When our Soul is tugging on our shirt sleeves and we don’t listen eventually we end up with an ache, a sacred ache, deep down in the pits of our being.
What next?
You’ll come up with, or already have, your own ways that work for you but here are some that I use and recommend.
1. Gratitude – Yes. Open yourself up to feeling grateful that you have not been forsaken. That the path you are here to crawl, to toddle, to walk on is still begging for your feeble, early, baby steps onto its path. Can you find gratitude inside yourself for the fact that your Existential Alarm System is functioning? We don’t have to do anything about the ache yet. We just get to be thankful that the system works and that we’re hearing the persistent siren of the alarm of our soul.
2. Make a Friend – Yes. Approach this Sacred Ache inside yourself with love, warmth, and curiosity. Do all the things you do when making a friend. Ask them their name. Their age. If they’d like anything. Seriously. And journaling may be a helpful way to engage with this ache. Let the ache take the pen and share. Here’s a worksheet that you may find helpful. There is great wisdom inside this ache and it ONLY has the highest and best intentions for you. Get curious. Find out who this, when they were born in your life and what life they long for you to be living.
3. Make a Gift – You’re making a friend here! And a friend with mythical power. And a friend who holds secrets that will bring you into a fuller, more radiant phase of yourself. Make them a mix tape! Woo this Ache! Get the paints out. Get the beads and the wires and the clasps and make some jewelry. Pen a poem. Bake a goddamn cake! Think about who the recipient of these gifts is! Your soul! Who’s been waiting and waiting and waiting for you. Let each gift be a Thank-You, an I’m-Sorry, a How-Can-I-Support-You.
4. Tell a Trusted Friend – Yes. Something happens when we take our private life and share it. We expose ourselves. And likely, this ache, will demand much greater exposure than a confidence in a friend. But let’s start here! “I have been ignoring a (insert feeling/sensation here) for about (unit of time) and stopped today. I’m curious about who I’ll become as I listen more to this ache. Does this resonate with you at all? Do you have an ache that wants your attention? I’d love your support as I listen and befriend mine. And I’d be honored to be a support to you on your path of listening. How does that sound to you?”
My goal in this is to inspire you into authentic relationship with what wants to move through you. Use these prompts as jumping off points only if helpful. Follow your own way AS SOON as it deviates from mine.
With love and anticipation,
Pete
PS. There are 3 more ways to tend your Sacred Ache if you want them: Go Out Onto the Landscape, Wake A Little Earlier, Track All The Conspiring Signs. If you want me to email you those, just reach out with the word Three in any language other than English.