The art of NOT trying

This past weekend I spent the day in the woods with a sweet group of souls connecting with St. John’s Wort, and with the wisdom of the land. It was so sweet, and so good to be in community with heart-felt souls, the plants, and the forces of nature as a balm for these immensely disconcerting times.

As I took the medicine of St. John’s Wort into my body, I could first feel the invitation to open my chest, to lay backwards across my sitting cushion and allow the tension that’s held in my heart to slowly open.

St. John’s Wort then helped me feel how the constriction in my chest and in my belly was from trying too hard. From the energy of striving. From trying to do better, trying to do more.

I was given the very clear directive to “stop trying.” To allow the light and energy from the Universe to activate me as it flows through me. I don’t have to do it alone. I don’t have to try so hard. I can allow more support to flow in and through. It’s all not going to fall apart if I do.

One of my deepest, long-term wounds is the belief that many of us have: that I have to do more in order to be worthy.

The Capitalistic paradigm programs this belief into our bodies from a very young age.

It’s a story I’ve been unraveling intentionally for at least a decade now, and I’m always finding new ways in which the threads of that story have been sewn into my body’s fabric more deeply than I realized.

So, as I lay on the ground, surrounding by Red Cedar, Devil’s Club, and Ancient Hemlock, listening to the soothing songs of the birds, I practiced bringing the energy of surrender and not trying into those tense spaces deep inside of my body, and could feel them slowly begin to soften.

When I work with clients I often feel this energy in them as well. A sense of needing to cling, grip, hold on, do more, stand ground, work harder, hold it all, keep going… These are the energies that are often held in tight tissue, and often tied to deeper stories of pain or grief from childhood, and of course the reality of living inside systems that want to keep us anxious and disconnected.

So often, the invitation from the spirit guides and the plant spirits I work with in sessions is to hold these places in the body with open love and compassion, and to invite them to soften into the experience of being held. To help them feel safe enough to reprogram the belief that they have to try so hard.

I know the idea of not trying so hard feels counter to the urgency of the world right now. And yet I think it’s a brilliant way to approach it.

Not trying so hard doesn’t mean inaction. It doesn’t mean not doing anything. It just takes the constriction and force of pushing out of the picture.

It leaves more space for spontaneous action. It leaves more space for tender care. It leaves more space for us to each feel held in all that we’re feeling.

It leaves space to show up in inspired ways, and not just prescriptive ways. It allows us to move from a place of aligned authenticity, and not an idea of how we must show up in order to be “good” or “doing it right.”

These times are wild and painful and shocking. And it’s also so inspiring to see what beauty, love, courage, and community-care is being born out of this cauldron of messiness.

What, my dear, wants to be born through you?

In my opinion, the only real way to answer that is to loosen the grip of “trying,” and listen to the wider force of inspiration that moves through you, that is you, that is wise beyond all time, connected to all there is.

Your authentic soul-shining truth doesn’t have to try. You just have to soften your body in order to allow that truth to guide you from within.

This art of not trying, and deeply listening to what's wanting to be born through you, is what we'll invite you into in our retreat next month.

Earth Temple: Listening to the Dream of Earth's Heart

JULY 10-13th.

A Forest Retreat (begins the morning of the 11th, optional camping the night of the 10th).

On this full moon retreat, we will spend our time deeply listening to the guidance of the Earth and the Nature Spirits to access and align with our sacred role during these times of upheaval.

Find the details here

In deep listening,

Amy Terepka