Connecting to Others and Yourself

How does it feel in your body to be part of something larger than you? Ann Weiser Cornell talks about our need for community and connection, and invites you to pause, feel your body resting on its support, and notice how you are right now, even if it is a mix. She shows how saying "Yes, I know you're there" to a feeling completes a kind of communication inside. She also speaks about feeling alone, and why that feeling is worth turning toward and greeting. This content is educational and is not a substitute for one-on-one professional care.

Transcript

Hi, Welcome. This is Support for Stressful Times and I'm Anne Weiser Cornell. It's lovely to be with you today. Lovely to share this. Half hour of I hope. Peace and calm. I was thinking today as I was. . . Fueling into. What I'd like to share with you. I was feeling. How nice it is! To be part of something larger. How nice it is to be. In a community. In a world where we feel connections with others, I think we need that. We need that to survive, Don't we? And How much are you feeling that? Are you feeling that as much as you'd like to? I look back on the last few years where I've had much less contact physically with other people. More lately but still not back to how it was before. And yet. My need for community and contact is. Doing pretty well. I could use a few more. Social times. The point is. Do we? Do we allow ourselves to feel that we're part of something larger, Part of even an unseen community? And here we are, Right? The weird. Couple dozen people. Connected. Through my invitation to be here together for support for stressful times. You can theoretically know, Yes, I'm part of something larger, Part of a family, A community, Part of a human community. You can also. Pause and sense. The feel of that. Let's do that together for a little while. Put that together for a little while here right now. Inviting you to pause because pausing is the number one first thing to do if you're feeling stressed. Ugh. Pausing. That means just really. . . Take it a moment. Slowing down. Having a sense of. Your body? Your breath. Checking in with yourself. Let's do that together right now. Taking some time to feel how your body is supported. And also how your body rests on that support. I wasn't doing that a moment ago, Now I am. It's nice to do. Deliberate intending. I feel my body resting on support and then come in. Inner area of the body, Throat. Chest, Stomach, Belly. How are you right now? You know. However we are. And anxious, Stressed, Agitated, Sad. Despairing, Hopeless. Lighthearted, Hopeful, However we are. It has enormous value to simply notice that. So take this moment with me just to notice. Tell yourself the truth. You don't have to tell anybody else. How am I right now? It's probably mixed. Very few times do I feel only one thing like it's a little bit this and it's got a flavor of that. So let it be. A mixed, A complex, An intricate feeling. That you're feeling right now. Sweet. Nice. And say to your feelings, Yes, I know you're there. This is the inner relationship. This is how we become. Inwardly connected. I say to my feelings. Which is a little bit light and a little bit dark. I say to my feeling, Yes, I know you're there. Something completes when you do that. Like your feeling is. Signaling, It's communicating, It's in your body somewhere tight or heavy. Agitated, And then you let it know. You know it's there. There's a completing of that communication. Do you feel a little? When you can do that. Thanks. So we were talking about the feeling of being connected to a larger community, A larger world. Being connected to a larger system. The world is not just of other people. Living beings. We're a member, Really. Of the whole community of other living beings. So much is alive in the world around us. I came downstairs this morning and. . . There were ants all over my kitchen counter. Well, I must admit, I cleaned up the ants. But I do have a kind of affection. For insects. Another layer of the world anyway. You don't have to feel the same way I do. Really? Here we are, Feeling. Ourselves together. Take a moment. Ask yourself. How do I feel in my body right now? In connection to others, In connection to This larger world I'm a member of it in connection to. I mean, I buy my food at the supermarket and I'm grateful to this whole chain of people. Who got it there for me. That's just one example. Of an interconnected world and what I'm pointing to is the difference between kind of knowing that theoretically and just Can you let your body feel that? Sometimes we get to feel very alone in the world. And it's easy to say, I could say to you, And it's easy for me to say, You're not alone. Two things, Number one, If you feel alone, I respect that. Let's respect that. That feeling is worth turning towards, Saying hello to. But number two, Notice when you say hello to a loan. Well, You're there with it, So. It's already not completely alone. We're pausing to sense how all that feels. And let's say thank you to your body. If that was a sort of process, We can feel ourselves completing that process.