Safety.... is for Surviving.

Sitting and sipping my morning hot coffee and cream, Felix, the lovely black and white feline companion that has chosen every day for 15 years to grace me with his warmth, sincerity and persnickety ways, leaped up on the narrow arm of the chair I was resting in. Balanced all of his toes on this 2 inch wide surface so he could stare into my eyes and just watch me. I felt this prickly run through me, from the base of my tail to just behind my ears. This warmth of feeling the presence of love, witness and holding emitting between the foot or so that separated us. THAT. That sensation of safety, the warmth that melts the fear into nothing but a memory. Safety.

You may think it strange that I use an experience with a cat to convey the importance of Safety. I invite you to stay with me a moment longer, for he was but the vehicle to a much deeper, necessary conversation.

Safety, that feeling of invincibility and security.
MOf warmth and deep compassion. That thing we all crave and fight for. It's a sensation, a blooming in the heart, a calming in the places we are scared, lifting up our gifts allowing us deep rich growing medium upon which to flourish. It's the line that crosses us over from surviving to thriving.

“Why are you making a big deal about Safety oh Mountain Moman - it's not like you live where it's”safe”.... “
Hehehe. So pleased you asked!

Why? Because nothing sustainable contagious or uplifting, changes without it! Living this lifestyle on The Mountain of Nemeton amplifies the need for Safety and gives me a chance to actively practice it every day, a bit like an automated process. A bit like walking. You don’t realize it (because you do it everyday) that you put conscious awareness that you want to go somewhere, and then your legs just get up and go. There is a consciously unconscious element that becomes so practiced that overtime if becomes a total automatic process. You don’t think about the process of standing up, isolating each muscle to contract in a certain order, you just stand up. With this automatic process it's just as easy to program automated responses that keep and hold you in a place of non Saftey.

Fear, for instance, makes you hold your body and facial expressions in a tight, contracted manor, increasing anxiety as your body perceives a never ending fight that is forever coming at you. When there is truly nothing to fear in a moment, every step we take tells our bodies and minds that we are “ok” and “safe”. This automatic process does not trigger the heightened state that awareness that living in fear does. It in fact relaxes and release muscles and tensions, helped by our nervous system that is functioning smoothly, and Not on high alert. If you’ve been living in a high state for quite some time, then when the state of high alert softens and relents, just a little, it noticed immediately. For me, a quiet peace filled space, a hot cup of tea, just the right music, soft natural scents that gentle fill the air, just the right amount of clothing and warmth. All these things tell my physical body that RIGHT NOW, RIGHT HERE is purrrfect.

During these shifting times, pause to reflect on these questions….
How is Safety important for You?
• What does the feeling of Safety FEEL LIKE for you?
• In what ways can you create it for yourself?
• What ways can you, out of your place of deep Safety, offer it to others?

Though do keep in mind.... this is only the raft... the shore is living in thrival mode, rather then simply
surviving mode. (But you can’t GET to thriving, without first surviving) Get your Priotities Straight!

#metoo Medicine
Mountain Woman Medicine