language of transition

2010 February 12

fellow questers…

in my last essay… symbolic expression over words… i touched on how i ask questers to use materials around them to symbolize concepts we discuss… on my latest ‘wild self’ quest walk with nicole doherty… she grabbed leaves and arranged them into the shape of barbed wire… to symbolize what?… threshold..

in her cat pose, nicole doherty, hovers over her symbolic expression… yes.. we do have fun on quest walks.. :)

remember… threshold is the part of our journey where we cross from the known world… world of the societal self… to the unknown world… the ‘wild self’…

sometimes… crossing the threshold is the hardest part of the journey… at least on the front end of the journey… on the back end… it’s returning back to the ‘normal’ world after you’ve completed your spiritual trek…

crossing the threshold comes in many shapes and forms… with nicole… we explored how everyday language can act as a potential threshold…

most everyday language suggests life as permanence… what do you do? where do you live? who are you with?… if you don’t have a clear answer to these questions… you feel awkward.. you think something is wrong with you…  when you do answer these questions… you feel the internal lie within… it’s not me…. you tell to yourself…

to our detriment… our mind convinces us that we are the only person encountering communication blockage with the outside world… especially if we are around a group of people knee-deep in social identity… their language makes life appear so clean and tidy… i do this… i do that.. i live here… i’m going there… it’s almost mind-numbing… like a powerpoint presentation without end…

if you are listening to your ‘wild self’… you know life is transition… migration… movement… shifting… adapting… adjusting…. about feeling alive…

the language of journey resonates with questers…  it’s a language for seekers… longing for dimensions beyond cultural categorization of self…

on ‘wild-self’ quests… questers learn the language of journey… a language that accounts for nuance… for flux… so when in the commerce of human exchange… questers not only embrace their journey…. they communicate the journey to others and in their communication… their confidence builds to cross over thresholds…

alive,

gino

quester question:

have you examined how language might keep you from living out your journey?

quester tip:

first… view language as metaphorical… and second… understand how we live by metaphors… third… not only live by… but how our notion of self is conditioned by the metaphors we use… how you see yourself… and others… can be tracked back to the metaphorical communities your psyche and body occupy…

if you’re interested in this topic… check out george lakoff’s metaphors we live by… excellent insight into the relationship between language and being… when i taught university classes in rhetoric and communication… this was always a required reading… students enjoyed it…

  • nicoledoherty
    Life moves at a frenetic pace living in a big city and often we forget to check in beyond the task list to the deeper level of ourselves. Even if we take care of our health and well-being, sometimes these too become another check on the massively growing list. One thing that I have learned is that we will never get it all done. So in knowing that we are joyously incomplete, it’s important to get out of our habitual routine and shake it up a bit. So we need to ask ourselves, “Who is beneath the mound of paperwork and what do we want?”. We need to remember that it’s healthy to shed things that aren’t working and create space for change, movement and growth.

    Last month in attending the Yoga Journal conference, I was blessed to have created an opening in my life through an amazing meditation course I attended. I was really flying high on my connection with Source and my needs and desires were resonating at a high frequency. My main thoughts were, “How am I going to get what I want?” and “What does this next phase look like?”. So it’s no coincidence that I met the amazing Dr. Gino Dante Borges at the bottom of the staircase ready to guide me through these deep bubbling questions I had set in motion.

    Our eyes met in that lovely way that people’s do when you know your energies are supposed to match up for some creation. We exchanged a few words and he told me that he takes “Seekers” on outdoor quests to discover their “Wild-Self” by reconnecting to nature. It didn’t take me more than 1 second to hand him my card, ask for his information, check out his website and set up an appointment to go on my own “Wild-Self” Quest.

    I love Nature. I love the outdoors. I had forgotten at some level that taking walks and hikes and strolls outside were what I used to do to clear my head and connect and bond with myself, nature and spirit. Although I am a practicing Yogi and teacher, I still at some level was beginning to make my practice a routine, a job and a daily task list. Forgetting sometimes why I began this practice in the first place.

    The answer to the primal question “What is our purpose?” lies within us, but we need to be open to see and hear it. Being in nature allows you to see the expansiveness of life and the collective Consciousness. You realize that each of us is a very small element in a huge pulsing energetic life force, but that every living being from worm to human plays a very integral role.

    Dr. Gino is brilliant at providing a platform by which we can connect to Nature rather quickly through the use of our senses of touch, smell and sound to become fully present in the Now. No talking allowed! It’s about clearing the mind and moving in meditation and connecting with your heart center. After you become present, you connect with Dr. Gino through insightful questioning, symbolic expression and language reprogramming.

    wild self quest

    Dr. Gino enabled me to identify societal pressures, my fears and what was real and unreal. He allowed me the space to hear my intuition more clearly and connect with my Wild-Self. I became aware of what really mattered to me Now and what was holding me back. As depicted above, when asked to symbolically translate what transition looked like for me, I grabbed a bunch of jagged leaves. It’s no wonder why I hadn’t transitioned when it looked like barbed-wire to me.

    I was able to identify my next steps and take a huge lunge beyond my comfort zone to make some really big decisions in my life that had been circling my head for over 2 years. That was just it! They were circling in my head.

    I think for me, it was important to realize that there are guides placed on this planet like Dr. Gino all around us to help us through transition. We just need to be open to the possibility and to realize that sometimes we need help in unearthing what lies within.

    I realized also that it was healthy for me to go outside of my friend and family circle for help. We all know that those closest to us always want the best for us, but they may have their own biased opinions and those opinions may keep you where you are because they are afraid of losing you or fear change as well.

    I found that my Ego has been in the driver’s seat and my desires have become buried beneath task lists, fears, finances and societal pressures. I realized that true Freedom is about listening to other realms inform us about who we are, why were are here and what we are supposed to do in this life. It’s about creating your life, moving with its ebbs and flows, maintaining ease, and being present for what comes up so we can live powerfully in the Now.

    I am forever grateful to have had the experience of the Wild-Self quests with Dr. Gino and hope to spread the love of his work to many more people on this planet.
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