A luxurious starting point and body consciousness
Recently a young man came to my practice. It had been some years since I had last seen him. I immediately recognised his mother in the features of his face. It is also a while since I saw her, but in this way I felt the connection again, and my inner joy at being allowed to guide her son. The young man is in his early twenties. He came with a question that was very close to his heart, but one that was unclear to him. During the session we moved further and further towards the essence of his question. The answer to his question became clear. Without being able to go into detail about his session, he felt a clear passion and mission in his life. His choice for it was clear, and if it had not been clear yet, then the working method he chose left no room for doubt whatsoever. To know so young and so clearly where your mission lies — that is a luxurious starting point. As the session progressed, an anger showed itself as well. I pointed it out to him. He did not recognise it straight away, but it did bring 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, decision-makers at every level: political, economic, financial, environmental, and so on. The emotion the young man showed was far more profound than the emotion around the question he originally came with. His sorrow was about everything that is happening in the world now. About everything that is going on. He did not waste many words on it. Nor was that necessary. It was felt right into his body. The sorrow was embodied. That is important in order to be able to move on, because body consciousness propels you further along your path.
I do not feel the need to list all the ways in which respect for the life of people and of the planet is being compromised, in so many different forms. Everyone has some notion of that. What I regularly wonder is whether those who take the decisions about this, or who carry them out, ever stop to consider the effect that a careless handling of all forms of life has on young people. Young adults and small children. Does anyone ever stop to consider that the illnesses, the learning and behavioural difficulties are partly rooted in the collective experience of the suffering brought about by a lack of respect for life and by unjust actions? I wonder about it, but I should not have to. I know it. This young man is yet another person carrying the sorrow of it inside him.
The present tense gives hope.
This need not be bad news, however. The sorrow and his purposeful passion can become a magnificent team, one that commits itself at decision-making levels to dealing consciously with all the beautiful things we are given here on earth. 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 of beauty in the world brought me back to an exercise I did last year, in the middle of the corona period. An exercise in which I was asked to write a letter to my country or village of birth. I chose the country. All the feelings that came up with it were allowed to be expressed. I was curious about what might surface, because I had never had such an idea before. I would let myself be surprised. I would like you to read along for a moment.
Letter to my country.
“Oh, dear Belgium,
When I was given the assignment to write you a letter, 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 with little sheep, while the sun had already set but the evening air was breathing the summer in and out.
How every time, wherever I am coming from, even if I have only been away for a single day, I consciously drive across the border and have the feeling 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, to even the workings of society.
The distinction people made between Flemings and Walloons, and the wish of some to split this country in two, is something my heart has never understood. 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 in your lap, because they are not happening through anything you have done.
As I let what came up in me flow out of my pen, it struck me that, just like so many Belgians, I do not know the Brabançonne, your national anthem, apart from the first line. I looked up the words and felt deeply connected with the history of this rich country.
The words alone did not satisfy me, I noticed. I wanted to hear the song about you being sung. Luckily you can find just about anything on YouTube and I found it straight away. I pressed the play button, and then something happened that took me completely by surprise and that I could never have suspected, even though I feel connected with you.
The notes of the first words, ‘Oh, dear Belgium’, had not yet died away when I burst into sobs. Unstoppable. The sobbing came from deep down. 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 hazily in the background, suddenly comes back to life through a sound, becomes vivid again. A feeling that makes everything else fade and be forgotten. There was only that.
We are connected right into our cells. A mutual love and support. Even though the words refer to times long gone, I was in contact with something great, something valuable. A living being.
I felt devotion to you, a loving urge to protect you against the fragmentation of this green land, the cutting of it in two. My heart cannot bear it.
I thought of all those people from foreign countries who live here, who are welcome on your soil, and who at the same time probably feel just as deep a love for their country of origin. I understand them. I did before as well, but now differently and better.
Now that I have calmed down a little, I realise, and actually I realised it just now too, that I have been connected with something far greater than what I usually feel about you. The larger whole. It reminds me of systemic work (constellations).
What a deep, such a deep, unknown sorrow and feeling this assignment has brought me to. At the same time I came into contact with the love for the millions of fellow inhabitants who are all carried by you and who therefore share a common feature. I am not enough of a word artist to describe the feeling I had 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 into the larger energetic picture of a country.
Oh, dear Belgium,
in my heart as my motherland.
We are entwined by an umbilical cord that is loose at the same time
and is carried in your lap.
With deep love and gratitude. Hilde”
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 only one of the many manifestations that occur in life, beyond what we see with our eyes, hear with our ears and think with our brain. We are connected with everything. Really 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 people we never meet in person. We are feeling beings. In allowing and developing our sensitivity, we gain a wider 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 keep or develop the energetic way of seeing. It is a way of looking that has existed for thousands of years, but that has been ignored in many ways. All over the world it is being called back to mind, 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 answer the need to lift and maintain our collective potential of consciousness.
Hilde Van Bulck
Consciousness coach, speaker, writer, systemic constellation facilitator and advisor, with a firm passion for education
Author of De eigenwijze kikker (The Headstrong Frog) and De nacht van ons leven
Facilitator for education at Organisation Of The Future
AMI Activator, Motivator, Inspirer