My guide sent me out with a friend, but we parted company some hours ago, as she was attracted to the crest of a hill, and I was attracted to the womb of the valley. We had been instructed to vocalize loudly once we honed our location - to help us release what needed to be released.
I found the most private area I could, nestled in the valley with trees around me, in a little gully. I decided to start slowly with just a little air reverberating through my vocal chords, and then gradually allowed myself to grow louder. To my surprise, the louder I got the better it felt until I was really belting with my mouth wide open. After some time, the vocalizing faded as tears came, offering their own gifts about where I had left my self. With the tears came an understanding that I had been leaving MY pace over and over again in ways that I moved internally in my own being and externally in relationship to the world.
“Where does our pacing come from? – not the pacing that has been conditioned, but our pacing that connects us to ourselves and to our world organically and in ways that sync us.”
I learned a lot about myself that day. I understood that in pushing and not listening to regular visceral calls back to my center, it had the capacity to effect small things, like a lovely meal, or large things, like missing a job opportunity, a relationship, a treasured project, or even my sense of feeling safe and loved by ME. And it seems somewhat cumulative – the more my pacing is off each moment, the more it dominoes. For when my pacing is off, my connection to myself is also off.
Coming back to myself and where I was internally long ago…in the womb, before the womb. Where does our pacing come from? – not the pacing that has been conditioned, but our pacing that connects us to ourselves and to our world organically and in ways that sync us. And how does our pace work to harmonize with all the other paces and rhythms we encounter, like a river that flows fast at times, and meanders slowly at other times, even catching in stillness in moments maybe near the shore or in a shallow pool between rocks?
Like most of us, I imagine, when we lose our pacing, we lose so much more. Staying with my body, it seems to know more even than my mind…about how to bring me back. Our bodies are wired to find their way back when we get help with how to connect to their wisdom, how to read the signals we are being given. In a fast paced, often disorienting world, our organic pace may be one of our greatest strengths, greatest friends, and very welcomed ally to those around us.
Michelle Levy, PhD, is a Registered Psychological Assistant #PSB94024010 working under the supervision of Gabrielle Taylor, PhD. Dr. Levy’s clinical interests focus on parenting practices, attachment, child mental health and developmental concerns, as well as the effects of trauma on youth, families and communities.