“Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)” —Walt Whitman
It is so clear what I need to do. I’m excited looking ahead to the possibilities.
And yet my heart is absolutely breaking about the things I’m letting go of.
Both are true, at the same time.
A friend is excited about an event he’s attending soon. He’s also sad it conflicts with a family celebration.
Both are true, at the same time.
I sometimes feel like a total badass in my work. Other times I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing.
Both are true, at the same time.
I’ve heard it said one of the hallmarks of adulthood is the ability to hold two opposing truths, at the same time.
And yet it can be hard. Hard to contain in our bodies. Hard to contain in our hearts and minds.
The opposing truths play tug of war and neither is satisfied and we squirm in the tension.
This is where the exercise of Polarity Dancing can help.
This is an activity, an art, a game.
Stand in one spot in the room. Let one of the truths be as big as it is.
Embody it. Play it out. Be unenlightened, be immature, be melodramatic. Give “Truth A” the chance to breathe.
Then move to another spot in the room. Let this be “Truth B”’s spot. Embody it fully. Play it out. Let it have its moment in the sun, in all its glory.
Then go back to Truth A. Get into it again, for a shorter time.
Then back to B.
Then back to A.
Go back and forth, back and forth, faster and faster. Keep being one and then the other in your body.
Sometime will happen.
I can’t tell you what.
You can’t think your way through this, it has to be moved and lived.
But some kind of new equilibrium will emerge.
An insight. A possibility.
Maybe your shoulders will relax and you’ll feel more room to breathe.
Maybe you’ll see the opposites aren’t opposites after all.
Who knows?
Try it.
There’s magic in dancing the differences and letting them each have their space.
Heart-stretchingly yours,
Rachel
PS – You can also do this with archetypes — the Mother and the Boss Lady, the Lover and the Warrior. Etc.
