“Nothing is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” Marie Curie.
Marie Curie may have died in 1934, but yet her wisdom is just as relevant today as it would have been back then. That’s the interesting thing about wisdom. It travels across generations and cultures because it speaks to the truth of what it means to be human.
I was talking with some clients this week about why we need to stop running to heal.
Not physical running, mental running.
The kind we do when we’re frightened by our own inner experience, and then run back into the arms of our toxic and damaging habit.
In psychology, there is a belief that there are two habits of unhappy people.
One is seeking validation externally. Not being grounded within themselves, but instead having to rely on the inconsistent and illusory nature of their worth living in the opinions of others.
And the second is they psychologically run from what frightens them when it comes to their own inner experience, instead of seeking to understand it.
I have lived with both of these learned and conditioned traits for many years, and for the past 12 years, they have captivated me and influenced both my personal transformation and my professional work.
But what’s been so interesting for me over the past 6 or so months, is that I’ve stumbled upon the biology that matches this wisdom.
I’ve discovered how this conditioning is mirrored internally by hormones, particularly oxytocin and vasopressin.
And its shown me over and over that addressing the potential imbalance requires us to put our bodies into the story. We can’t address internal dysregulation without addressing the nervous system triggers that show up internally through the emotions of fear, anger and shame.
This isn’t about going back into the past. This is about addressing where your past is continuing to show up in your present.
Looking to the gifts that your inner experience is showing you. And instead of running back into the safe but damaging arms of a toxic habit, learning how to navigate the experience of the present so you can leave the past in the past.