The Gift of Solitude [Self-guided]
Join Jeannie to explore the topic of solitude on the spiritual path. What are the gifts of solitude? Where does loneliness fit in? How does our conditioning interfere with the full embracing of our solitude?
Fall back into the source of happiness
Listen to the music of your own heart
Jeannie invites participants to sink and soften down into the gap of the present. She talks about the heart as the altar for the Holy and that solitude allows us to turn away from the din of the external to listen to the silence and guidance of the heart. She tells some stories about her daughter's love of solitude and the lessons therein. She talks about our conditioning which does not support us to be acquainted with our depths but to turn outward and look for fulfillment outside. Below all learning about ourselves is the silent music of our own essence come to earth--solitude supports us to tune into this. She talks about the emotional material and messages we encounter as we walk back toward the core of our hearts and how it helps to have a guide on the way since some of what we encounter can discourage us from persisting. Jeannie describes the process as falling back instead of going out to hunt for the source of our happiness.
Exchanges
Exchange 1: Participant finds an ancient sadness and longing when he spends a certain amount of time in solitude. Jeannie holds a sweet space for him to feel deeply into that and allow presence to invite it home.
Exchange 2: Participant because of the circumstances of COVID is in a community where the people are harsh. Jeannie talks about the importance of yang, protection and space as well as ways to prevent oneself from plugging into projections born of separation and to stay away from using someone else's curse as an excuse to demonize them, but to respond from oneness.
Exchange 3: Participant is introverted but wonders when her introversion turns from healthy solitude to escapism, isolation or avoidance. Jeannie talks about introversion, patterned relating, the challenge of relating to people who are established in conditioning when you have left that way behind.
Exchange 4: Participant notices how easy it was to feel open and in unity when in India, and how he finds himself hunting for community in the U.S. without satisfaction. Jeannie talks about the effects of context and why things would feel differently in varied contexts, and encourages him to refrain from looking outside and instead plug deeply into his own surrendered presence.