Who Can I Listen to for Support and Guidance?

We live in a society that breathes stress and anxiety. From the constant deadlines of the day-to-day to the TSA lines and militarized police, everywhere we go we clench our muscles into defensive and reflexive positions.

We have to. It’s our body’s natural security mechanism. It’s our body’s way of speaking to us and telling us to pay attention.

But where do we learn to pay attention? 

Our schools have only recently begun to include mindfulness training in curriculum and even then, it’s spotty and inconsistent in rollout. (Books are even being challenged and banned from classroom curriculum for involving socioemotional learning!) 

Our churches are straining under 1,000 years of body negativity, connecting “the flesh” to dangerous and damaging views of individual sin. They are ill-equipped at this point to reconnect us with our bodies as “holy temples” where the essence of the divine resides.

Where do we learn to pay attention to the messages our bodies are delivering to us?

Where do we learn to honor our own inherent dignity and the spark of the divine that resides within us?

Creating Our Own Lineage

I was recently out walking with a friend and sharing what it feels like to seek a sense of the spiritual beyond the traditional and formal constraints of a local faith community. I brought up questions like:

• How do I tap into my inherent dignity in a meaning-filled way?
• What does it mean to have a deep inner life?
• How can I learn to honor my body as more than just a vessel for my brain?
• How might the depths of my inner life bring me into greater resonance with others?
• And the big one, for me at least…who can I listen to for support and guidance?

As we paused and looked out over the Puget Sound, we came to a recognition of sorts:

For those of us seeking to journey into the depths of our inner lives – for those of us grappling with those questions and others like them – yet can no longer remain within institutions that bounce between mediocrity and harm-inducing, we must begin to create our own lineage.

A lineage that teaches us to listen to and honor our bodies, offers guidance for how to live compassionate and connected lives, provides models of Elders who have come before us and companions who walk alongside us, and one that emboldens us into the world to participate in movements of communal healing.

Check out some of the Elders and practices that make up my lineage:

Wisdom Teachers + Body Practices to Guide Us

So what does it mean to create your own lineage?

It means beginning to take note of all the things your heartspace and soulspace resonate with.

• When a person shares a quote that connects with your heartspace, write it down. Go find the original author. Read their works. Then, find out who influenced them – who were they listening to?
• When you see a piece of art that brings you to tears, get a copy. Put it in your home. Find out who influenced that artist and take a look at their work.
• When you hear a song that drives you into one of your own life’s stories and helps you to understand your experience, add it to a Spotify playlist.
• When you have a moment of deep connection with the world, no matter where and no matter how, take a mental note to do it again. It might be while watching the water at the beach or during a meditation – if it brings you into your depths and connects with the essence of who you are, it cannot be ignored.

All of these – authors, exercises, music, art pieces, quotes – these begin to form together a lineage: a collection of voices from across time and space that can help you to understand and make sense of your own life.

And in a society that breathes stress and anxiety, this is an essential and countercultural act. It is an act of reminding ourselves of our own inherent dignity; of stepping down from the ladder of meritocracy and around the landmines of shame and guilt and on-your-own-ness.

Bringing together a lineage – recognizing what of the world is resonating within you – is a connective act, honoring all that has come before you, all that is in you, and all that will come after you.

Pick up my free resource Wisdom Teachers + Body Practices to Guide Us here.

Get my Quick Guide to Engaging a Contemplative and Embodied Spirituality.