Receiving truth from my nervous system.

I hadn’t really been aware of my nervous system until I started meditating. Over the years, my meditation practice has become an opportunity to listen to my nervous system. What is it trying to signal to me? What happens when I stay listening? In the past year, I have realized that my nervous system has been operating as if it didn’t feel safe, even when there was no danger. I was seeing a pattern I developed in childhood that was still operating in this part of my body. This understanding has been deeply transformational: to fully own this pattern, to hold it in my awareness, rather than finding (or creating) outside reasons for its existence.

This practice has led me to a deeper question: Am I entitled to feel safe? This one got down to the core beliefs I carry about my relationship to life itself. Have I been trying to manage a general state of fear or anxiety all this time, not believing that safety was something I could expect or create for myself? This has been an incredible question to explore.

As I reorient my own relationship to safety, I imagine a world where we all feel safe. Or at least there is enough safety to move out of survival mode into more joy, creativity, compassion and cooperation. For now, I am doing my part by letting these questions move through me: through my relationships, through my choices, and through my awakening to the cultural norms I was taught to believe in all these years. It is a powerful invitation to listen deeply to my own truth and feel entitled to create the world I want to live in.

What would you hear if you listened to your nervous system? What patterns are you holding on to that are no longer relevant for your life?