I’m blessed to be part of Andrea Schroeder’s creative dream circle. Each week there’s an invitation to work with a quality and this week mine was commitment. It felt like perfect timing and like there was plenty of opportunity to yield and obtain a yield (see my post about Yield) in the exploration of this quality. When I meditated on the quality of commitment it appeared to me as a simple brown belt, well loved and well worn with a gold/brass buckle. I was curious about the image and noticed the buckle was unclasped. I felt quite pleased by the simplicity of the image and the tangible, practical symbol. This helped me to appreciate that I have a tendency to overcomplicate commitment and get lost in ideas about it. The belt seemed to be saying to me this can be a simple, practical thing.
What else can I realise about commitment through my reflections on image of this belt? I observe a level of flexibility there is space for expansion and contraction, for ebb and flow. There is a certain point where the belt will no longer be practical by which I mean it will no longer fit. I played with this in various scenarios. First I imagined the belt/commitment as a container to hold a relationship. It can be clasped as long as the relationship doesn’t outgrow it. There might come a point where you still value the commitment or the belt but it cannot remain clasped – ie the current commitment is no longer working for the relationship. So you can adjust the commitment so it’s working again or you can let go of the clasp on that relationship and still know that you are connected and value what you have shared. I liked the notion that commitment remains in oneness and wholeness whether or not the belt is clasped or practical in each moment. Of course you might have a completely different image come through to support your exploration of commitment but this is a great way to invite in and explore new perspectives on aspects of our lives.
At a certain point I felt like I had reached the limit of the belt as a symbol. It led me to more questions… I took these questions to my guides. I asked; If the belt is a practical way to explore the quality of commitment can I have an image for the spiritual symbol for commitment ? I I received the image of a snake spiralling upward circling over itself as it moved. I saw that as we grow and change we cycle back and revisit the same places and people from a different perspective, possibly an expanded, more whole and authentic perspective.
This already helped me with my second question: how do I reconcile the notion of permanence, stability and sustainability over time with the reality that life is in constant flux and needs to grow and change in order to remain alive? The answer I received to the second question was that the primary spiritual commitment is to life, listening for and answering the call of life but that this call must be answered in a practical way. Perhaps for the purposes of human relating commitment must be alive and must support the practical needs of each being snd situation. And that’s why I was showed the belt so I can see how commitment as an accessible and simple thing and address it in practical ways that allow me to honour the needs of my relationships and that support me in my aliveness. This is the function of the belt after – all it is supportive and comfortable. I guess for some people commitment like their belts are there for purposes of gaining approval or social significance and that’s fine but are they super comfie and supportive too? I like the idea that the belt is supportive of the relationship and one way of addressing commitment issues as they arise might be to experiment with a more zazzy belt – meaning experimenting with change, bringing in play, creativity and more aliveness in how you embody commitment in your life.
Making our primary commitment to awareness/life/aliveness means we can let go of and be guided to peace and aliveness in our human commitments. We will change form and structure as we live and the forms and structures around us, the contents of our lives will change too. This includes the people. This will look differently in each life. Our early experiences of commitment and the conditioning we have affect our ideas, identity and behaviour. If we believe commitment is a trap we will make it so, or spend our lives trying to escape it, if we believe we don’t deserve commitment but deep down we want it we will give mixed signals or find people who can’t, or won’t offer it to us. If we are trying to live our parents values in order to feel safe or significant we may lose aliveness and our authenticity in relationships in our attempts to preserve the structure and security. Commitments can be containers for wildness and creativity as well as scaffolds to support us in the sometimes overwhelming possibilities of being human. Sign up to my newsletter below or if you want to explore with support consider booking a session to work with me.
