What needs to be put down right now?
This week I joined an online call with Mary Alice Arthur, story activist and international facilitator of participatory processes (see TEDx video below). The intention of the call was to create space for reflection on our changing times and the many losses, both global and personal, that so many of us have been experiencing—loss of liberty, freedom, autonomy, health, work, or loved ones.
In our conversation the question arose: What needs to be put down right now? What am I asked to put down in order to show up more fully to life?
Maybe you are standing at a crossroad right now weighed down by past events or limiting beliefs about yourself or what might be possible.
Perhaps you need to support your health in a new way, change or expand your role at work, wind down an aspect of your life, or invite in something fresh just for you.
If so, I invite you to ask yourself: What needs to be put down right now so this can happen?
What do you need to place at the fork in your road so you can walk your chosen path with greater clarity and confidence? And can you do this without knowing what will take its place or how it will unfold?
We don’t always need to have the answers. Staying with the question “What needs to be put down right now?”—and gently leaning into it—can be a way of holding space for yourself in a tender-hearted way, creating the possibility for deeper soul-level shifts.
In my work with women, I often see how powerful it is when we allow ourselves to put something down—it clears the space for the new to emerge.
Take back the Power of Y(our) Story! | Mary Alice Arthur | TEDxKielUniversity
Always fascinated by the power of stories, story activist Mary Alice Arthur talks about how in these most challenging times, the most important thing we can do right now is to become story literate and take back the power of our own stories.