GROUNDED MOVEMENT - Part 2
It Takes the Whole Cosmos…
The problem with social media is that it's difficult to allow for the nuance and complexity of life in a 10-second reel, a soundbite, a short post accompanied by a picture that the algorithm will favor. This type of information sharing lends itself to dualities and oversimplification. You'll often find statements on the internet that are extreme, cut and dry, binary, and even totalitarian.
Things like:
Your partner either does this for you, or you should leave.
Faith can only be this, and not ever that.
If you don't fill in the blank, you need to re-think your life.
To overcome anxiety, just do this.
You have anxiety because you don't do this, or you did do that.
Your friends suck because of this.
You suck as a friend because of that.
You need to believe this, or you're not a Christian.
You need to practice that, or you're not spiritual.
Get what I'm saying?
They sound kitschy and sometimes even true... But here's what I know about life: It's one thing to talk about it, it's another thing entirely to live it. It's one thing to post catchy content on the internet that oversimplifies nuanced and complex situations; it's another thing to live that situation in real-time, while you're learning, evolving, and living.
Boundaries are largely figured out in the living of them. Most of the time, I don't even know what boundaries I need until someone has crossed one, and I feel the pain of it alerting me to attention, asking me to dig in and listen. Or I don't know what's valuable and important to the people I love until I cross one of their boundaries or help them uphold one, or at least have a messy, perhaps clunky conversation with them about it.
I say all of that to say this: what you're going through - life in general - is nuanced and complex. Catchy platitudes, binary fixes, trendy ultimatums feel attractive because they feel like a quick fix. But most things don't bend to catchy platitudes, binary fixes, and trendy ultimatums because most things have too many moving parts, too many variables; they are too much alive and full of movement to play according to the rules of social media influencers.
But there are some things you can do.
You can allow the messiness of things to be what it is, which is not the same thing as giving up, resigning yourself to unnecessary chaos, or handing your power over. It's the most effective way for you to take a step back and see the bigger picture, and piece by piece, live your way through it.
Do not allow you and your life, the immensities of it, all the things that you are experiencing at any given time, to be reduced by an oversimplified, dualistic quote on the internet, even if the design of it is on-trend and beautiful.
Try this instead: Breathe. Close your eyes if it helps. Imagine holding everything that is happening in your life between your two hands - put them out in front of you if the action helps - not needing any of it to go away, making space for the nuance, allowing the tension to settle, finding it all held, integrated, unified, feeling the foundation of the ground beneath your feet and the flow of activity within you at the same time.
CONSIDER THIS: "The whole universe story has come into being because God is a hidden treasure who longs to be known. And the way—the only way—this knowing can be released is in the dance of unity-in-differentiation which is the native language of love. If it takes a whole village to raise a child, it takes a whole cosmos to bear forth the depths of divine love." - Cynthia Beaugault.