Dappled white and blue sky this campervan morning, cloud is high vague and cirrus in nature. The air a welcome early morning cool after a warm evening. Not a jot of dew to be seen. Stillness, plants look heavy and wilted. Signs of autumnal yellowing beginning to appear in some of the trees, bushes and leaves. The calls of Robins, a lone Blackbird and a far far faraway crow. The rumble of traffic has returned as have I to suburbia after a brief visit east. Planes pass above me and a feeling that the commuter day is in the process of unfurling. How strange that clear signs of autumn are mixed with some of the hottest days so far experienced this year. The week begins its draw to a close and here we are once more under the oak. A week of highs and a couple of interesting lows and balance as in all things. A few situations have arisen that have had me questioning my thoughts. You relate to your world through thoughts and if they are not yours, but inherited, second hand thoughts, then the way you relate to the world is flawed. A couple of situations arose that had me realising that my reactions were not my own, but others. John O’Donohue writes :
“ Your personal, beliefs and roles are in reality a technique a strategy for getting through the daily routine”.
As I sit here I have put two and two together on a couple of instances and realised where these reactions came from and how some of them had become quite fixed, entrenched and unyielding. Carl Rogers, the spine on which my counselling practice rests, writes in his seminal work ‘On Becoming a Person ‘
“ It becomes easier for me to accept myself as a decidedly imperfect person, who by no means functions at all times in the way in which I would like to function. “
As I look back on those flash points, I see where I was coming from, the history of my reactions and who I allowed to pull my strings. Also now the beauty of acknowledging my imperfections whilst striving to grow and be. Rogers later writes :
“ Letting my experience carry me on, in a direction which appears to be forward, toward goals that I can but dimly define, as I try to understand at least the current meaning of that experience.”
I do love a good bit of acknowledgement both in the counselling room, but also more importantly with the self. Lovely days people.
“ He is learning that the feelings which exist are good enough to live by. They do not have to be coated with a veneer.” Carl R. Rogers.
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