So here we are, December 2024, and as I look back on another year I think about how it was considered the first real ‘normal’ year since the pandemic. The lockdown times may feel like they belong to another paradigm but it seems the new normal is different from the old normal….. we have been changed by it.
The changes appear subtle, I notice them within myself too. Slightly less tolerance, venturing out a little less, committing to fewer activities. Some of us may feel more agitated in busy places, more fearful for our future, more exhausted by daily life and less able to cope with seemingly small issues and yet we don’t really know why. As someone who has always worked in people-focused environments I see signs of it everywhere, a sense of ‘being on the edge of capacity’ much of the time. The repercussions of these subtle shifts are secretly immense.
Personally I think there was a shift in the balance of time in our inner worlds vs time in our outer worlds with a new, more heavy weighting on the former because we were all ‘locked’ inside. And believe me, as a student counsellor, that is a pretty confronting place to be even when you are actively inviting it in! My brain is fried with self-reflection and becoming aware of all the ‘conditions of worth’ society, family, ancestry and personally I have put on myself.
But here is the thing I’ve realised. There is no self-discovery without such effort but that effort, if you can work with it, can reap deeply wholesome rewards.
There is a visible world we exist in where we are expected to conform to certain rules and expectations designed to keep us functioning as a bigger society. This ‘fitting in’ can create differing levels of acceptance and friction depending on who you are.
But beyond that there is an invisible world where we can take time to rediscover who we are more truly under all these conditions and expectations and if we choose, become open and unguarded and discover a sense of belonging (the opposite of fitting in) that feels more natural. We need to explore our own truths outside of the bigger society and it calls for critical thought, something often irradiated by our busyness. For us to feel peaceful and whole, we need healthy cooperation both inside (with our inner tribe) and outside with the communities we help cultivate, because that is our human way.
But nowadays, we also need mentors to guide us and provide the nourishment in the spaces we must sit in for realisation and change to happen. We need to be witnessed and supported by something or someone who mirrors exactly what we are seeking within ourselves. And I understand now the huge renewed interest to work with plant medicines, ofter powerful psychoactive ones, as they help break down the walls for us and shine a light on that which needs to be seen. There is a reverence for all the chosen ‘sacred’ plants because their honest, pure, unadulterated being helps mirror that honest, pure, unadulterated being that is you.
And so, as always, we return to the tea. Considered a sacred plant for thousands of years because of its powerful action on our brain chemistry, it may not be psychoactive in the way we now understand, but it is offering the same nourishment and guidance as all the sacred plants, just choosing a more gentle whispering approach.
So for us to find healthy cooperation both inside and outside of ourselves, there is an urgent call to create spaces for reflection, for self-discovery, for witnessing each other and reminding us to be more tolerant, find deeper connection and find the joy. And as the ancestors have always known, these spaces can be nourished and safely held by the elemental energies of the teas.
So as we wish you a wonderful festive season and winter solstice, we look forward to 2025. For us this will be a year of creating these spaces, internally and externally, in many different ways and welcoming those of you interested to explore more, to join with us.
Have a wonderful month and we look forward to talking to you again in January.
Anne and Ric x