I’ve been unraveling
I’ve been planning to knit a pair of socks. Yet somehow the wool got all tangled up. Not just a gentle tangle, rather the knot upon knot type of tangle where the wool starts to turn into fluff balls and the fluff balls starts to felt.
That could be a symbolism of life couldn’t it?
When we plan to do something peaceful, like knitting, and then the wool gently twists and turns and we soon find ourselves in Knotty Land, and then we look around and think “How did I get myself here?” and then we have to find our way out.
We pull the wool too far one way and not enough the other and we tried to go under instead of over, and the light that reflected showed one thing and we thought it was something else and, and, and…
Life is like that sometimes. The action is more in the undoing than the doing. Sometimes we have to totally unravel all the knots before we can even begin to create or make or move forward,
and it is in the un-knotting that wonderful things can be found and seen and learnt and revealed.
Here are some of the things I found in my unraveling:
~ Patience
~ Stillness
~ Soft Self Talk
~ Releasing Expectations
~ This Moment in Time
~ Gentle Achievements to be Acknowledged (one knot at a time)
~ Releasing Expectations
~ Self Awareness
~ Mindfulness
I released the expectations that the knots could be unraveled in one go, and I allowed myself time in between to pause, to do something else, to just hold the wool - the knotted part and the neat ball.
I showed my children the knotted “mess” and they offered to help. Help unravel. Help roll. Soft moments of support and care. Tender hands and soft hearts. Sometimes concentrating. Sometimes little chats. Sometimes working in silence.
For those that can hold space do so and
kindness happens.
Gentleness expands.
Released of judgement the unraveling is shared and supported.
I wonder have you ever felt or experienced something like that?
When your world becomes a tangled mess and that you feel that each move gets you more tangled up?
Do you ever feel that you are so knotted that your energy doesn’t know which way is up? That sometimes you just want “some kind of order?”
Do you ever feel that there are too many fluff balls in your energy, and you feel you want to hide from the world because you maybe judged or criticised or laughed at?
Or do you ever feel you just want to “hand the fluff balls back” because they weren’t yours any way?
Do you ever feel that even though you have been doing so much work in the unraveling you never seem to be at the end? Or that you just wish to “leave it alone for now” and do something less taxing, something more “normal”, something… just something else?
Do you ever feel that as you get closer to the “end” the knots get tighter and the tangle just doesn’t want to let go? Or that when some of the fibres eventually break that “that’s a relief” or maybe “that’s so sad”?
Do you ever feel that you can’t wait till the unraveling is complete and then “life will get back to normal, whatever that may now look like?” and yet in your heart you know that “normal” now looks different and life minus fluff balls is actually softer and lighter?
Here are some gentle things that have helped me when I have been knotted and when I have begun to unravel
* Take. Your. Time. Unravel in the way you want. Trust your own inner wisdom and your listen to your own heart. We sometimes get caught up in “it has to be this way, or that way.”
* Find a comfy place what holds your physical body while your mind and heart are allowed to unravel (I love sitting on our new lounge, and am a huge fan of hot water bottles when I need extra comfort.)
* Hold a warming drink in your hands and slowly sip - tasting, sipping, tasting, sipping and being warmed.
* Talk to a trusted friend who can hold your heart and hands as you unravel - together sharing the tighter knots when they come because they CAN come when trusted friends are near.
* Have a bath or a shower and feel the water wash it all away. Or a swim in the ocean is always a preferred option.
* Eat slower. Taste your food. Walk slower. Look mindfully at the landscape around you. Dropping your pace encourages you to become more mindful in that dropping down kind of way.
* Do a meditation. You may like to try this one or this one or even this one.
* Have a massage.
* Have a mentoring session. I love holding space for folk as they unravel and find the beauty of who they are beyond the knots. (I realised in my own unraveling that my gift to the wider world is in holding sacred space for folk to REMEMBER who they really are)
* Have a soul retrieval. When we unravel we create a new landscape for our lost/fragmented souls parts to be welcomed home.
* Go for gentle walks in your favourite landscape
* Garden - in the unraveling of weeds, in the replanting of new shoots and seeds we begin to create an external environment that parallels our internal environment.
* Sort the cupboards, the shed, the garage. I’ve been doing a lot of that lately and finding letters and papers and bits and bobs that I no longer need, and I have to say how REFRESHING it is to GET RID OF THEM! and see the clarity in my physical space open up and my energetic space feels so free.
* Sew. Draw. Create.
* Do some structured movement like yoga, tai chi or even a personal training session
* Dance the unraveling. This is something I do a lot and highly recommend - I feel the inner rhythm and dance until the inner music stops and the unravel comes out of my body. Both cathartic and liberating.
I am Samantha Corrie - a Shamanic Practitioner/ Spiritual Mentor. I am passionate about holding a safe gentle space for folk to REMEMBER who they really are as they unravel, as they reclaim lost and fragmented soul parts and as they gather in community. Feel free to contact me. I would be honoured to hold space for your own unraveling.