The Hourglass Concept

Ring the bells that can still ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.

- Leonard Cohen, Anthem

I keep finding the more I expand my life, the more my inner world must mirror this expansion. The image of an hourglass keeps arising for me, an ever growing outer glass needs to be met with a widening inner glass. To build a life that is open hearted and values ridden, it requires me to make space for internal fear, doubt and uncertainty. 

What does this look like?

As I increasingly share my work publicly through podcasts, retreats, and written word, I have to face my fear, which comes in many forms. I hold my fear tenderly and remind my physical sensations, thoughts, and feelings, "I am safe. I am enough. There is no 'right' way." My fear hears my tender hearted voice and softens, freeing me up to courageously expand. Internal strife is not a “problem” nor does it need to be fixed. Our true power lies in our response to our pain. This reciprocal dance between my outer world and inner world feels essential to cultivating peace.

This doesn't always come easy for me. For generations our culture has been distracted from the heart and often leads with the head, trying to problem solve our way through life. Yet logic is poor medicine. So I am learning, as my outer hour glass swells with layers of sand from parenting, marriage, friendships, professional growth, my inner life too must swell with sands of worthiness, self-compassion, and wellness practices. This happens by listening and tenderly holding my vulnerability (or in some cases letting someone else hold me) and the sand becomes soft and nutrient rich from which I can grow.

Heart Medicine Grows

I feel hopeful as I experience the widening glass internally and externally; the sand passing through my ever-expanding heart. The more I practice compassion with my inner world, including the discomfort, anxiety, and fear, the more at ease I feel in my life. Each invitation to include more sand (begrudgingly sometimes), strengthens my heart, the gateway of compassion for all of life’s lessons. I listen closely to my inner world and wonder, “what do I need to hear?”. Each experience birthing wisdom such as:

“I am learning and growing” 

“Trust the unfolding."

“I am here now, and I am on my way”

“Being you has never been done before.”

As I live into myself, I realize again and again,

My heart is the alchemist. 

Love,
Ellen