Whales: Come Back To The Surface
When you’ve been in the depths for awhile,
you need to Return to the surface.
When you’re in the depths of suffering or witnessing suffering, you may forget to breathe, forget to pause, forget that you can and need to come back to the surface to reconnect with yourself.
We can do that by first becoming aware of our activated state, then focusing on our sensory system and engaging with our interoception. Pause your consumption of information and media, then notice your breath, notice your immediate environment, notice shadows on the walls, notice surfaces reflecting light. Intentionally move your body or positively engage with a safe other. This is returning to the surface.
By doing this We support our bodies to distinguish what they are witnessing from what they are actually experiencing.
This is also the way we find the shift into an embodied state. Our work is to become keenly aware of when we have become disembodied and then navigate our way to embodiment using our sensory system and interoception.
Whales can sense when they need to surface and breathe. We need to do the same.
We must Return, repeatedly.
Audio Transcription:
I recorded this on the way home while I was walking home last night, but it, the, uh, recording wasn't so good again. So here we are in the morning and I'm recounting my thoughts, yesterday's daily return. I talked about, I used the image of whales, and I'd like to talk about that again. Whales spend a significant amount of time under the water deep in the ocean, and they return to the surface to breathe and to reconnect with the air and the sun. And then they return to the depths of the ocean. And it reminded me of how we be, can be in the depths of things.
We can be personally involved in deep suffering. We can be watching and observing profound suffering, and or we could be in the depths of disembodiment and the depths of a disembodied eating experience that can sometimes last days or weeks when we are in the depths of things. It is so important to notice that we have been down for a long time. noticing that we have been in the depths of something, even if we've been in the depths of something simple like TikTok or in social media, nervous system. Navigation is about noticing, feeling that we've been somewhere else for a period of time, and perhaps that's having an impact on us. When it comes to disembodied eating, it means we haven't returned to our bodies, we haven't noticed or been able or have been able to notice or to return. So that's important.
We don't choose disembodiment. Embodiment happens. Disembodied eating happens. We don't choose it. And so our work in nervous system navigation and learning how to find the shift and being in the community, it's about noticing and helping our bodies and helping us become more aware of what disembodiment is like so we can know it. And so I invite you whether you are disembodied, whether you're suffering, whether you are being with others who are suffering, noticing what's happening in the world and suffering and watching it, and you've been down there for a while. I invite you to return to the surface, notice your breath, look at the light, notice the reflection of light on the walls or while you're walking outside, return to the surface for a break. It doesn't make the depth of things go away, but it gives your body some orientation to where you are in this moment.
It's the same thing we do with disembodied eating is we try to get a break, we try to get a break in there and return to the surface. This Michelle's musings and this image of whales is, is very much, um, not only inspired with what we do at Find the Shift and all of our work with disembodiment and eating, but it's also deeply impacted by the what's happening, all what's happening in the world. And, um, it's heavy. I feel heavy and tearful, and I know I'm going to do my best to keep returning to the surface as often as I can. Not to ignore, not to avoid, but to return and take breaks and to let my body breathe and feel the warmth of the sun or the breeze, or to feel the hug of someone. I love to be with. Pets and plants that restore our hearts, I invite you to return to the surface.
As often as you can… Remember, you exist.