We’ve probably all felt this wringing feeling when you realize you lost something important. Your keys, the track of time, your way back home, a lover, a beloved one, the steady ground underneath your feet, a dream that turns into thin air the moment you thought you got a hold on it.
Suddenly the certain becomes uncertain. Your heartbeat rises and it leaves you feeling shaken in the deepest layers of your body. It may even wake you up to a point where things you thought you knew so well have turned upside down into a new reality with a total different truth. It’s here where anxiety, stress and fear easily slips into your mind. Dragging you into the darker corners of shame and the good old guilty I-told-you-so’s.
To protect ourselves from this unpleasant feeling we make sure we hold on to what we’ve got.
We use navigation’s, reminders, schedules, contracts and insurances to block the interference of lost as much as we can. Believing it’s better to be save than sorry. But is it?
You need to get lost, to discover your own wisdom, resilience and creativity in the open space of opportunities.
I remember myself as a young girl wandering around through the neighbourhood trying to get lost on purpose. I would turn left and right in the direction my curiosity would take me, feeling like a brave adventurer who explored new parts of this world. And I did. I would stumble into new paths, meet interesting people and sometimes get face to face with real danger showing up as a dog. It was on these little trips that I felt myself beaming with live, tasting the sweetness of freedom, breathing in full breaths of courage and excitement.
I also remembered an afternoon where my older nephew took me out in the streets of our grandparents. I followed him blindly, trying the keep up with him until he climbed over a wall I couldn’t take. And I stood there alone. My hands feeling the rough structure of the red coloured bricks, looking up at the edge of where he left me; a line in the empty grey sky between here and there.
The feeling of being lost, shows up when we loose something or someone that’s important to us.
Something that gives us a feeling of safety, the certainty of belonging, the direction to home, a sense of completeness. But wouldn’t it set us free from a lot of worries if we simply could be that someone to ourselves? If we felt safe, at home and like we truly belonged all by ourselves?
The child that followed her nephew blindly felt completely disoriented when he disappeared behind that wall; she had focused all her faith on him. The young adventurous girl never was concerned about getting lost; she trusted life would show her the way and was confident about her ability to walk the unknown because she felt at total comfort with herself.
It’s easy to lose that kind of trust and confident growing up in a society that directs its attention mostly to the outside of things. But it’s never too late to regain it for yourself.
All that this asks for is to shift your focus closer towards yourself again. Instead of looking outside, bring your attention close to yourself to find your answers and true guidance. Exactly like it’s more helpful to reflect on your own steps rather than to start searching like crazy when you’ve lost your keys.
Close your eyes, breathe and listen to what comes up for you. There is more in yourself then you give yourself granted for.
With love,
Wenske
Share this letter;