Practical, Grounded Spirituality And Our Shared Being

Relationships Coach Nicola Williams and Somatic Therapist and Educator Gwen McHale talk about our shared being and the need for a grounded and practical spirituality. The full interview is also available.

Transcript

Welcome to this short clip of me,

Relationships Coach Nicola Williams,

Talking with somatic therapist and educator Gwen McHale about our shared being as humans,

Our interconnectedness and the need for a grounded and practical spirituality.

The full interview is also available.

And that's what my work is about really,

Is supporting people to come back to themselves,

Home to themselves,

And to be in the world from that place of being at home in their own being.

I wonder if you could say a little bit for the people who are listening about what the word being means to you.

So there's a few different ways of answering this.

So,

So for me,

Being is about who I am.

It's about my presence and our being is a shared being as well.

So it's about my experience of being,

But also recognising that we have a shared being.

And the being is,

You could say it's everything that exists is being.

And it's the whole of everything that exists.

So rather than seeing,

I think that we call ourselves human beings,

Which we are,

I think we can often be human doings and see ourselves as separate.

But when we're in our,

When we're deeply rooted in our own being,

Then we can really feel our shared being with the whole,

With everyone else here and with the whole.

So by returning to a sense of home in myself,

I can feel more deeply my sense of belonging to a greater home or a whole,

A whole.

And that brings me out of the illusionary experience of being separate somehow.

Is that what you're telling?

Yes,

That's it.

That's well reflected.

And I'd love to hear more about how this feels like it's such an essential aspect of your being and your particular,

Your particular flavour,

Colour of being that you represent as Michael Williams.

Right.

Like that this is something that's so essential to who you are.

I'd love to know how this comes through and the different aspects of your work,

Because your field of work is really diverse,

Actually,

And really interesting.

But yet this seems to be like the essential elements coming through everywhere.

Yes.

Yeah,

That's that's a good way of putting it.

Yeah.

I work with seven different themes.

So,

So I call myself a relationships coach.

And the reason is because life is all about relationships for me.

And it's my relationship to myself or our relationship to ourselves,

A relationship to each other,

To life,

To everything.

So it's looking at how we relate in the world.

And so I work with seven different themes and around relationships.

So,

For example,

Healthy boundaries,

Saying no,

And assertiveness is one theme.

And the themes have really emerged for me from what what I think is most helpful for people to learn about in relationships.

So that one is essential.

If we're not able to say no,

We're not able to speak up for ourselves,

Then it's really difficult to be in the world and keep ourselves safe and happy and on track and meeting our needs.

And then we have authentic relating and kind communication.

I think that's really essential for our relating.

Kindness is really essential so we can be authentically who we are,

But then we're communicating that in a kind way.

And that everyday spirituality is another theme.

Just looking at how do we view ourselves as part of something that's actually greater than us,

That can hold us.

And how can we integrate that in everyday life?

I think all of the themes,

Really what's central to all of the themes is this spiritual perspective.

Part of the reason we are having this conversation now is because I realised that I want to talk about that explicitly a lot more.

It's implicit in my work.

If you read the themes on the website,

You might get that to an extent,

But I feel like it's time for me to more explicitly talk about this because it is really central to who I am and why I offer what I do.

So,

Yeah,

It feels important.

I wonder,

Because I know this has been the case for me and I know it's the case for a lot of people,

I'm just wondering if for you,

You have found that it's been challenging somehow to really overtly give expression to your spiritual understanding of the world.

Yes,

It has and I think that's for a few reasons really.

I think one of the reasons is because it's hard to put words on something that's hard to describe.

That's not a solid physical thing here.

And everyone's experience is different.

And how can I make this understandable?

How can I express what I'm experiencing in here of my existence?

How can I make that understandable to others?

That's a part of it.

And I think another part of it is not really being sure how it will be received,

Not being sure how it will be received and perceived.

Because I'm very grounded,

I'm a very grounded person.

And my work is very,

Very grounded,

Not coming from an airy,

Fairy place.

My spirituality is actually very,

Very grounded.

But I think maybe I have some ideas or I project that other people have some ideas that I won't be seen as grounded if I talk about this.

And I'm realising that's just not true.

And I really want to express.

It's time for me to express this now in the world.

I know it's myself getting really excited actually as you talk about a grounded spirituality because I can relate to what you're saying that if I am really honest and open and vulnerable about my experience of being in the world,

I'm going to invite projections and judgments from others that I'm airy,

Fairy,

A wave of birds,

All those kinds of things that we do get projected onto us if we speak about certain things.

And I feel a real passion rising in myself now because I feel like,

And that's why we need to speak about them in a grounded way,

To heal that real and division that we carry between the body and mind,

The spirit and the matter,

That kind of Descartesian split of I think,

Therefore I am,

And anything else is weird and wacky.

But actually,

You know,

Maybe we're entering into an era of really being able to be a whole human being.

Yeah,

And not the human doing,

Living in the state of separateness that you were talking about earlier,

But actually a whole human being that is a body and a mind and a heart and a soul and spirit,

Living in a place of ecological interconnection with everything else that exists.

Yes,

And we need it now,

Really more than ever,

Because when we recognise that we are not separate,

Everything,

Every way that we are,

Everything we say and do matters,

Because we're interconnected with everything else.

And it also makes us,

When we realise if we are kind to someone else,

Automatically that is a kindness to ourselves because we're interconnected.

So,

When we realise that we're not separate,

Then it comes naturally to us to be kind to each other,

Be kind to the earth,

To really be in the love that we actually,

That is our true nature.

Yes,

The love that is our true nature.

Yeah,

I like your note.

Yeah.

And that is the opposite of airy-fairy,

You know,

That's very practical and very necessary for us to realise and actually have conversations about.

Yes,

I noticed as I was hearing you speak there,

What I was with was a kind of a sense of responsibility,

It brings me into a place of responsibility,

You know,

When I recognise that I'm not separate,

And that my words and actions and thoughts and behaviours have an impact at such a level,

I've become a much more responsible human being,

Less likely to harm myself or others or the planet.

Yeah,

To be more aware of myself in the world and the interconnectedness of us all.

As you say,

That's so practical and so grounded and necessary.

Yeah,

Exactly.