A privileged starting point and body awareness
Recently a young man came to my practice. It had been several years since I had last seen him. I immediately recognised his mother in his features. It has been a while since I last saw her too, but this way I felt the connection again, along with my inner joy at being able to guide her son. The young man is in his early twenties. He came with a question that was close to his heart but still unclear to him. During the session we moved ever closer to the essence of his question, and the answer became clear. I can't go into the details of his session, but he felt a clear passion and mission in his life. His choice for it was clear, and had it not been clear yet, the method we chose left no room for doubt. To be so young and to know so clearly where your mission lies: that is a privileged starting point. As the session progressed, anger also showed itself. I pointed it out to him. He did not recognise it straight away, but it did take him to a deep sorrow. Tears filled his eyes. What happened then I found so beautiful that the world 'must' know about it. By 'the world' I mean policymakers and decision-makers at every level: political, economic, financial, environmental, and so on. The emotion the young man showed went much deeper than the emotion about the question he had originally come with. His sorrow was about everything that is happening in the world right now. Everything that is going on. He did not waste many words on it. Nor was there any need to. It was felt right down into his body. The sorrow became embodied. That is important if you want to move forward, because body awareness propels you further along your path.
I don't feel the need to list all the ways in which respect for the lives of people and of the planet is being compromised. Everyone has some notion of that. What I regularly wonder is whether those who make or carry out the decisions on these matters ever stop to consider the effect that a careless attitude towards all forms of life has on young people. Young adults and small children. Does anyone ever stop to think that illnesses and learning and behavioural difficulties are partly rooted in the collective experience of the suffering that a lack of respect for life and unjust action bring with them? I wonder, but I shouldn't. I know. This young man is yet another person who carries that sorrow within him.
The present tense gives hope.
This need not be bad news, however. His sorrow and his purposeful passion can become a wonderful team, one that works at decision-making levels to treat all the beauty we are given here on earth with awareness. His tears gave me hope. His passion gives me hope. He is not the only one. All over the world young people will let themselves be propelled towards solutions for the chaos that is now visible. I am using the wrong tense. It is already happening, in the present tense. That gives hope. Perspective. It is only a matter of time before it shows itself more and more.
His sense of justice and beauty in the world brought me back to an exercise I did last year, in the midst of the coronavirus period. An exercise in which I was asked to write a letter to my native country or village. I chose the country. All the feelings that came up were allowed to be expressed. I was curious to see what might surface, because the idea had never occurred to me before. I would let myself be surprised. I'd like to let you read along for a moment.
Letter to my country.
‘Oh, dear Belgium,
When I was given the assignment of writing a letter to you, the words ‘Oh, dear Belgium’ came to me spontaneously. While I was getting everything ready, I went over what I might tell you.
How, as a teenager, I loved cycling home on summer evenings after tennis, past meadows dotted with sheep, when the sun had already set but the evening air was still breathing summer in and out.
How every time, wherever I am coming back from, even if I have only been away for a day, I consciously cross the border and feel that I am home and safe again.
Until a few years ago I experienced safety in your lap, in many areas, from nature to culture and even the social order.
From the bottom of my heart, however, I never understood the distinction people made between Flemings and Walloons, nor the wish of some to split this country. Connecting is more in my nature.
A small but fine country, I would say, with a dignified cultural history. The things that are going wrong now I cannot lay at your door, for they are not of your doing.
As I let whatever came up in me flow from my pen, it occurred to me that, like so many Belgians, I don't know the Brabançonne, your national anthem, apart from the first line. I looked up the words and felt deeply connected to the history of this rich country.
The words alone weren't enough for me, I noticed. I wanted to hear the song about you being sung. Fortunately you can find just about anything on YouTube, and I found it straight away. I pressed the play button, and then something happened that caught me completely by surprise and that I could never have suspected, even though I feel connected to you.
The notes of the first words, ‘Oh, dear Belgium’, had barely faded away when I burst into sobs. There was no holding them back. The sobbing came from deep within. It was existential. It had been there for a long time. Ready to be released. As if a deep old love that you have not forgotten, but that lives on hazily in the background, suddenly comes back to life through a sound and becomes vivid. A feeling that makes everything else fade and be forgotten. There was only that.
We are connected right down to our cells. A mutual love and a sense of being held. Even though the words refer to bygone times, I was in contact with something great, something precious. A living being.
I felt devotion to you, a loving urge to protect you from the fragmentation of the green land, from being cut in two. My heart cannot bear it.
I thought of all the people from other countries who live here, who are welcome on your soil and who probably also feel such a deep love for their country of origin. I understand them. I did before, too, but now in a different and better way.
Now that I have calmed down a little, I realise, though in fact I realised it a moment ago as well, that I was connected to something much greater than what I usually feel about you. The greater whole. It reminds me of systemic work (constellations).
What a deep, such a deep, unprecedented sorrow and feeling this assignment has brought me to. At the same time I came into contact with my love for the millions of fellow inhabitants who are all held by you and who therefore share something in common. I am not enough of a wordsmith to describe what I felt just now. It was overwhelming.
Thank you for this experience.
Thank you for the home you offer me.
Thank you for giving me a glimpse of the bigger energetic picture of a country.
Oh, dear Belgium,
in my heart as my homeland.
We are entwined by an umbilical cord that is at the same time loose
and held in your lap.
With deep love and gratitude. Hilde’
A driving force for our mission
Who would ever have thought that I would write a love letter to my country? Who would ever have thought that it would give me insight into an energy that transcends time and space? It is just one of the many manifestations that occur in life, beyond what we see with our eyes, hear with our ears and think with our brains. We are connected to everything. Truly everything. We have a deep love for life. Fortunately we are reminded of it now and then. Just like the young man in my practice. Just like so many others we never meet in person. We are feeling beings. By allowing and developing our sensitivity, we gain a broader view of reality and a driving force to go for our mission. That gives hope. A great deal of hope.
It is important that we preserve or develop the energetic perspective. It is a way of seeing that has existed for thousands of years but has been ignored in many ways. All over the world it is being remembered again, so that we can better understand ourselves and the world and tap into a greater potential. The workshops and training courses I offer in my academy meet the need to raise and sustain our collective potential for awareness.
Hilde Van Bulck
Awareness coach, speaker, author, systemic constellation facilitator and adviser, with a strong passion for education
Author of De Eigenwijze kikker and De nacht van ons leven
Facilitator for education at Organisation Of The Future
AMI Activator, Motivator, Inspirator
