Obligolnian Strivings: Week Two of Inner Task Series by Heather Ruce

This week let us stay with the first striving: to have in one’s ordinary being-existence everything satisfying and really necessary for the planetary body. During the Lenten season, we can have a tendency to feel the heaviness of what is being asked of us—to fast, pray, and give—in order to remember ourselves and this path that we have chosen (or probably more accurately said has chosen us). One simple way we can offer our planetary body something satisfying and really necessary is nourishing and enjoyable non-addictive non-substantive (as my teacher in Organic Intelligence Steve Hoskinson says) impressions.

As we know, our brain and nervous system’s natural tendency is to pay attention to what is wrong in our environment in order to avoid or try to fix it and ensure our survival needs/wants. This is not a problem necessarily, as it has allowed our species to survive for as long as we have, but ‘what’s wrong’ can take up too much of our attention, contributing to our planetary body’s experience of overwhelm, dis-ease, dis-connection and excessive pursuit of control/power, safety/security, affection/esteem in order to try to self calm.

We are relational beings—self, other humans, more than human beings, more than human natural world, web of life, spiritual and blood ancestors, cosmos, God—and there is much to draw on and offer back in every moment. As you go about your day notice when you are experiencing enjoyment. . . pause and see if you can identify what is enjoyable about the moment. . . begin to identify where that enjoyable experience is landing in your body (stomach, face, shoulders, etc) and what the sensation is (tingling, loosening, calming, etc). . . take a few seconds to enjoy it. Allow these impressions to be good food for your planetary body.

Here is a quick practice you can try if you would like: