Dear community

Three big concepts in this prompt as I am full of that neurodiverse energy of everything, everywhere, all at once..

I want to gift you 90 minutes to unpack them, as if I serve you, you can serve your community

Deep Coaching Session - https://calendly.com/mo-belonging-people/coaching​

You are not your thoughts, feelings or body

The critical skill for all of us, especially those working in social impact and justice, is this...

Sitting with the knowing that... We are not our thoughts. We are not our feelings. We are not our body. We are the one that witnesses them.

Why is this the critical skill?

Have you notice that your turning away from the news? Have you noticed a lack of interest in Palestine?

In this time of shadow, we need to hold our ability to witness the world without allowing it to absorb us. Otherwise we will turn away, bury our head, ignore the hard realities and truths.

If we become our thoughts, we become the martyr, the saviour, the over-giver, or we numb ourselves to avoid thinking our thoughts. Yet at the same time, scale of loving action and courage needed in the world feels insurmountable.

If we become our thoughts, the current global climate will destroy us from the inside out.

Before

Before, injustice might have felt “out there”, in a foreign land, somewhere distant. Now it is everywhere. Not just away from us. Now it feels we are surrounded by need no matter the identity.

Before, we might not have felt part of the actual need for justice. It may have been another country, another community, another cohort of people.

For some of us, the grief and plight of the world has always been part of us.

For my own refugee background, I ignored this rather than witnessed it. I numbed by disassociating, making myself detached while seeking other people’s justice.

I found it easier to solve other people’s problems than to face the thoughts I hold. Does that resonate?

When we become our thoughts, we can start to believe there is a right or wrong way, rather than seeing each decision as a process. An evolution and curiousity comes from witnessing.

We also begin to realise that many of the voices in our head are not ours. They may belong to a caregiver, a partner, a teacher, a culture, or a ghost from the past.

I know the high chatter in my neurodiverse brain, so there are plenty of voices in there. If you take up the deep coaching session, remind me to hold the reversal of desire meditation for you, to walk through those voices.

How do I practice witnessing my thoughts.

1. I practise love and witnessing in the micro-moments of conversations. In how I show up. In how I listen. In how I relate. In what my body is doing during a conversation. I say 'There is a thought about..." "There is a feeling of..." "The body is... " which helps me to not be the thought or feeling but witness them. I have learnt the hard way from feeling negative feedback and making it personal.
2. Showing solidarity matters. Many of you know I drum regularly with a Palestine Coalition. Not because I am a good drummer (I am pretty awful!), but because it helps me practise sitting in awareness with my body and mind every week.
3. I play a game with clients called: **Is it your **** or their ****? Love this game.
4. I notice where I might be over-giving and intruding.
5. I notice I might be under-receiving and blocking other people’s love.
6. Take time to understand your own triggering. Oof. Yes. This part is hard.
7. My morning practices. Get my grounded no matter what is happening around me. Especially Monday mornings.
8. I go for a walk and name everything you see. “Red car.”Tree with some buds appearing.”Steamed wind ”Small bird who's name I dont know"
9. I visualise the thoughts are in front of me, or surround me, rather than in me. I use the image of swirling blue thoughts around me, and I am gold coloured, and if I step into the swirling blue thoughts, my colour changes to blue.
10. And as you know, I am a big fan of the Life Triangle (download the picture below).

Choose one intention from the above this week, to help you bear witness rather than be absorbed.

Purpose and identity

As we enter a period of recalibrating purpose and identity for Rise in Our Roots, for the Men’s Circle, and for how I am working more broadly with those who's compass is a bit off.. I want to invite some reflection:

• What are your key strengths? If you cannot see them, email me and I will send you a simple way to uncover them. I want everyone to see their strengths.
• What thoughts, mindsets, or actions have propelled you forward in the past?
• What thoughts, mindsets, or actions have held you back in the past?
• What have you forgotten about yourself that you want to remember?
• What patterns keep repeating in your life or purpose, even across generations?
• What is important to you in your work? Make a long list. Narrow it down to five.
• What creates the conditions for a community to move together towards a shared destination?

Courage

I stepped into courage this weekend and my nervous system is still recovering. I DJ’d live at “Disoriental: Beats from a Borderless World” after twelve years of not DJing publicly.

Witnessing my thoughts about imposter syndrome and pleasing others was the main practice.

I had been practising all the 10 things listed, so when I was still sorting the set 10 minutes before starting (classic neurodiverse tendencies 🤣and 5 tunes didn't work, I practice witnessing myself and allowed joy to flow.

My DJ mentor Aejaz made it simple: “You are sharing what you love.”

Which, honestly, resonates for every part of my life.

Music is resistance

Please follow DiaspoRIDDIM - they put the spotlight on some of the most exciting DJs and artists today whose work is influenced by their own personal story of migration, having grown up in multiple cultures and musical traditions.

​https://www.mixcloud.com/diasporiddim/​

Much love your way this week! 🌱🤣🦉