact of getting our attention and saying, “Hang on a minute, something’s going wrong here. Slow down and listen and I’ll give you a clue.”

Do we dare? Chances are we’ll employ one of our usual strategies and see it off until the next time, but there will be a next time, and a next time and a next time. In fact we can go round in circles unless or until something happens that makes us stop for long enough to pay attention, to find out what that discomfort is trying to tell us. I wrote “TRACKBACKS” to remind myself that sometimes it really is time to stop and listen.

HOW ABOUT YOU?

Do you pay attention to your discomfort?
Have you tracked back to its source?
What can you share that might be of help to others?

Please leave your comments. I would love to hear from you.

Corinne

POEM FOR TODAY

TRACKBACKS

Discomfort floods my body and it infiltrates my mind,

I sit still and try to track it as its source I seek to find,

Does it linger still from childhood, an old trigger potent still?

If I let it it will find me, the old angst will still me fill.

I can let it overpower me, old reactions running wild

As regression drags me backward to the old world of the child

When defenceless ‘gainst its potency the trigger bedded in

And a lifetime of reaction automatic did begin.

It can go on in this fashion from the cradle to the grave

Unless timely intervention from this cycle does us save,

Perhaps a flash of recognition that today’s a different day

And alternatives are possible if we will change our way.

So if we are in discomfort and we’re not sure what to do

Let us listen to our body for it’s giving us a clue,

And before we try to mask it, or distract it, let us see

If a trackback to the past can from that past then set us free.

If you enjoyed “TRACKBACKS” please pass it on. You can find more inspirational poetry in

“A String of Pearls, a Yearbook of Daily Inspiration to Soothe the Soul and Rekindle the Spirit”

And no retreat would be complete without something lovely to look at, so here’s the

PICTURE FOR TODAY

Beacon, Puerto Banyuls, Spain

And just before you go ………

Take what you like and leave the rest!!!

I am currently reading “Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life” by the Jungian analyist, James Hollis, and I am loving it!!

I loved it so much, in fact, that I am reading it again, and I recommend it to all of you who are in that second half of life and are beginning to wonder if the second half of life is to be simply a repeat of the first half.

For those of you who suspect that there may be more to it than that, then James Hollis is a wonderful teacher. One of the things that Hollis writes about is

“The Freedom of This Contemporary Hour”

As he quite rightly points out, “Before the last century, we could not have been sharing the conversation this book invites. In 1900, the average life expectancy of a North American was only forty-seven. While some individuals lived longer, the statistical majority lived out their mortal transit in service to what we would now call the agenda of the first half of life …… In this new century, we have twice the length of adult life than our forebears were granted. Thus we are faced with an unprecedented opportunity and responsibility to live more consciously. In ways not possible in the past we are now able to ask: “Who am I apart from the roles I have been playing? ….. Or we may wonder, “Since I have served the expectations of my culture, reproduced my species, become a socially productive citizen and taxpayer, what now?” What, in short, is the second half of life about – the time today between thirty-five and nearly ninety years – if it is not to repeat the script and expectations of the first half of life?”

Interesting questions??? His book makes for very interesting reading!!!

If you have read this far, please do leave a comment, share an opinion or leave a favourite quote on the inspirational quotes page for others to enjoy.

May we all be peaceful and at ease.

Have a good day.

Corinne