Processing the Process
The secret is knowing you never arrive.
Recently, I had an identity development (ID) session in which a part of mine reminded me to go with my own rhythm. Without knowing exactly what that meant, I understood that it came from a deep and powerful place within me.
Much as I’ve come to see that I don’t need methods and techniques to thrive in relationships and life, I continue to realize on a deep level that the urgent pace of modern life is not in sync with my pace of taking in, processing, and thriving.
Reclaiming my own unique bodily, emotional, and mental rhythm might shake things up for a bit; it might bring some areas of my life to a standstill. However, I’m increasingly gaining trust in the unfolding of a more organic, fulfilling, and inspiring way of living my life in my own rhythm.
Developing your own identity through encountering all of you are is not cognitive. We cannot push and work ourselves into our own rhythm. Having our identity curtailed from our earliest moments lies at the heart of ID theory. As many of us were born into a less than welcoming childhood home (not always expressed but felt by our small, dependent organisms), we developed strategies the best we could - to the detriment of our healthy I and free will.
According to Franz Ruppert, “identity means to be in alignment with oneself,” to be a whole congruent Self. Unlike the commonly understood definition, identity doesn’t develop in alignment with something on the outside (e.g. a group, a belief), but rather through consistent self-encounter, delivering us experiences and “muscle” to gently become the central reference point in our lives.
For me having others resonate who I am on the inside is the icing on the cake of self-connection; it offers me a safe and impactful way of sensing and embodying my own identity, in my own rhythm.
As a creature of the Western lifestyle and notion of linear, straightforward rhythm, it has been a challenge to learn this truth. It’s taken time for me to appreciate and even celebrate that all good things take time. I’m in a continuous, ongoing process of allowing my identity to build itself, whether I actively pursue it in sessions or give myself time and space to let the puzzle pieces fall into their rightful place.
So I guess this is a shoutout for taking it slow, trusting your own process, connecting over and again with your core, that what feels really you. Grant yourself the space and time to processing your own process.