Come on in, the water’s lovely!

Join me as I explore some themes and strategies for finding “Soul-ar Power” during life’s crises. Mini-blog series coming soon!

In a strange way, I feel like I’ve been on some sort of psychological training camp for COVID-19 during the past year, as I have been immersed in fear, uncertainty, vulnerability, financial worry, and the loss of work, of contact and of some relationships. My treatment journey has meant I’ve been largely “self isolating” since July last year! I’ve had plenty of time to reflect, to study, to listen to wise people and to find ways of facing my own physical, emotional and psychological pain differently.

Nothing I have discovered is new or magical, but I think I have learned that the core of everything in life is LOVE – our love for ourselves, others and life itself. We arrive on the planet primed to love and be loved, driven to reach, touch, connect, to bring joy and healing.
We may not always be met with the welcome we deserve, through circumstance, limitation, scarcity and occasionally deliberate cruelty. As creative beings, we learn to adapt in order to survive, shutting down (Being Strong), rushing to keep busy (Hurrying Up), making sure others like and approve of us (Pleasing Others), working so hard to get it right (Being Perfect) and getting caught in a covert fight for power and independence from the control of others (Trying Hard). We get lost, lost from ourselves, lost in the world, smothered by the scripted methods of survival in which we have learned to immerse ourselves. Life has a way of bringing us to a point where we can’t keep those strategies going – relationship breakdown, job loss, bereavement, family crisis, illness, a pandemic. We have to stop.

It is terrifying to stop. We face our own mortality, our vunerability, our limitations. We are not in control. Things are happening that are already scary and we do not know what the next phase or the outcome will be. We do strange things in our fear and vulnerability – like the infamous toilet roll hoarding and stockpiling – as we attempt to tell ourselves we have some say in what is going on. I know this experience. I have been living with it for over a year – this time last year I was scouring the internet for every iota of information I could find about breast cancer, risks, treatments, outcomes, and panic buying anything that looked vaguely useful in helping with chemo side effects – my stock pile seems to have centred on organic skin products, which I never actually used!
So, I’ve been here before, very recently, and in some moments I very much still am in the crazy world of cancer. And I know I have acquired some other items in my psychological stockpile which might be useful to some of you as we face this COVID-19 situation together.

I’ve been thinking for some time about producing a regular, short, and practical blog each week, exploring what I’m calling “Soul-ar Powered Living” (see what I did there??!), sharing some of the things I have learned about finding stillness, self compassion and connection in difficult times through my year with cancer. Now is the time.
In each mini blog or “blogette” I’ll focus on a SPRINGBOARD (a quality or concept such as Beauty, Stillness, Connection) with some personal thoughts, guidance on how to GO DEEP (ideas for your explorations and journalling), and a final GO WIDE (meditations, visualisations, creative work) to take our thoughts into action.

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Technological competence permitting, you can sign up to my mailing list either via Facebook or on the www.foxtalesforsoul.com website (I have managed to add a Mailchimp widget to my website and a Mailchimp sign up integration for Facebook too – who says isolation can’t produce results?!). That way you will get each mini-blog direct to your email account, and will be able to join in as we explore some strategies for becoming more “Soul-ar Powered” – resilient and with renewable energy – for these turbulent times.

Who knows, if we end up confined and away from our normal social activities for long enough, I might even master how to do podcasts and “Facebook lives” (whatever they are)!! Join me, find some space, some stillness and some renewable energy for yourself. See you there!