A Way Out

Where is the line between hope and desperation?
In complete desperation, there is no hope, there is only giving up. Only a tiny increment of hope, often literally perceived as light, can provide a glowing, gradually growing guide out of the furrow of desperation. This is good. But at what point does that hope turn into a not so useful thing?

When hope grows into expectation and when there is attachment to that expectation, then hope has become blind. The light is perhaps so bright that it obliterates the boundaries between you and I until all the ego sees is it's hearts desire. Only then am I likely to pursue my hope with insensitivity to others, perhaps even with insensitivity to myself.

If I can separate myself from my hope turned into desire, so that I am detached from the outcome, then I am again able to see with the perspective of the larger picture and the relative importance of all the players. So, it is not that hope is bad, or even that attachment is bad. It is as in all things, a matter of balance.

One of the greatest lessons I have learned from the FELDENKRAIS METHOD of AWARENESS THROUGH MOVEMENT (ATM) is to check to see if my intention is in line with what is going on in my life. So many of us, myself included have lived oblivious 'lives of quiet desperation' unaware that there might be another way. As I wend my way through the experiences of my life, this blog is a place where I translate what I learn on the floor in my practice, into how it relates to living, loving and managing the ebb and flow of somatic experience.