Embody Polarities in Times of Change

Collection: Tools & Techniques

You’re probably tired of hearing it… We live in a time of major change. But hardly anyone acknowledges that change doesn’t happen overnight. 

In anthropology and ritual studies, the state of change between the old and the new, is called liminal or threshold space. It is the in-between time. I believe we are living in such a time now. Our familiar frames of reference are crumbling, yet there are no clear new ones in place yet. 

In this post I reflect on a few aspects of this long-dance with the unknown.

In the Steam Cooker

Perhaps like me, you experience a sense of building urgency, being under pressure in a steam cooker, as if all problems of all times are coming to a heads now. Many recent events shocked the system, such as the Covid pandemic, freak weather, national separations like Brexit, and weird political power games… 

More than ever, we aware of catastrophes across the world. This leads to a sense of chronic urgency and emergency. Yet our neuro-system does not distinguish between immediate danger that might be knocking on our actual doors, or the alarm bells that go off when we receive news of disasters happening elsewhere. It is as if everything is happening in our own backyard, in our own house, in our own family. No wonder our system is on fire.

Living through a Paradigm Shift

Several cosmological shifts are considered active around the turn of the 21st century. Astrology recognises a transition from 2000 years in the age of Pisces to the age of Aquarian. In the Mayan calendar a great cycle completed in 2012. And oh dear, we’re only at the (relative) start of the Hindu Kali Yuga or age of darkness.

Naturally, change is happening all the time, but sometimes bigger shifts are underway. These are called paradigm shifts. In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn takes the Copernican revolution as an example.

Shifting from a worldview with the earth at its centre (geocentric) to one in which our planet turns around the sun (heliocentric) created enormous resistance, and didn’t happen overnight. In fact, it took a century and a half to be fully accepted. Kuhn called it a “revolution by degrees” (1957, page 181), or indeed, a paradigm shift.

With today’s fast communication, rapid technological inventions, and an obsession with quick fixes, 150 years is almost impossible to imagine. For me it was such a relief to acknowledge that paradigm shifts take time. Knowing this helps me to relax in the feeling of continuous change. 

What can you do?

In our ‘global village’, keeping calm in the direct environment of your home, your family and your communities is truly one of the biggest contributions you can make right now. This is not individualistic or egocentric, it helps to amplify the energetic resonance of hope, peace, and love.

We can inspire others by taking a different approach to news, and resist to buy into fear mongering. With a Taoist metaphor, I invite you to make conscious choices of what information enters your garden, and how you digest and compost that. This may be a much slower and minimalist intake than you are used to. Dare to unsubscribe from things. Dare to delete emails unread.

Just like overeating can lead to indigestion, over-intake of information does too. Choosing what you take in helps you can stay present and give space to digest. That way, we can hold a torch for a new paradigm, instead of being swept away on the current of fear. 

But how can you bridge the apparent polarity of hope and despair? Here is an exercise I often use with clients to integrate polarities within the body.

An exercise: Bridging Apparent Opposites 

1. Begin by centring and grounding yourself, taking a few deep breaths and perhaps dedicating your exploration to a specific purpose.

2. Imagine on your left hand any situation that you struggle with at the moment. Dare to feel as much as you can, related to this event. Open your perception, your emotions, become aware of the stories that you tell about it. Feel the weight of it on your hand.

3. Then, imagine on your right hand the situation as you would like it to be, your hopes for the future, for sustainable change, for social equality, your dreams for a better world. Make this as physical and concrete too. Use your imagination and add colour, texture, scent, melody… anything that allows this dream to take shape in your awareness.

4. Feel yourself positioned in the centre between these two polarities. Acceptance of the situation doesn’t mean it has to stay that way, nor that we condone it. Yet the intention for change can only take form from our embodied presence here and now.

5. Then, gently bring your left and your right hand closer together. You are actively bridging the current situation, your despair, or overwhelm, or disillusion on your left hand, with your vision for change on your right hand.

6. Feel the energy between your hands. You might feel heat, or prickling, or any other bodily sensations like an opening of the heart. Perhaps there is a dialogue going on. Perhaps the current situation expresses a need, or an inability, or a request for help. Perhaps the future situation has an unexpected insight to share. This is the process of building a bridge. 

7. With your right hand, listen for the steps you can take to light the torch of hope, however small they might seem. Bringing that light closer to your left hand, you illuminate the perceived darkness there. You are consciously guiding and directing energy in a co-creation with life.

8. The dance between acceptance and intention is always a feedback loop. With your intention, the actual moment will already start to shift – even if it’s just your perception of it.
   
   

Our dream doesn't end in our lifetime

I learned this dance between acceptance and intention from my Movement Medicine mentors. Working with the power of manifestation, Ya’Acov Darling Khan reminded me that my dream doesn’t belong to me alone, nor will it finish in my lifetime. All I can do is adding my energy to the river of this dream. It will carry on after I die. 

That brings me back to the opening of this post; that revolutions take time.  

Taking action to stay healthy and well while we walk this long road is really important. How can you look after yourself so that you can blossom? What support structures, like body-care, spiritual practice, and community, do you need? How can you be like one drop in the immense ocean, so that together we can be a rising tide that lifts all boats?

The small print...

• Image Credits: Artwork Where water is, is consciousness, by Enkidu Alkanaan, February 2024. Connect via Instagram to see more of his amazing art!

• This post first appeared in the Feminism and Religion Blog.