Unspeakable Kindness

Bestselling American author Geneen Roth tells us that whenever we feel an upsetting explosion of emotion that arrives unexpectedly and without invitation, it is a holy moment.  Sacred information is being revealed to us and it is our being triggered that opens this fascinating door to our awareness.

This triggering is not an easy moment for any of us.  It is messy and confusing and unpredictable...but it is real.  We can feel it in our bodies and now we can no longer pretend that nothing is wrong.  It is here and it is running the show.

Yikes, we think.  This is not how I want to express myself.  But the intensity of the moment has revealed our truth... something is very wrong and disturbing us and it wants to...it demands...to be heard.

How do we deal with this maelstrom

of emotional turbulence?

We WELCOME the messengers.

But who are these strangers who have burst into the middle of our lives?

Geneen Roth has chosen a mysterious and compelling image to describe these characters who are presenting the epiphanies  to us.  She calls them Ghost Children.  And we all have a cache of them waiting in line to be recognized and heard.

I think Roth calls these characters ghosts because they are the couriers of unresolved pain and she calls them children because they represent our innocence as we enter the world and also because they are persistent as all children are in wanting to be heard and acknowledged.

And what are we to do with these internuncios...these  emissaries of the soul longing for acknowledgment and release?  Roth has a remedy to suggest.  She instructs us to welcome, love and question our ghost children.

Further, she passionately advises us to be unspeakably kind to them 

for they represent our unhealed hearts and, left unattended, they will affect the way we view life and ourselves and how we interact with others.

This may seem a very challenging way to deal with our own storm surges  and the emotional explosions of others because the very act of being triggered or of triggering others is fraught with grave tension and anxiety and the survival protection of defensiveness.

But, when a triggering occurs,  it is unhealed hurt that has gathered the courage to speak and it needs to be honored.  Hence, the unspeakable kindness Roth proposes for when our tears, metaphorical or otherwise, are attempting to show themselves for release and resolution, we will always do this more easily when we have been met with loving kindness.  When an open heart responds to our pain, we are gently encouraged to examine the circumstances that have inspired it.

When moments of Intense and disturbing gravitas are met with beautiful  tenderness, love and “unspeakable kindness” we move together through an incredible 

transmutation and healing. 

This vision of Geneen Roth is beautiful and  inspiring.  We have the ability to dream it and, having dreamt it, we can more easily manage to make this a hallmark of our lives.

                            Marie Helena

Image from pinterest