Lighthouse with lights blazing. ONTARS lighthouse directory website.

I hope you are all well!

Or, if you’ve been experiencing challenges, may you find the resources and resourcefulness, and be met with kindness and generosity, to support you in finding your way through.

My goodness! From what I’ve seen, heard, witnessed, and had shared from several of you very lovely kindred spirits, the last few weeks — particularly that waxing to and through the recent tender, tender Pisces Full Moon – Neptune-duo week or so!

Yes, that was a stormy one — literally, with so much hardship and heartbreak for some in the storm’s path; and stormy in other challenging or disruptive ways for many others.

When we’re experiencing things that are beyond our control — and yes, I can understand that from my own experience — we still, even in that out-of-control (and sometimes very undesirable) unfolding of circumstances, can respond as courageously as we can, and gain strength or add something new to our experience pack (usually easier to see in hindsight than it is in the midst of the whirlwinds!).

I’ve received a couple of requests for a previous post, so I’m refeaturing it here — it’s timely, to be sure.

A good many people feel off-center, stretched-too-thin, stressed out, and ‘pulled in all directions’ these days, for a variety of reasons:

… challenging circumstances, being there for others who are moving through tough times, having a whole lot of people needing you, paying attention to the ‘news’ and all that’s swirling, and on and on.

I’ve written before of this sense of feeling, in Bilbo Baggins’ words, “Like too little butter spread over too much bread,” and feeling off-center and pulled in all directions is a version of this.

For people who are more empathic or sensitive to the energies around us, this can be an all-too-familiar experience.

This is elevated not just by a natural, ‘wired’ empathy and sensitivity — which has its point, purpose, and gifts — but also from conditioning to be ever dispersed ‘out there’ — always on the lookout, ever responsive to others’ needs, preferences, pace, dictums, and agendas.

And there’s the related ’empath-sensitive survival strategy’ designed to avoid or brace one’s self for the rather unpleasant and dreaded volatility, bullying, outbursts, hissy fits, or tantrums — the control- and manipulation strategies common to certain personality types intent on getting their way, no matter what carnage they leave in their wakes. Such volatility — which is a type of normalized violence in a bully culture — feels excruciating for an empathic person.

Mabel Normand in the 1914 Chaplin film, Mable's Strange Predicament. Image is public domain and courtesy of Wikipedia.
Mabel Normand in the 1914 Chaplin film, Mable’s Strange Predicament. Image is public domain and courtesy of Wikipedia.

When the squeeze is on and the general pressure-cooker energetics are heightened, as they’ve been and are, this whole potentially toxic dynamic more easily comes to a high boil, with introvert-sensitives drawing inward into a fretful, gut-knotted fetal position (whether actual or energetic!); and some extroverts or outwardly-volatile types boiling over into offloads and psychic vomit.

Fun, right? Well, what helps?

Needless to say, it doesn’t feel very good, nor are we at our most resourceful, when we’re off-kilter, off-center, and too much out there … too dispersed or spread thin.

Read on for more on ‘gathering back’ and centering, to more skillfully and confidently navigate the storms.

When Pulled in All Directions, the Center is Up

Happy Equinox, Autumn or Spring where you are!

Big Love and Be Well,

Jamie

Featured Image Credit: Wooden Boat in a Storm Sea (PD Images)

Phoenix Rising. Image courtesy of All Day 2.

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Lots of love,

Jamie