For the last three months, I’ve found myself consistently returning to topics – both personally and in my writing – that have to do with the multitude of complex, confronting emotions that so many of us are doing our best to navigate as the world seems to be coming undone at the seams. Not with an intent to get lost in the dark, heavy folds of the feelings, but in search of an active practice of stabilizing amidst the storms of these times. Meeting the present circumstances of our planet and humanity without collapsing underneath the weight of it all.

It becomes a quest for arriving at a stillpoint – seeking the eye of the storm, rather than standing apart. Holding an intent to not get tossed every which way, lose all sense of self as much as to keep from falling into a pattern of “check out behaviors” that erode resilience.

In this is a call to investigate how we can co-exist with confusing and weighty forces in a healthy way.

Not with a Pollyanna stance, slathering on platitudes that cover up the realities or give the impression that we’re above it all. But with a true and earnest wish to entwine a lifted spirit with the tangle that is our human state at the moment. To generate good that can be woven in with the horrible and inexplicable, seek gratitude and promise amidst swirls of uncertainty.

THIS BEING A PROJECT OF WORKING IN TANDEM WITH ALL THAT SURROUNDS US, RATHER THAN ONE OF RISING ABOVE.

In this case, I define rising above as an act of pulling ourselves entirely from the fray, choosing to simply not engage. And while I wholeheartedly believe that we need to sometimes do just that – develop a solid practice of periodically sheltering ourselves from the rough and tumble of daily story and shenanigan – the caution is to watch for an overplay of that choice. Maintaining it as a practice in regulation rather than separation. One that we invoke to remain nimble, able to step back into the midst, resourced and ready to meet whatever rises.

As the pitch of our surrounding environment rises with each passing day, I’m now so very curious about further developing the skill of walking alongside dysfunction and disturbances in the field with ease and elegance, piercing through what feels both poisonous and dismaying not with false bravado but strength of presence.

What I’m finding is that there is always more to learn about working with the most formidable of emotions and reactions: fear, judgment, blame, despair, anger, grief, hypocrisy, anxiety, and disorientation. Not that I’m sitting around every day in great celebration of the soup we’re swimming in right now. Nor am I skirting the hot mess of it all.

INSTEAD, I’M STANDING AS TALL AS I CAN IN THE FACE OF EVERYDAY MADNESS. SHARPENING MY SELF-AWARENESS AND ADAPTIVE SKILLS BY MEETING THIS PARTICULAR SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES IN A WAY THAT ALLOWS ME TO EXPAND WITHOUT GETTING LOST ALONG THE WAY.

I’m imagining that many of you are as curious about this conversation as I am. Please join me on Substack in the upcoming days and weeks as I dive deeper into explorations about meeting this moment, calibrating toward health, and tending to our humanness as we reach for what lies beyond the borders of body and mind.