WORKING HARD: PART TWO

My zen teacher once said, “Sit on the forward edge of your cushion." This is, of course, a paradox. Try, but don’t try.

The fruitful edge of “the work”.

Sometimes the work is cultivating that fruitful edge.

What can you do to nurture this energy that you are looking to grow in your life?

This is relevant to many things that we want but can’t control if and when they happen. Falling in love (with the right person!), getting a job, building a business, having a family, living a long life.

All we can do is cultivate. Create the necessary conditions.

We can’t make any of these things happen.

So our work is nesting, cultivating, creating container.

How do we do this?

We notice our dreams and acknowledge the energies that we see.

We draw, sculpt, imagine, write.

We garden, make our homes beautiful, work out our bodies.

We meditate, and we speak our dreams and fantasies, particularly in therapy.

We speak what is on our mind without censorship in a held space where our words can be examined.

This is another way of working hard. Building a nest at the edge between conscious and unconscious.

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