I remember my first earthquake very vividly. I was sitting at work, talking with my co-workers, when the world felt ‘weird’ for a moment. Having never experienced an earthquake before, all I could tell was that things were shaking, and it was nice to see that the people around me (seasoned Californians) were not freaking out. As soon as one of them identified the sensation, I could relax and really ‘feel’ what was happening. Thankfully it was a relatively mild one, which left no damage, and was just a good topic for conversation.
But the feeling that something very deep below me was shifting was a sensation I’ve never forgotten.
We all like to feel that our foundation is solid, that it doesn’t shift too much. The more sure we are of where we are standing, the more likely we are to make changes, take risks and see things from a balanced perspective. When we are young, our foundation tends to be very specific; based on our families, and the very small world that we inhabit. As we grow older, our foundation can deepen with our philosophy or beliefs, our relationships, and our choices.
And as we age, shifts in our foundation become less frequent, but can often be more powerful.
Instead of the small and gentle shifts that usually occur as a child grows, adult foundational shifts can often be what I describe as soul-quakes… a tectonic shift in the way we feel about the universe, our partner, our beliefs in the nature of the universe. It may be the loss of a career, the death of a loved one, learning of a deep and long lasting betrayal, or the sudden realization of a truth that is as self evident as it monumental.
Sometimes your soul-quakes are a result of the outside world, and sometimes they are from the inside world, far away in the dark corners of your soul.
A soul-quake can be profoundly painful or majestically moving. It can be both the end of a dream or the beginning of a period of enlightenment. In my years of working with different people, I have come to understand that tectonic movements within our soul are rarely without some form of pain. This can be from the loss of something, or from something we have given up, or the realization that a movement is necessary even though it will be accompanied by some pain.
The older you get, the harder it becomes to change your foundation.
But as we get older, the changes that we need tend to be tectonic. They are not the small course corrections found in childhood or young adulthood that require a small course correction. No, the older you get, the more force is required to make the changes that will lead us to the deeper truths that our very souls are crying for.
Very often, the tectonic shifts of our further years are about losing something that we thought was a part of ourselves, so that we might find more clearly the very nature of life as we wish it to be.
And that loss can be as painful as it can be profound.
As I grow older, I still find occasions of wonder and surprise, as a part of life sharpens into focus when once it was blurred in the background, and I see that there are changes that I wish to make, and yet sometimes I falter in the moment, fearful of what the next way point on the journey of my life could entail.
Because like an earthquake that occurs under our feet, a tectonic shift in our soul can be both destructive and creative, both painful and powerful. Sometimes it is the result of something that has been under pressure for so long finally breaking free, and when that energy is released, the very ground beneath our soul can move and find new balance.
Settling into a pathway that is better for us, and one that may lead us to joy.
— Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings