TRUST AND HOPE

Since the pandemic we have been living with the struggles induced by its aftermath, not knowing, a lot of the time, whats going on? When we do not know where we stand it is difficult to have hope and to trust both in ourselves, and in the things, or processes we may need to engage in. It is not a big step to understand that to do these things we need to engage in hope and trust, but it may seem rather or even very silly to engage in them in a world that is upside down lunging from one crisis to another, and will not stay steady.

The question is where do we start to steady up and live in hope and trust? I think we need to go back to understanding the effects of the experiences we have had in the last years. It is even difficult for me to stay with this blog as the desire is to forget all about this traumatic past and get on with it, but even as we move towards getting on with it we have no surety that the causes of our disturbances and diseases that currently plague us is known. The image that comes to mind is of someone opening the door of their home to go out and finding the house is remaining on a ledge and below is just a chasm there is nowhere to place their feet, they turn around go to the back entrance and find they can exit there and get away through the woods.

In recovery from traumatic experiences we need to refer back to our bodies, and indeed our whole person and way of being. Recently I have been reflecting on cognitive dissonance, and you may have identified this in yourself, even if you didn’t know it’s name. In summary in cognitive dissonance we move from what we know or desire to do and then feel guilty when we didn’t do it. This is over simplification,and there are other paradigms describing the symptoms and behaviours of the aforementioned dissonance, but for our purposes here I think the summary above will assist our reflections.

In present times , for many people this dissonance shows itself in lack of concentration, and rational and balanced thinking and decision making. Coming out of the cave of regression is not easy , so where do we find hope and trust to rebuild our world and be part of engaging with others to rebuild the world as a whole?

James sometimes felt, as he tried to meditate, that his body was off centre he couldn’ t seem to centre himself, at times like this he would move his body to a central position in his chair and envisage the parts of his body in their natural positions. He would use his breathing to track each part and breathe into them,this helped to a degree but he would sometimes become distracted and then feel fed up and guilty , fortunately James had a faithful friend who he knew would support him as he had experienced his faithfulness for many years and so he knew he could trust him.

James and his friend met just for a chat and a coffee and they kept this up for several weeks, without and formal engagement in a specific process James was able to see what was happening to him now as ‘normal’ and to trust and hope he could overcome his difficulties.

In reaching out to what we know we can find trust and hope there may be more than one door out of the difficulties we are in, and taking the hand of a faithful friend to begin with will help us to navigate through the woods and take hold of hope.