This weekend I met 9 other men at the Boulder Integral Center for an intense 2 days of men's work.
The biggest thing I got from the other men was feedback about how I show up in the world and how I'm received.
Suffice to say, the second day I laid off the caffeine and was able to really drop into my feeling-sense rather than going a million-miles-a-minute with my mind.
The feedback I got on the second day was so consistent and direct. It was challenging to hear, sure, but better than not hearing it... and through the process of asking each man what he needed from me in order to feel connected with me and to trust me, I heard reverberations of a lot of other feedback I've received in my life, though far less directly than these 9 other men were able to offer it to me.
What I'm faced with now is a life-challenge. How can I live in my authentic, emotionally grounded self?
Living in my mind is so comfortable (as it is for the majority of men I've met over the years I've been involved in men's work). Feeling into my heart, my gut, my 'nads... it's a real challenge and requires a tremendous amount of conscious awareness to not only catch myself escaping into my rationality, but to release the need to "know" something and just be in my fear, my grief, my uncertainty.
While this is a major piece of work that I will continuously revisit over my lifetime, I want to offer a question more related to the Enlightened Child theme of this blog...
How can we raise our boys into powerful, heart-connected men with the courage to step into (and through) fear, grief, anger, shame... even joy (yes, it's easy to avoid or become attached to feeling anything, including joy) so that the world is served by their mature leadership, rather than the tyranny of adolescent manipulations we all develop in our youth to keep our self-sense "safe"?
One such organization I know of that is taking on the work of initiating young men into sacred masculine consciousness is Boys to Men. Here's the trailer of a great movie that relates the power of the modern initiation experience: Journeyman. I hope you'll check it out - and share this with others you know who are raising or responsible for boys (and girls).
If you know of any other resources, please feel free to share them!
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
blog comments powered by Disqus
Posts
