Spring, Truth & Patience

Foto: Lukas Ebneter

Changes in the outside world often bring about changes in our inner perception as well. This is an opportunity to listen to your inner self and consciously embrace the changing seasons. The days are getting longer and warmer again. The blackbirds are already singing with delight at dawn.

How does this change the way you feel in your body? What happens inside you when the sun’s rays are no longer blocked by down jackets but land on your skin? When the balcony pots are brought out of the dark basement again and your hands feel fresh soil once more, when you start riding your bike in shorts again—then, yes, then spring has arrived.

What do you associate with springtime? And how does that affect how your body feels?

Do you perhaps feel that the warmth and the warm air give you more room to breathe? Or is it quite different for you, and do you miss the darkness, the quiet in the streets, the crunch of fresh snow under your feet?

All your perceptions are signs of your truth. Yes, you have your own truth. You can let that sink in slowly:

You have your own truth.

You are exactly right, just the way you are.

Foto: Lukas Ebneter

Curiosity, Trust, Slowing Down—Or the Beauty of Not Being a Machine

Foto: Lukas Ebneter

Every day, I am amazed anew by the impact that understanding trauma and the nervous system can have on me and the people around me.

Curiosity, trust, and slowing down are words most of us are familiar with. But how often do we truly connect with their essence? We are not machines operating at the speed of an AI control center. Our biological system is designed to have the time to perceive the language of the nervous system and respond to it.

“Nature does not hurry, and yet everything is accomplished." - Tao te King

With the necessary curiosity, trust in the language of our bodies, and the time we devote to our feelings, we can learn to listen more deeply within ourselves. The answers emerge when we have the patience to stay with the questions. This reminds me of a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke about patience, one that has come back to me time and again in recent years. I’d like to share it with you at the very end of this post.

Somatic Experiencing sessions in Zurich and Basel

With Somatic Experiencing, we can learn to pause, listen, perceive and understand the language of the body. Words are often inadequate for the “qualia”—the quality of bodily sensations and emotions. Or how would you describe the perception of the delicate green of a young beech leaf in words? Fortunately (!), we don’t have to understand everything with our minds and describe it with words. Sometimes it’s even helpful—and often magical—to experience new forms of language. The body is the “vehicle of perception” for this. Of course, there are also unpleasant emotions and sensations that arise in the body and want to be acknowledged. Here, too, attentive listening and taking time—with trust and unbiased curiosity—can help. Answers emerge, often not through active effort, but precisely by letting go of mental strain.

As a Somatic Experiencing practitioner, I offer you a safe space in one-on-one sessions where you can safely perceive the voices, movements, shapes, and colors emerging from your body. This allows old patterns and discomforts to surface and be acknowledged without feeling overwhelmed. A new sense of calm and security, as well as a greater sense of expansiveness and vitality, becomes possible.

If you—or someone you know—would like to learn more about SE, you can find information about me and SE on my website. If you have any questions or would like to get to know me better, I offer a free introductory consultation, which you can schedule via my website. I look forward to hearing from you.

With that in mind, I wish you a peaceful and sunny spring filled with wonder and curiosity.

With patience and warmth,

Lukas

And now, here is the poem I promised... (See the original German below)

On Patience - Rainer Maria Rilke One must allow things their own quiet, undisturbed development, which comes from deep within, and cannot be forced or hastened by anything; everything must be carried to term – and then give birth… Mature like the tree, which does not force its sap and stands confidently in the storms of spring, without fear that summer might not follow. It does come! But it comes only to the patient, who are there, as if eternity lay before them, so carefree, still, and vast… One must have patience with what remains unresolved in the heart, and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms, and like books written in a very foreign language. It is a matter of living through everything. If one lives through the questions, one may gradually, without realizing it, one day live into the answers.

Original German:

Über die Geduld - Rainer Maria Rilke Man muss den Dingen die eigene, stille ungestörte Entwicklung lassen, die tief von innen kommt, und durch nichts gedrängt oder beschleunigt werden kann; alles ist austragen – und dann gebären…  Reifen wie der Baum, der seine Säfte nicht drängt und getrost in den Stürmen des Frühlings steht, ohne Angst, dass dahinter kein Sommer kommen könnte. Er kommt doch! Aber er kommt nur zu den Geduldigen, die da sind, als ob die Ewigkeit vor ihnen läge, so sorglos, still und weit…  Man muss Geduld haben mit dem Ungelösten im Herzen, und versuchen, die Fragen selber lieb zu haben, wie verschlossene Stuben, und wie Bücher, die in einer sehr fremden Sprache geschrieben sind.  Es handelt sich darum, alles zu leben. Wenn man die Fragen lebt, lebt man vielleicht allmählich, ohne es zu merken, eines fremden Tages in die Antworten hinein.