Anything can be comfortable, including discomfort
Sometimes we hold onto something and it feels comfortable in our hands. Our body knows we’ve held it before. But that doesn’t mean we should keep cupping it.
Question why you’re comfortable.
I’ve been learning a lot about my attachment style, and coming face-to-face with some patterns. Getting curious about my choices and if they’re made in present time or rooted in past conditioning and storylines. Wondering, in everything I do, about my “why”s.
Sometimes we hold onto something and it feels comfortable in our hands. Our body knows we’ve held it before. But that doesn’t mean we should keep cupping it. Maybe it fits because we’ve wrapped ourselves around it. Maybe now our hands are achy from the grasp and we’ve stopped, just a little bit, breathing. Maybe we’re used to that, too.
Familiar isn’t always in our highest good. Humans, ever adaptable, can adjust to anything. We adjust because we had to, we needed to. But do we still need to?
This is the question, and a hard one to answer. Living in present time is tricky when threads from the past are tugging at you. When you’re two places at once. If the threads are tangled.
Some gentle wonders as you begin to untangle:
Is what you’re carrying serving you, or are you accustomed to the weight of it?
Do you still need to pretzel yourself to survive, or can you begin to take your own shape?
If something feels like home, does it feel like the home you are wanting to call your own or does it echo of something darker?
Ask yourself: How do I️ know this is comfortable? And let your body answer.
Take care of yourself as you move forward and inward. Love to you all. 💛
healing is hard fucking work
Healing is hard fucking work. It just is, by nature of it. But also, we heal in the world and systems we live in (the systems that harmed us), and that can make it even more challenging. I️ don’t think there’s another way to do it, as our systems impact us so deeply.
Healing is hard fucking work. It just is, by nature of it. But also, we heal in the world and systems we live in (the systems that harmed us), and that can make it even more challenging. I️ don’t think there’s another way to do it, as our systems impact us so deeply. We’re FROM them. They SHAPE us. And they really need healing too.
So be soft with yourself as you reach for healing. Not just healing for yourself, but for everyone hurting in the world right now. It seems this list keeps growing (or perhaps that’s our awareness) - so let’s grow with it.
How are you reaching towards healing today? How are you showing yourself tenderness when your trembling hands can’t quite reach? Where do you feel current events in your body?
Just some gentle questions for us to ponder. Embodiment is healing. Healing is fucking hard work. Both/and forever and always.
xo Jess
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Jess Jackson, Soft Path Healing
Soft Path Healing is trauma-informed bodywork and nervous system nourishment in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Curious about working together? Feel free to be in touch.
take your time
I tell my clients after a session: take all the time you need.
I tell my clients after a session: take all the time you need.
Healing can take a lot out of us before it gives back to us and time is a gift we all need. To rest deeply, to process what’s unthinkable, to move through what keeps us feeling stuck.
It doesn’t happen quickly, this healing journey, that much I️ know is true.
So this is my wish for you, in a life that rushes and with people around you (and maybe even the person that is you) fastforwarding your feelings—
Take all the time you need.
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Jess Jackson, Soft Path Healing
Soft Path Healing is trauma-informed bodywork and nervous system nourishment in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Curious about working together? Feel free to be in touch.
you don't owe anyone your story
You don’t owe anyone your story. If you are a practitioner, it doesn’t need to live in your bio. If you are a survivor of something, you don’t need to disclose your history or narrative.
Can it be healing to share a story or experience? Yes, of course. But frankly I’m a little tired of…
You don’t owe anyone your story. If you are a practitioner, it doesn’t need to live in your bio. If you are a survivor of something, you don’t need to disclose your history or narrative.
Can it be healing to share a story or experience? Yes, of course. But frankly I’m a little tired of this whole thing: “tell your story and you’ll be set free! share your story and help lift the shame and stigma!”
Shrug that pressure to be a changemaker off your shoulders. Only share your story if and when it feels safe to do so. (Because sadly, and that’ll be another ranty post, it doesn’t always feel safe to do so.) For those of us with stories, getting through is challenging enough. Why add more pressure?
Hold your story close and trust in your timing. Whether you share or not, make that choice for you.
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Jess Jackson, Soft Path Healing
Soft Path Healing is trauma-informed bodywork and nervous system nourishment in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Curious about working together? Feel free to be in touch.
keep looking for your medicine
You are not meant for every medicine, every room, every modality. But there is medicine meant for you. Keep looking for it. It can be anything because you decide your medicine, not anyone else. You.
If yoga doesn’t work for you, if chakra balancing doesn’t work for you, if talk therapy doesn’t work for you, if crystals don’t work for you, if affirmations don’t work for you, if prescription medication doesn’t work for you, if flower essences don’t work for you...
It is okay. You are not meant for every medicine, every room, every modality. But there is medicine meant for you. Keep looking for it. It can be anything because you decide your medicine, not anyone else. You.
Take care, sweet friends. Take your medicine. And if you feel comfortable sharing what your medicine feels like today, please do. Today my medicine is dance and rest.
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Jess Jackson, Soft Path Healing
Soft Path Healing is trauma-informed bodywork and nervous system nourishment in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Curious about working together? Feel free to be in touch.
there is wisdom in holding on
There is always a wise reason we hold on. I️n our work together, I won’t wrench your fist open. I️ will wonder with you about what you are holding, why you are holding, how long you’ve been holding and if it still serves you to do so.
There is always a wise reason we hold on. I️n our work together, I won’t wrench your fist open. I️ will wonder with you about what you are holding, why you are holding, how long you’ve been holding and if it still serves you to do so.
There is always a brilliant (and often protective) reason we stay tight. You know those flowers that only open for the sun? Maybe it’s like that. You know how little kids clutch their parents’ jeans and check out a stranger? Maybe it’s like that.
Or - you’re driving and suddenly need to slam your brakes. Your hands grip the steering wheel and then when it’s safe your hands still won’t quite relax. They might continue to grip the steering wheel even though the danger is over. Our bodies are a lot like that - always trying to protect us, even when the danger has passed.
Let’s honor the wisdom of holding on. Let’s not rush the letting go. We can invite it, but we can’t make it come. Just like everything else.
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Jess Jackson, Soft Path Healing
Soft Path Healing is trauma-informed bodywork and nervous system nourishment in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Curious about working together? Feel free to be in touch.