Coming Back Into Balance

Much of the work I’ve been doing with men lately has been touching on how they feel out of balance in their lives. For some, it’s about spending too much time at work and not enough time at play or recreation. For others, it’s about too much time in their heads and not enough time in a more sensual or body-centered relationship to life. The health practitioners spend too much time giving and not enough time being nurtured in turn.

When we are caught up in our lives, it often seems that it’s all we can do to get from sunup to sundown with some degree of grace. There is so much to do in the course of a day that there is very little time for reflection. It’s only when we carve out an hour or two to spend with a group or a cup of coffee talking with a friend, that we might get a sense of what the shape of our life looks like. This initial “taking stock” will often be difficult because it may include a recognition of how we are out of balance, the ways that we are not happy, or the things that are not working in our life. A lot of men don’t want to stop and take stock because this initial assessment can be difficult and without some support,you may not be able to figure out where to go with it once you do realize that you‘re out of balance.

In one of my men’s groups, we are working with a book by Matthew Fox who’s subtitle is “Ten Metaphors to awaken the Sacred Masculine”. In a recent session we talked about the “Green Man” as an archetype that has the ability to connect us back in with the earth, with our deep roots, with the Divine Feminine. The Archetypes are capacities or qualities latent in each of us that we can draw on at any time. They are there to provide guidance and energy when we are seeking to redress imbalances in the psyche or to expand the sense of Who we know ourselves to be.

Fox quotes Carl Jung in saying that “…archetypes appear in new forms at particular times to redress imbalances in society. The Green Man may be recurring today, then, not just because our relationship with nature is off balance but also because our relationship with Maleness is off balance . The Green Man calls to men to wake up…He calls men to reconnect sexuality with nature, culture with cosmos and economics with stewardship and responsibility.”

Sexuality, culture (family life) and economics (money matters) are areas where we as men struggle and find ourselves out of balance today. My feeling is that if we are going to reconnect in the way that Jung describes, we need to get together with others in a sacred way and support each other in this process of reconnection. We need to share the places where we’re vulnerable, where we’re hurting, and then be open to feedback from our own inner Wiseman and from others we trust. So much happens simply in the slowing down and acknowledging these challenging places. We invite Spirit in at that point to work with us. This is key in any area of spiritual endeavor: Spirit is always looking for a place of vulnerability, of openness, to come in and change our lives. Once we’ve done that, we’ve come a long way towards healing. Once we’re able to phrase the question: “How do I come back into balance?”, we simply need to continue a bit in the Silence, and listen for the response. It will come. We need to stay open, and we need to listen.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 25th, 2010 at 6:15 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

 

2 Responses to “Coming Back Into Balance”

  1. Tom Fuller Says:

    Your welcome!

  2. Tom Fuller Says:

    Thanks for sharing the website.
    Is there anything particular in the post which spoke to you?
    Tom

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