October newsletter

Dear Brave-Hearted Reader,

To readers who have kept abreast of my wintering experience of the last two newsletters, you may find yourselves having a giggle with the starting point of this one.  I was chatting to a friend the other day and, I have to be honest here, somewhat bemoaning the busyness that has overtaken my life of late.  “Well, you shouldn’t have called it wintering then”, she said, “because now it’s spring”!!  She was quite pleased with her witty remark.

I’m so very grateful to have had the experience that actually slowing down in July and August gave me.  Because, as those of you who read my newsletter regularly and are also interested in creating thinking environments in your own life and for those around you, you know that we talk about that a lot, don’t we?  “Slow down to go faster”, we say.  And discard internal urgency – our beautiful Component of Ease.

It's been ironic, therefore, for me to have discovered that I’ve been talking about that for 19 years now, but experiencing it?  Not so much.  Ironic, and useful.  Experience.  That essential aspect of the learning cycle.  And the slowing down experience of July and August enabled a secondary one: a deep processing of my life, and an emergence of creative thought that I didn't even know had been missing.

In this same conversation with my friend, about busyness, and what a scourge it can be, there emerged a distinction that I’ve subsequently remained fascinated by. 

Busy sleepwalking.

Let me say what I mean by sleepwalking.  For some time now, the term “woke” has been trending.  It might not even be trending anymore, but it’s certainly still around.  It’s even gone from being something to aspire to, to something sometimes used pejoratively.  I think it may have been taken too far.  A bit like political correctness.  So then, inevitably, there’s a backlash.

But originally, I think, the term was coined to describe people who were at least striving for, and possibly attaining some level of awareness about the way in which they were living their lives, and the consequences thereof.  An attempt to burst out of the bubbles of complacency that privilege produces.  “Wokeness” was ascribed to political awareness, identity consciousness, awareness and understanding of difference, lifestyle choice-fulness – focusing on things other than solely with one’s own self-satisfaction in mind.

In my mind, wokeness, as an idea, lives alongside other trends of recent times.  The Slow Movement.  Mindfulness.  Minimalism.  And I think these are all good signs.  Because I do truly think we need to do our very best to keep waking up. 

 And that isn’t easy.  Sleepwalking through life is akin to listening to reply.  We don’t decide to do it.  It’s an already-always-on default setting. 

 Astonishing as it is to comprehend, there are many people who live their days, from supposedly waking up in the morning to going to sleep at night unaware of the fact that the narrative that they are listening to inside their heads is not the truth.  And that the “I” in the stream of consciousness made up of “I like, I don’t like, I want, I don’t want, I believe, I think, I feel” isn’t even who they are.  We spend the vast majority of our lives lost in these thoughts believing them to be not only who we are but also believing them to be factual.  An accurate picture of “reality”.

 It's scary really.

 That’s what I mean by sleepwalking.

 Then, on top of that, we are – in most of the dominant global cultures of our world currently, crazy busy.  Busy sleepwalkers.  It’s a vicious cycle.  Because the busyness prevents us from waking up.

In one way, you can look at all of this, shrug and even have a wry chuckle about how mad it is.  On the other hand, you can take a look at the world and be unsurprised and yet deeply dismayed by what’s going on.

I recently watched the documentary The Minimalists on YouTube.  It was recommended to me, because what my July-August sojourn has birthed for me is an implacable commitment to simplify my life.  To peel back the trance of busyness and the addiction to consumerism that I use to soothe my exhaustion, and replace it with the discipline of slowing down, and living lightly on and with the planet.  I want to discover how to allow life to emerge as the lead partner in the dance as opposed to continuing the well-worn neural groove of constantly directing, controlling and driving outcomes.  All in order to fit into the picture of what success is touted as: bigger and more.

 There is some astonishing and horrifying footage in The Minimalists of the doors opening onto Black Friday sales in the US.  People literally trampling each other to the floor in the rush to grab as much stash as possible.  People yanking boxes out of each other’s arms, screaming at each other.  It’s bizarre.  And it’s happening.

The research on the rise in consumerism and the concomitant exponential increase in dissatisfaction, depression, anxiety and a rampant sense of meaningless is sobering, to say the least.

 I am, therefore, beyond grateful to have spent the latter part of August and most of September engaged in the two pilot experiences that Francoise Gallet and I have been running of our newly developed programme: Thinking with the Heart in Mind.  It has been deeply nourishing to travel alongside nine courageous and awake human beings in an exploration of the weaving together of Contemplative Practice and The Thinking Environment.  It has been a genuine and profound encounter with people cultivating the courage to choose, to become aware of awareness itself, to shine the light of that awareness onto the unconscious habits of mind and to nurture the compassion required for living in an intimate relationship with the human condition.

So, bring on the fecund explosion of Spring!  I feel encouraged to meet the upswing in my work life with equanimity where possible, and to explore staying mindful.  To see if I can meet the demands without becoming a busy sleepwalker, and to learn to soothe appropriately, with resting, digesting, simplifying, decluttering, breathing, smiling, and saying thank you.  Thank you for the profusion of acts of kindness and generosity available in the everyday encounters with the others who are busy waking up.

This comes from my brave heart to yours...

With love,

Trisha Lord