Slow down and tune into our seismographs
By: Nancy Zamierowski
Tags: Slowing Down, Transformation, Sensemaking, Letting Go, Grief

Collective Transitions hosted a call April 8th to “Slow down and tune into our seismographs.” The invitation is to practice “sensing to the depths” by finding one’s own inner still point, dropping through the layers of white noise, or using a finely-tuned instrument to hear the subtle signals.

What do we sense from our different perspectives? What do we “hear” and what are the different qualities or textures to the various soundscapes? What do we pick up on the individual and collective level? How are they interrelated? And how does that inform us of the collective patterns that are in motion at this point?

Why We Practice Sensemaking and Exercise Our “Seismographic Muscles”

Sensing is a practice for individuals and groups to grasp the contours, the specific qualities and dynamics of any given moment or context. This is especially important for more complex topics and situations. Sensing is used as an essential element for sense-making — a process by which people give meaning to their collective experiences and align what they see and sense across different contexts together. This practice of sensing is fundamental to staying oriented when in the unknown or what we call the space between. When no single person has the full picture, we can sense our way forward step by step, together.

Seeing Ourselves as Seismographs

It’s important to see ourselves as a sort of instrument when sensing. In this case, we use the metaphor of a seismograph. The seismograph is an instrument that responds to ground motions and is often used to detect and record earthquakes.

On the social plane, using our own seismograph-like instruments to sense can help us in this unprecedented time. We could almost say we are experiencing “tectonic” shifts, as the ground under our feet is moving in ways that shake us all — collectively and individually. Staying oriented in this suspense is important for sensing how to respond accurately and appropriately — not too fast, nor too slow.

Each individual may feel and process their own dynamics of a situation. And at the same time, there is also a trans-personal and collective pattern that we can also “pick up, record and process”. These calls offer an intentional practice space to refine skills of sensing and weave a collective tapestry or larger perspective. In this way, the practice acknowledges that both the personal and collective co-exist in each other.

April’s Call Highlights and Themes

This blog highlights themes and wisdom we heard from around the globe from participants who joined the call. Quotes are not attributed to individuals for privacy’s sake and are in italics.

Phil Botha, Unsplash

Slowing down: finding the still point in these fast-moving times

There is an experience of slowing down. However, it is not necessarily to reduce speed, but to get in the right position and in alignment so that the next step can be taken or moved with greater precision. It feels like a readiness, requiring us to harness all the skills we’ve gained in this lifetime.

Another metaphor of the quality of the still moment or being really aware of the power that is present, is wind surfing under the Golden Gate Bridge. The still point is like when you are going 25 km an hour on a board and the wind is channeling through your body and into the board to give you the speed, the only thing you have is your skill and your attention. And it’s so much fun. You feel like you’re in control of all this power going through you as a mediator and a conduit, you could say.

Yuliya Kosolapova, Unsplash

Another person chimed in. Yes, this reminds me of the feeling of being out of balance and when your body senses you might soon be catapulted. This is when you don’t have the correct stance, when the wind or the wave is too strong for your competency or you aren’t positioned correctly. The experience can be quite painful, as one could literally fly over the board. When you’re learning to windsurf, you often feel very wobbly and tired. It’s dynamic. As you become accomplished, you learn to become more still. And then when you’re in higher winds, with bigger sails to know where you have to literally sit in. Here you hook yourself up to what you’re holding, and you channel and become a conduit.

When learning the proper stance, you learn to drop in and sink into the sitting position. You feel like a calm, steady presence, where you become one creature: the board, sails, wind and weather systems. From this place, then you can travel fast.

Ludomil, Unsplash

It’s also important to pay attention to the wave that is coming.

Perhaps what we are experiencing now, has been coming for decades.

It’s like we are in an airshift, a turning point and a civilization shift.

And who would have imagined we are not flying? We are literally grounded.

Grief, Sadness and Anger

Slowing down often brings more up to the surface that is harder to ignore.

A predominant feeling participants noted was one of grief: grief of loss of loved ones, work, and identities. There is also grief of what we as individuals feel we are urged to let go of and what may be needing to surrender and let go of as a collective. As lungs are where grief is stored according to chinese medicine, there is a need for a deep cleansing breath and to acknowledge our breath in renewed ways.

There is also anger. Anger at what is changing, what is being lost and what is at stake. Underneath anger is where sadness often lies. This brought up deeper questions of how do we now show up — are we really daring and courageous enough to show up, for each other and with each other?

And there is a knowing that the larger waves of how to deal with multiple forms of grieving are still to come.

Letting go

When coming to terms with what it means to be still and what it means to slow down, there is anxiety of clinging to old patterns and a recognition of addiction to incessant activity, go, go, go and you have to be this and that. Letting go of external validation, letting go of addictions and old patterns that feed the cycle, is crucial to moving through these moments.

Another person noted, “I’ve had a toothache this entire call. For me, this is a running deep energy.” Louise Hay links pain in the teeth with major decisions and beliefs at the root or core level.

Transformation

This time period is an opportunity for transformation. Someone shared, “A therapist once told me when I was going through a great trauma, ‘Right now it’s like you’re being reborn. You’re in the birth canal. There are tremors. Those are chaos. And you may feel a sense of panic or fear of exiting the womb, just before you’re born. Out of that experience comes birth and new life.’”

A coming together

Society at large, is “shaking from the inside out,” yet there is a little spark of knowing we are not alone in this. It touches all of us. To have a common concern and focus helps us to stay present.

Someone shared that talking together and relating felt like a comfort blanket, wrapping around the earth.

Essentials: Necessity and values

There was deep inquiry around what becomes essential when faced with great change or choice.

What kind of evolutionary change is possible at this moment, and how is it related to our collective understanding of necessity and shared value?

How do we make way for purpose and passion? What is mine to contribute? What do I need to prioritize, to feel good and aligned in my work?

Someone offered the quote by Dane Rudhar, “When you don’t follow your nature, there’s a hole in the universe where you were supposed to be.”

And there was affirmation and acknowledgement of, “I was made for this moment, I was so made for this moment.”

Returning to frequency of the heart

Thing that I was aware of in the silence is the frequency of the heart. It feels seismic and like a magnetic pull. This resonance is intertwined with personal, collective, humanity.

Another person added, “And how much beauty there is in the experience of being. In that stillness, I am reminded to not fall off the course I have set in my heart.”

~ I saw that the generations born in our period of history had been deliberately configured to precipitate an intense cycle of collective purification. The poisons of humanity’s past were being brought to the surface in us, and by transforming these poisons in our individual lives, we were making it possible for divine awareness to enter more deeply into future generations. ~Christopher M Bache, LSD and the mind of the universe: diamonds from heaven

Co-Authors

Much of the content of this article was sourced during an online call using a sense-making technique we call “tuning into our seismograph”. The story was then co-authored and co-edited by Luea Ritter and Nancy Zamierowski. You can find their bios here.