In the South, we often received silver cups as birth gifts. Recently, I rediscovered mine. It was black with the tarnish of neglect. So, I polished it. Bit by bit, the silver began to shine through. I continued to polish. Engraving emerged. First my name. Then the date. Then the whole of the cup was shining bright.
As I clipped Springtime azaleas from my yard and placed them in the cup, I became aware of the metaphor before me. Transformation. Transformation is often really a reclamation of our names, our gifts, our true selves.
How often do we allow our true selves to become covered in tarnish for lack of attention and continual care? And, how wonderful that we are created with the possibility of renewal and rebirth! “Re-clamation”, if you will. Claiming anew our original selves. Doing the work of rubbing through accumulated habits of mind, thought patterns that pay allegiance to our false selves and block genuine expression of our unique, true selves.
Recently, I experienced a renewal weekend in retreat with the authors of their newly released book, THE HIDDEN LIFE AWAKENED.
Dr. Cathy Snapp and Kitty Crenshaw, accompanied by classically trained, contemplative pianist, Dana Cunningham, shared poignant stories of Christian contemplative, Betty Skinner’s healing journey through depression. Dr. Snapp wove in teaching from the emerging science of neuroplasticity.
The neuroscience of “cup cleaning”, if you will.
Betty Skinner’s healing from major depression is now history. Living history, to be exact. Betty, a woman now in her 90s, persevered in the darkness of deep clinical depression in a time that pre-dates the SSRIs and other anti-depressant medication now relied upon to help alleviate this debilitating disease of mind, body, and spirit.
She lived a gradual transformation out of darkness and into a radiant lightness of being that has touched and taught countless people over the years. Through the practices of solitude, prayer, long nature walks, study of scripture and contemplative mystics, Betty shifted the shape of her brain, soul, and spirit.
Her story personifies what sages and ordinary folk have experienced for millennia. Healing can happen through intentional, directed experiences of the heart, soul, spirit, and mind.
Fortunately, we now live in a day in which medical help is available and important in the treatment of depression. Perhaps vitally important. Research confirms, however, that it is the combination of drugs, psychotherapy, and practices such as Betty’s that can hard wire brain changes into lasting ones.
Betty’s journey embodies this awesome ability we all have for healing.
In recent decades, neuroscience has begun to offer scientific explanation of how healing is supported by experiences of love, music, prayer, joy, numinosity, novelty, and revelry in nature. Our bodies, brains, and hearts experience, express and encode physical traces of these felt experiences.
The ones that make our hearts sing.
Over the next blog posts, it will be my pleasure to share with ways that you might use these healing principles in your own lives in the wear and tear of ordinary life, stress, anxiety, or depression.
May we all be about the business of polishing our cups to reveal the intended true selves beneath, so that we might be about the business of:
Practicing Peace on Purpose
Please enjoy the following links:
www.danacunningham.com
