Release and Reclaim: Seven Steps in a Seven Year Cycle of Intra and Inter-Personal Regeneration

“I’ve come to understand that the pain of a wound or a loss is over as soon as it happens. What follows is the pain of getting well.”

– Richard Wagamese (from What Comes From Spirit)

As the fall season is soon to begin, I am about to mark the beginning of my (to this point) seven year journey since re-entering the “workforce” after experiencing clinical burnout and proceeding with an intentional rhythm aimed at more balance. This has entailed gradual, focused, and caring support from a range of healers as layers upon layers have sloughed off, revealing deeper wounds and cries for attention.

I am fairly certain that we are never done with this so-called “healing” work, to the extent that our own wellbeing is inextricably intertwined with that of others. As Nora Bateson crucially asks,

“What does it mean to be healthy in an unhealthy system?”

And Toni Morrison writes,

“The function of freedom is to free someone else.”

All this said, as I feel that much “lighter” and learn-ed in my process, I am reflecting on seven steps that have been and will continue to be core to this journey, including the work that my colleagues and I do to help weave the more beautiful world we know is possible.

🌀 Re-cognize: bring awareness to the realities of dis-ease and dis-association

🌀 Re-lax: breathe into this awareness, let what bubbles up come up; keep breathing

🌀 Re-lease: let go of what may have served and no longer does and that which never did

🌀 Re-claim: start inviting back those parts/aspects that have been ostracized and ignored

🌀 Re-member: embrace more and more of our underlying, essential and limitless identity

🌀 Re-surge: allow what has been regathered to both guide and deepen trust in our core

🌀 Re-cycle: this process is not linear but more of a spiral that can encompass others

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And as the poets often capture it better than anyone, I will end with this from Danna Faulds:

There is no controlling life.

Try corralling a lightning bolt,

containing a tornado. Dam a

stream and it will create a new

channel. Resist, and the tide

will sweep you off your feet.

Allow, and grace will carry

you to higher ground. The only

safety lies in letting it all in –

the wild and the weak; fear,

fantasies, failures and success.

When loss rips off the doors of

the heart, or sadness veils your

vision with despair, practice

becomes simply bearing the truth.

In the choice to let go of your

known way of being, the whole

world is revealed to your new eyes.