The dance of “within without”

For every outward movement, there is an equal inward movement.
For every outward growth there is a correlated deepening of our roots.
For every outward focus there is an inward focus
For every within, there is a without.

This is the dance of life, the mating of our external and internal world
ushering us further ahead.

For every step that we have able our self this year, it was supported by a correlated deepening of our roots. Yet most of us live and will live life unaware of that which has deepened, that which has shifted and that which has served its purpose and that which is waiting to be harvested.

Where do you stand right now? What do you see? Who do you see? What do you feel? What do you hear?
Maybe you do not like that which you see, feel and hear but can you allow yourself this space to just be and not blind off.
How has this year been so far?
How has growth been? What did you learn? What did you harvest? Do you know that none other than you can harvest your ripeness? Do you know that you are the one to drink your juiciness?

What did you explore? If not, then what is you holding back? Who is holding you back? What are the beliefs, fears, stories and narratives?

Know that any act of holding-back hold hinders growth from happening and is often mirroired back as pains in forms and shapes.

What if for once, your year’s debrief, is less about what others saw of you but more about what, why, where, when and how you experienced! What if for once, you hold yourself in such a way that this is just about you and less of what this world sees of you!

For any growth that has happened, unseen, unheard, unfelt by this external world, are you aware of the correlated inward growth? What has been alchemized to allow you to grow outwardly? What beliefs have shifted? What stories have been reclaimed? Do you stand in a space of stillness or is it still sore and paining?

These questions carry their weight and I am inviting you, me and us, to create space this week and beyond, to dive and walk our self through this simple process of seeing, hearing, feeling and acknowledging oneself.

I invite you, me and us to move through a simple exercise known as the “Dance of “Within Without” Flow Exercise.

Feel free to share this exercise with friends, close ones and colleagues and I will love to hear from you if you have given it a try.

The Dance of “Within Without” Flow Exercise

Step1: Take an A4 size paper, divide it into two equals by drawing a line, label one half “INWARD” and the other half “OUTWARD”.

The dividing line symbolically represent your upward fertile soil, the cracking space where the “INWARD” starts manifesting in the “OUTWARD”. Just above the line, the half labelled “OUTWARD”, this is the space where the young sprouts show up, life shows with the potential to growth and harvest. The half labelled “INWARD” is your cauldron of churning and brewing.

Step 2: Start with one outward movement at a time, what was it? I may call it growth, change, transformation, shift.

Maybe it was a new job, welcoming a lover in your life, a trip, saying “yes” to an opportunity.

Draw it upward, whatever shape, color, you feel it is and carried.

Support this step by bringing forth all the questions that were asked in the beginning of this write up.

Step 3: What has shifted to enable me to move outwards. What in the inner deepening of this outward movement.
Take your time, this is no exercise to rush through

Step 4: Harvesting – what is awaiting for you to harvest? What lesson, what piece of wisdom, what acknowledgement? What celebration? Friends? Network? Emergence of shadow self?

Step 5: Planting of new seeds. Only when you have consumed your ripeness, then the seeds shall emerge.
Nurture yourself with your own wisdom, teach yourself with that which has emerged. Whisper to yourself and do not rush.
Let this process last as you long as you are yet to reach that of inner contentment within. Once you reach that state, then ask yourself, “what do I plant now? Where do I want to be next? What is next for me now?”

But why would you invest of your self and your time in such an exercise?

Know that groundedness is present when one is consciously deeply rooted in one’s roots. And as we move grounded in our roots, we start tapping into this knowingness that balance carries is in truth a dynamic flow, ever shifting and changing as nature. It is up to us to reach within for our equilibrium and this is an ongoing process. Know that to be deeply rooted in our roots, this asks of us to acknowledge, the unseen, the unheard, unfelt and unembraced within us. Know that sprouting happens only when the roots have grounded themselves deep within our fertile soul.

For every outward movement, there is an equal inward movement.
For every outward growth there is a correlated deepening of our roots.
For every outward focus there is an inward focus
For every within, there is a without.

This is the dance of life, the mating of our external and internal world ushering us further.

Be kind and gentle towards yourself, it has been a shifting year. The intensity will no more ease way forward.

Love from my heart to yours

Megha Venketasamy

Image source: Jeremy Bishoo, Unsplash

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