By Nina Nisar and Gracy Obuchowicz and originally published at medium.com/ten-directions
Gracy Obuchowicz will be the storyteller in the March 4 2021 Enlivening Edge Community Conversation.
Introduction by Enlivening Edge Magazine
This is an interesting article that invites readers to consider the care they give to themselves. This is really an integral aspect of ‘Wholeness’.
Working in a Teal world asks that we become adults, taking responsibility for our actions and our relationships with others. This includes the relationship we have with ourselves. Gracy and Nina have beautifully described how we might do this.
Excerpts by Enlivening Edge Magazine from the longer article that contains personal reflections, stories, and perspectives of the authors. Those are indicated by … below.
Most of us know how to host others. At gatherings we offer to take coats, pour a drink or two, check in now and then to make sure our guests are comfortable, and then wish everyone well as they head home. We know the feeling of being hosted well, and the immense comfort this focused attention of being cared for can bring, especially during challenging life experiences. Sometimes, being hosted well can even be the catalyst for shifting our perception of what is possible.
What does it mean to translate this loving caring of others into an experience of hosting one’s own self? And how does our ability to consciously self-host through the challenging moments of our own growth lead to an increased sense of resilience and self-mastery, even when we are sitting in the fire of deep change? And how might this ability contribute to our participation in more awake, generous and life-giving relationships, work, and overall quality of being alive?
We practice self-hosting when we intentionally connect with the spacious, mature, and growth-oriented aspect of our being. Self-hosting asks us to go deeper into our emotional red zones, or the places that fill us with rage, fear, or shame. We host ourselves when we are willing to lean into these challenging emotions while establishing the boundaries we need to take care of ourselves in the process.
When we do this with equal parts vigor and gentleness, we start to notice our conscious connection to ‘big host’ (an aspect of big mind/big heart), and are able to tap into this immense spaciousness as a way to host not just ourselves, but the growth of our relationships, community, and planet.
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We believe that, each of us has the power to self-host, no matter the circumstance. We can use our conscious attention to our own needs to uplift ourselves within destructive moments, or even change dysfunctional systems. Hosting ourselves well leverages our ability to cultivate our loving presence, and is central to our work with authentic self-care, skillful engagement in conflict, and other forms of visionary leadership.
Our ability to self-host is not something we are necessarily born with, but grows from our commitment to personal development. Like anything, we must intentionally cultivate this power through practice.
Our evolving nature asks us to show up fully in our relationships and welcome, in all their intensity, sweet newness, conflicts, heart longings, confusion and disturbance. In the search for elegance in our behavior, we might hurt others as we grow and learn.
During these moments, we host ourselves by reaching inside, stretching wide and becoming big enough to hold our own evolution. The question that self-hosting continues to ask us is: Can we love big enough to assume the best, of ourselves and the other, and powerfully act from here?
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The psychiatrist and Auschwitz survivor Viktor Frankl once said: “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. Within our response lies our growth and freedom.” Frankl seems to speak to that place within and beyond us that is able to host ourselves and our relationships while they are coming undone and when the time is right, reforming in stronger, more powerful ways.
In the open space of hosting ourselves and others in conflict, life can often feel wild. And yet, even as we gain skill in this wild space and deepen our understanding of what it means to be consciously-evolving humans, it can still feel challenging to translate this practice into our lives.
To help with this translation, we used the Integral Quadrants to give practical applications for fully-formed self-hosting practice.
Four Quadrant Applications of Self-Hosting:
I — Interior: practicing loving-kindness meditation, creating space to be “the witness” when triggered, leaning into conflict (as opposed to avoiding it), engaging with the challenging aspects of ourselves, and committing to an ongoing practice of self-development.
I — Exterior:: honing your ability to recognise and vocalise your boundaries, practicing embodied listening, mindfully applying your conflict style in relationships, and cultivating a small-changes-mindset as opposed to perfectionism
We — Interior: creating a culture where conflict is explored and valued, encouraging others personal development and honoring their boundaries, and valuing emergence and open tolerance of discomfort within the unknown.
We — Exterior: cultivating a culture of self-care within your organization or community, including unlimited time-off for self-care with encouragement to use it, built-in structured time to give and receive feedback, modelling vulnerable and real leadership, and attention to mindful experience and space design.
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With the power of self-hosting, we can become instruments of the life we long for, a wild life that doesn’t miss the spice of conflict and friction (this is where the tone emerges in a violin), but rather, emerges from a bigger space of being that includes and creates from all the contrast. This conscious, ongoing growth shows the alchemical power of hosting ourselves well while caring for others.
By holding space for a co-creative, conscious evolution, we can show up for ourselves while enriching our relationships and communities. Self-hosting allows us to serve ourselves and others from the never-ending well of compassion and spaciousness that exists within all of life.
Through collaborating on this piece, we had the opportunity to deepen our self-hosting practices. By stepping into the unknown of co-creative writing, tracking our reactions through the process, and giving each other authentic feedback, we both felt our personal creative and relational capacities were expanded. We had transformed and evolved as a result of hosting ourselves and each other.
On one level, it was simple: we were just paying attention to what was happening as we wrote. On another level, we understood the importance of the courage and self-awareness that brought us to the point of growth.
We invite you to bring a lens of self-hosting to your life, your work, and your relationships. How does consciously hosting yourself through the ups and downs of life help you to evolve into more of yourself? How can committing to a practice of self-hosting not only serve you, but also your relationships and the world around you?
Gracy Obuchowicz is a Washington, DC-based self-care coach, group facilitator, retreat leader. She believes practicing authentic self-care is the most revolutionary way to serve others and create positive change in society. Learn more about her work at www.selfcarewithgracy.com and preorder her upcoming book, “Selfcarefully.”
Nina Nisar is a conflict and relationship coach and group facilitator based in Frankfurt/M. Germany. She works with individuals and teams who are ready to be transformed by the challenges they are facing in how they lead, collaborate and live relationships. Her work offers guidance in the subtleties of human interactions, expands perspectives and offers a path towards more sovereignty and mature interactions.
Republished with permission.
The article has been edited and some paragraph spacing added by Enlivening Edge Magazine. Featured
