Chapter 16 of Hope: A User's Manual... I got this scar on the base of my right thumb about eight years ago in the office of the previous congregation I served. My office had these really old windows that didn’t all open very well and some of them opened only when you pushed gently on the metal cross pieces in the window...And it speaks to hope living in the body...
Thank you for sharing that song! I like it. Besser VanderKolk wrote the book entitled The Body Keeps the Score. We know that the body holds and expresses traumas physically with auto-immune dis-eases, etc. For me, the throat is a frequent area of vulnerability—from constant sore throats —tonsils removed at age 3 —carrier of strep, eventually 5 cervical spinal fusions, Now scar tissue pressing on my larynx, etc. For years I “swallowed” my trauma and did NOT speak up. (THATs no longer an issue 😅😅). But I still choose hope—I still choose joy—and I look for microhappinesses on the daily. Where does hope reside in my physical body? I feel like it’s often in my thoughts—so it must be in my head—-yet I pause often to let in trickle down towards my heart. Sometimes I can sense that actually happening . It’s like a thought bubble gets “swallowed” and hangs out in my thoat for awhile—blasting its way through the yuck that is stuck in my throat. And it can warm up my throat energetically so my body can release the yuck through my skin/my kidneys/my GI tract. It lightens the heaviness. It can brighten and energize my heart—my extremities right out of my fingertips and toes. But there is still a bit of a bypassing—a disconnect in my solar plexus (right beneath my belly button. I don’t sense it in my core self until I’ve completely released the yuck and replaced the yuck with hope. Until that happens, I’m a bit of a mess of hope and darker stuff. But I hold onto hope because hope is lighter and hope glistens. I may sound like I’m all over the place but it makes perfect sense to me!
Not all over the place - honest and real. I thank you for sharing that so beautifully. I love the sense of hope physically moving through your body. That is a beautiful way to not only experience it but to visualize it for someone who hasn't experienced hope in that way. Thank you!
For me, hope usually starts with my heart (the palpitations of it) and the quickening of my breath. A sense of anticipation of what is to come.
Thank you for sharing that song! I like it. Besser VanderKolk wrote the book entitled The Body Keeps the Score. We know that the body holds and expresses traumas physically with auto-immune dis-eases, etc. For me, the throat is a frequent area of vulnerability—from constant sore throats —tonsils removed at age 3 —carrier of strep, eventually 5 cervical spinal fusions, Now scar tissue pressing on my larynx, etc. For years I “swallowed” my trauma and did NOT speak up. (THATs no longer an issue 😅😅). But I still choose hope—I still choose joy—and I look for microhappinesses on the daily. Where does hope reside in my physical body? I feel like it’s often in my thoughts—so it must be in my head—-yet I pause often to let in trickle down towards my heart. Sometimes I can sense that actually happening . It’s like a thought bubble gets “swallowed” and hangs out in my thoat for awhile—blasting its way through the yuck that is stuck in my throat. And it can warm up my throat energetically so my body can release the yuck through my skin/my kidneys/my GI tract. It lightens the heaviness. It can brighten and energize my heart—my extremities right out of my fingertips and toes. But there is still a bit of a bypassing—a disconnect in my solar plexus (right beneath my belly button. I don’t sense it in my core self until I’ve completely released the yuck and replaced the yuck with hope. Until that happens, I’m a bit of a mess of hope and darker stuff. But I hold onto hope because hope is lighter and hope glistens. I may sound like I’m all over the place but it makes perfect sense to me!
Not all over the place - honest and real. I thank you for sharing that so beautifully. I love the sense of hope physically moving through your body. That is a beautiful way to not only experience it but to visualize it for someone who hasn't experienced hope in that way. Thank you!
For me, hope usually starts with my heart (the palpitations of it) and the quickening of my breath. A sense of anticipation of what is to come.
And I love that, too!
Gosh this is a wonderful insight/practice—wish I’d had it when I wrote the book!
Thank you MaryAnn.