Practical Magic

Mary Oliver's words from her beloved poem Wild Geese are widely resonant because they immediately ring true when we hear them.

Something in us stirs and says, Yes, this is what I was made for:

To be soft.

To let myself just love what I love.

To allow myself to be loved back.

You know the feeling.

A spark. A deep inner yes.

That new journal feeling. That sun sparkling on the water feeling. That perfect song at the perfect moment feeling. First blossoms and fall leaves and a warm cup of coffee or tea in the just-right mug. That sense of at-homeness that comes when you can retreat from the world into a beloved place in nature or into your space, your time, the cozy little spot in the universe that is all yours.

When we feel it, we know it’s our birthright. We crave more of it.

And yet.

We can’t quite hold onto it. The world seems arrayed against us accessing that feeling.

For so many of us, our deep inner yes can feel elusive or difficult to trust or hard to prioritize.

For those of us in low-capacity bodies (whether due to neurodivergence, disability, chronic illness or pain, grief, trauma, burnout and/or more than one of the above), we've learned that such an invitation is challenging or risky at best, and all-out dangerous at worst.

For those of us who have had to constantly suppress our body's needs in order to belong.

For those of us whose perception of our own reality has been systematically questioned.

For those of us who have had our very legitimate fears have be dismissed and ridiculed.

For those of us who have been forced to distrust our own bodies so that we could survive in a world not made for us.

For those of us whose soft animal bodies have been taught to push through and past our capacities over and over again.

Our nervous systems carry stories of shame and grief and urgency that stand in the way of us simply loving what we love and letting it lead us toward the lives and world we most truly desire.

So, how do we rewrite the story of our nervous systems so that we can take creative risks and connect with ourselves, others and the world without overwhelm or burnout?

How do we engage in the work of transformation without shaming, pushing, or extracting from ourselves?

How do we approach deep trauma work in a way that works WITH our neurological wiring, and not against it?

And how do we do it in such a way as to not freak all the way out?

The answer is:

We start small

We go slow

We do it through sensory joy

We don't do it alone

As we learn to identify, trust, and follow our spark, we recover a sense of trust in our own perceptions, and return to a state of secure attachment with the world.

As we cultivate small and accessible relationships of sensory joy that tend to our inner spark, deep, lasting, and sustainable nervous system change becomes possible.

From here, we can create the life of creativity and connection we dream of. From here, we find the kinds of fierce, tender love that fundamentally disrupt systems of oppression, and the kinds of radical imagination that builds new & sustainable future for all bodies.