WATCHFULNESS: DISSOLVING THE DARKNESS
CONTEXT
A recent Mirror Session revealed the following insights, which proved to be just as useful + just as necessary for me as for my friend. Little did I know that I would be entering ever more deeply into this very practice within hours of speaking the words. Hearing them repeated for the first time earlier today felt like a shock. I knew in that same moment that I’d share these words with you: they’re more than words.
These words are lessons + these lessons are so rarely the education we expect - they are not new. They are an echo of a truth we’ve always held, they call us Home. They return us to ourselves, the larger story.
And so I hope that they can do the same for you: I hope you hear the bell of that remembering.
TRANSCRIPT
You’re learning to relate to what’s happening, and you’re demonstrating an all-new quality of seeing. This renewed vision - this ability to see yourself from the outside - this is a nonjudgmental sort of witnessing: it’s the only skill required to abolish old, unwanted habits. It’s all you need. There is nothing for you to do but learn to watch + see what happens. This single quiet practice holds the key to liberation.
These old, unhelpful patterns will arise, and they will continue to arise until they don’t. It’s good + right + natural for these patterns to present themselves to your awareness in this way: they are your shadows, they’re your teachers, they are mirrors. When they do present themselves, you must learn to simply-watch, you must allow them to exist. Wait + see what happens when you do.
CONTINUED…
The truth is that, in most cases, we don’t do this. Instead, we’ve learned to make of them an enemy, then we grapple - we do everything we can to stave them off. We get to work on trying to ‘fix’ them; we blame ourselves + try to ‘be better’; we seek to eliminate or to escape them.
Any time that we address unwanted habits in this way, perspective narrows. We set ourselves at odds with the original intent. Our efforts only harden what we’re seeking to dissolve.
CONTINUED…
So being gentle with yourself despite discomfort is the key. It’s paramount: perhaps the greatest lesson you will learn along the way. Until you can be kind toward what is happening, you will never get to meet the gift it holds. So in those heavy moments, keep it simple: let things be. Discover what can come of being silent.
This works because those shadows now exist within a new field of awareness; they are held beneath the light of your new vision. This light allows the shadow but reveals its true intent. This is the gentle power of The Watcher: the watchfulness itself dispels the shadow as it self-aligns behavior to the thread of Your Great Story.
In the end, what no longer serves this larger story will begin to fall away like old, dead skin; and what does belong will crystalize, becoming the replacement that this process seeks to bring to life in you.
CONTINUED…
Your job is about as simple as it gets (although not easy). All that you must do is pause to breathe. Remembering to breathe, you can create a quiet space inside to watch whatever happens as it does - there is no judgment. This is the position that you’re learning now to hold.
This position is a practice + a challenge. It’s going to feel at times as though you’re facing in the opposite direction of improvement. Much of the time, you will even feel as though you’re stuck in place. But you are not.
These movements are always happening, and they’re happening inside you. You’re not stuck in place, you’re in the movement, you’re part of it.
You can trust the Greater Narrative. The stage of this unfolding has been set, and you are planted firmly at its heart.