Recently on my morning walk I found myself exploring a playground and reminiscing about the playgrounds I used to play on when I was younger.
I can still remember spinning around and around on the merry-go-round and squealing with joy, as my world became a dizzy blur. The older children would periodically jump off and pushed even harder in hopes of getting the merry-go-round to go faster. The adrenaline rush was thrilling but it also brought up ripples of fear, anxiety, and sometimes, even terror.
If I was hanging on to the outer edge, the ride was even more intense. Sometimes it felt like I was going to be thrown off and flung into the stratosphere––maybe even thrown into oblivion! But if I moved closer to the center of the merry-go-round, the ride was still fun but slightly less riddled with fear.
The global upheaval in life today is creating an experience that feels vaguely similar to my childhood rides on the merry-go-round. When I allow myself to get caught up in the anxiety and overwhelm of others, the experience is like hanging onto the outer edge of the merry-go-round. I lose touch with myself and what is important to me. On the other hand, when I allow a deep instinctual part of myself to crawl closer to my center, I am able to enjoy the ride more, and extract the wisdom of the moment. If you don’t have a merry-go-round to play on I invite you to explore some of the ICWIB! art activities and videos for FREE, because they too have the capacity to help you reconnect with the deep instinctual part of yourself and what is truly important to you.