Shame

Hello and happy Friday!
Like most of these newsletters this is a small taste of a much larger subject and process. But I believe this is a good one to touch on, as when shame is large and present it effectively stops all other movement. And at the same time if we can even give it 1% more breath, and believe its voice 1% less, we are on our way to dissolving it.
So take a breath, feel the tingly movement of your molecules, and have a great day.
Tracy


"THE CURRENT OF SHAME

Shame is a particular form of oppression. While it is certainly taught from the outside, we are very good at internalizing it. We may believe it is better to shame ourselves first rather than wait for someone to do it.

Shame is a heavy inner dampener to our life force. To me it feels like a tightening rubber film that contracts around our life force. A client called it an oil slick, it sits on the surface blocking the exchange of energy.  It can have the voice of criticism, judgment, even blame is a response to wanting to throw off the discomfort of shame. It is a self defeating, self-admonishing internalized voice,  connecting to an overall feeling of worthlessness, never being good enough, or somehow being defective.
 

Shame is very good at self-perpetuating itself, because it will happily shame us for having shame. 

Shame adds the energy of an opposing current going against the original current. This original current could be the movement of an emotion or a need, curiosity, or an inner longing. The very longing that points us in the direction of our joy, pleasure, and life purpose. When the energy starts to move shame acts like a dampener, locking it down in place and creating an energy block, which is two or more opposing currents pushing against each other. 

Shame makes reconciliation, growing and learning through mistakes very hard. It lurks around the corner of real self reflection and honesty, waiting to jump on board and conflate itself with simple ownership of our actions. Our systems confuse the heavy compressive weight of shame with the potentially painful, but ultimately lightening quality of growth. To reconcile with our own actions requires a level of perspective, objectivity, and most important compassion to ourselves, a compassion shame does not afford.

Can you soften or even laugh in the face of shame? Shame does take everything quite seriously. Any lightness will help dissolve its contracted surface. Can you create enough space to understand that this was a deeply installed unconscious defense pattern? Can you see it without buying in? What if you remembered that at your core you are a perfect reflection of divinity? Try it on for one minute, and notice the feedback.

Can we dissolve that tight pain,

And give in to the radical choice

To love ourselves even when 

We’ve been trained

To hold all that shame

Can we pluck out that arrow and indent and spike 

Dissolve that rubbery contractive coating and

With declaration say:

Not my shame, it was never my shame,
 

And now I will stand for one

Moment of each day in the 

glorious undefined 

Radiance of my being

Unapologetic in my brilliance

Perhaps we can support each other here. What if we all practice and imagine everyone else reading this practicing too? Perhaps we can know it may be so hard, the shame may be insidious, but that we, as a community, are energetically sharing our radiance, one moment at at time. "

-from Instrument of the Infinite

photo from a performance by BunkerFood Studio at Performance Work Northwest