On Saturday, over 70,000 people marched on downtown Madison, protesting Governor Scott Walker’s proposed plan to eliminate collective bargaining for state employees in an attempt to balance the Wisconsin budget.
Also on Saturday, I taught a class at Granite Winds, less than ten miles from State Street and the Capitol. My energy felt off while teaching, even though I was solid on my drive into Madison earlier that morning. I forgot to call in the directions at the beginning of class, and I frequently stumbled over my words. About halfway through, I realized the energy from the protest was affecting my energy.
Later, as I reflected on this, I noticed how others have been affected by the energy. For some, it pushed buttons and took them back to times from childhood when they felt powerless. For others, it brought up issues around speaking their truth or issues around fairness. It has also lit up buried anger, highlighted conflicts with family members, and brought unresolved feelings to the surface. For me, it contributed to becoming ungrounded and unable to hold my center.
And that’s the power of a highly polarized situation. It raises core issues we haven’t completely dealt with and asks us to look at them one more time – to peel another layer off the onion of our personal healing.
How can we go deeper with our healing?
We track what it is mirroring for us and then do clearing for what we find. Sometimes, just naming it is enough to shift the energy – “Oh, these feelings of powerlessness remind me of that time on the playground with the third grade bully.”
If holding it in loving awareness doesn’t shift the energy, then we may choose to do further work with it. We may breathe and allow the energy to release. Or we may remind ourselves that we are now an adult with more life experience and wisdom, and use that knowledge to guide us back to our center and speak our truth. We might call back our power that has been lost over the years in similar circumstances.
Within the mass consciousness created by newsworthy events, we can each find our own nugget pointing to the truth. What has the Madison protest lit up for you?