Both Things Are True
We know from physics that light can be a particle and a wave. Both things are true. Yet paradoxes are difficult to grasp when we want absolutes.
It’s one thing to grapple with these concepts in science. It’s a whole other challenge when thinking about the human condition and trauma.
When something catastrophic happens the mind seeks an answer like in a mathematical equation. Yet typically there isn’t one. We can’t solve for X.
Things fall apart. Things change. And humans are flawed and exquisite at the same time.
In a desperate attempt for resolution, our minds conceptualize things concretely like a small child. We categorize events as having been all good or all bad. The world as being safe or unsafe. Or, humans as devils or angels.
This is the mind’s attempt to keep us safe. Meaning that if we deem a situation as having been bad, it’s easier to move on from it. Conversely, if we idealize it, then we by-pass related grief.
Yet to heal, we must accept that life is more complicated. But this demands that we recognize ambiguity and tolerate it. Not just in our minds but within our entire energetic body.
How do we hold our emotional and energetic reactivity to circumstances without polarization? And without making up narratives about ourselves, others, and the world at large that aren’t necessarily true?
This is where the work is.