The power of Connection

Connection. It’s what we’re all searching for. We look for it when we endlessly scroll through Facebook, by searching through the highlights of other people’s lives on Instagram, when we eat robotically instead of mindfully, we look for it in the touch of other people who are also seeking that most sacred of connection. But what if the one connection that really matters isn’t one to be found in the vastness of e-space, the refrigerator, or even a lover? What if the connection we are really seeking is the one to ourselves? We live in a world that champions those who push through their pain, their grief, their suffering. We admire them for being so strong. And we are strong. So strong that we’ve learned to deny ourselves the sacred connection to self. We ignore messages from our body that tell us to slow down, to take rest, to connect. We push through. We medicate. We ignore what our body is trying to tell us. And we keep pushing until our body gets louder and louder, like a neon sign that says “pay attention to me!”. We drown it out with drugs and alcohol and Netflix, with exercise and work and sex. What would it be like to take a minute to really listen to what’s going on inside. To stop and breathe, and turn all of the energy that is constantly flowing outward, in. What might we notice?

Our bodies are sending us information all the time, every second of every day. The more we can learn to listen to the subtleties of that information the more we can learn how to heal ourselves, to be champions of our own health. As a yoga teacher and TRE provider, my whole world is connecting people to their body. When I get to sit and hold space while a fellow human is quiet and listening to her body, that is joy. That is connection. And so many times what comes up is a beautiful release, a flow of tears that isn’t quite sad, and often welcome. I watch how a person comes in, tightly wound, unsure, a little anxious, and beautifully trusting. Once the connection begins, I witness the most exquisite softening, through the corners of eyes, through the shoulders, through the belly. I watch how one’s breath becomes a little less confined, a little more expansive. This is the power of connection to the Self. Once we find that connection, we are always home, and always safe within ourselves. We can stop looking to fill our emptiness, because we feel full.

I once had a wise teacher say to me that the nervous system is the most sacred part of a human, and I agree. It is through our nervous system that we experience the world, that we find cues of safety or danger, and it is through skin to skin touch that my nervous system connects and communicates with yours. If we as a species are dysregulated through this most sacred of systems, if we continue to ignore it’s cries for help, how are we to live a life fully, a life that belongs to us and brings us joy and fulfillment? Through practices like yoga, TRE, meditation and mindfulness, you can learn to communicate with your nervous system. This is the source of true and long term healing, of beginning to understand what it is to be connected to Self and to the world around you. It may be a long road for some, and it’s not easy work, and it is entirely worth the efforts. When you are connected to your nervous system, and learn to find safety and connection within yourself, your entire world shifts and opens.

With love and support on your journey,

Meg.