All of us have hidden, inner furniture, hair-trigger points that can set us off without us even realizing it. We morph into crazy people and/or fall into a depressive state, wondering why life sucks so badly. We walk around in a funk, feeling drained and empty inside, driven to fill our days with manic activity.
We are now in chapter five of Margaret Silf's Landmarks, The Nettle-Bed and the Rose-Garden where we are encouraged to use the consciousness examen to help us track our moods and feelings to notice where our feelings of turmoil come from for these "feelings will have their ultimate source in something that is not of God, but has to do with our own kingdoms."
The inner furniture of our psyche mostly originate from past events that impact us negatively, sensitizing us to evoke unreasonable or extreme reactions from us that can hurt both us and the people around us when they unwittingly bump into them.
Often we are not even aware of our own adverse reactions nor are we able to pinpoint the actual triggers. There is often a huge disconnect between how we perceive reality and how others see it.
Two weeks ago A and D performed a powerful skit to show how the sometimes invisible furniture in our inner room can hold us in bondage and isolate us from the world.
As A stressed, our furniture will always remain in the living rooms of our psyche, but if we learn to live with them, keeping them in plain sight, we can eventually view them fondly as we do old friends and even use them to our advantage to help us grow as people.
"When we do not allow ourselves to be in sync with God and discover who we are, our internal structure 'WHO' becomes unstable. We then allow our experiences (inner furniture) to shape our world, making us unstable. Eventually, like the sinkhole, due to an erosion process, our top caves in. Our whole selves crumble."
Why bother acknowledging our hidden furniture and changing? Because if we don't, we will be unstable like sink holes with possible catastrophic results when we explode or implode, creating a depression in the landscape that can claim victims, ourselves included.
But if we bring them to light, we can pray specifically for wisdom to know how to deal with particular issues, the thorns in our flesh so that we can grow beyond our woundedness and become the men and women we were created to be, bold and fearless in loving, where God's power is made perfect in our weaknesses.
For it is only in God's light that truth is without bias, clear in its unvarnished state, and clear enough for us to see with the eyes of our heart, in order to make decisions with wisdom.
The recommended daily Ignatian Review of Consciousness is a powerful way to enable us to understand ourselves a little more (what are we feeling and why) and to take subsequent steps to change. What Doctor David Benner, last week, calls transformational spirituality. This is essential for there is a natural inclination to hide behind the barriers we create due to our hidden furniture.
Darkness is an uncomfortable refuge that we may have convinced ourselves is where we should stay. And yet, being in darkness drives us to pursue life in ways that may bring gratification but often without consolation. We remain in desolation, aching, hungry and yearning to be filled.
In Ignatian speak, as interpreted by Margaret Silf, desolation turns us in on ourselves, where we spiral down into negative feelings and give up on things that used to be important to us. We feel drained, isolated (even though we are the ones that cut ourselves off from others) and this negative state of being blights our entire consciousness, giving us tunnel vision and worse; we may feel like divers diving in miso soup where visibility is extremely poor.
Consolation, on the other hand, directs our focus outside and beyond ourselves. We feel connected to others and we are able to lift our hearts so that we can see the joys and sorrows of others. We have vision and new energy. We feel inspired and our creative juices flow well. There is balance and our inner vision is refreshed so that we can see where God is most active in our lives and where He is leading us.
Thus being in desolation or consolation is not the same as being unhappy or happy, neither is it directly correlated to the events of our lives but has to do more with how in tune we are to the action of God in our lives (assuming that we do desire to do God's will at all times).
A useful test to apply to our moods, Silf recommends, is to ascertain whether we feel drawn (to God in consolation) or driven (to desolation and away from God) when we respond to situations in our lives. Do we experience peace (from God), even in making difficult decisions, or do we experience unease and disquiet (not from God) when we take the convenient, easy way out.
In the innermost space of my heart, is it sinking and shrinking, turning to lead, a stone that cannot absorb the water of God's goodness (desolation) raining on it; or is my heart like a sponge, soaking up God's grace, expanding till it is big enough to contain other peoples' needs and light enough to fly to God (consolation)?
If we are able to track our moods, to see where we experience desolation and consolation, then we will be able to identify our inner furniture and use tools like cognitive behavioural therapy to effect change.
Most importantly the Review teaches us to lift our hearts up to the Lord in every circumstance and give thanks and sing praise. To direct the focus of each experience, good and especially bad, from us to God so that our hearts can beat in harmony with the heart of God.
We are now in chapter five of Margaret Silf's Landmarks, The Nettle-Bed and the Rose-Garden where we are encouraged to use the consciousness examen to help us track our moods and feelings to notice where our feelings of turmoil come from for these "feelings will have their ultimate source in something that is not of God, but has to do with our own kingdoms."
The inner furniture of our psyche mostly originate from past events that impact us negatively, sensitizing us to evoke unreasonable or extreme reactions from us that can hurt both us and the people around us when they unwittingly bump into them.
Often we are not even aware of our own adverse reactions nor are we able to pinpoint the actual triggers. There is often a huge disconnect between how we perceive reality and how others see it.
Two weeks ago A and D performed a powerful skit to show how the sometimes invisible furniture in our inner room can hold us in bondage and isolate us from the world.
As A stressed, our furniture will always remain in the living rooms of our psyche, but if we learn to live with them, keeping them in plain sight, we can eventually view them fondly as we do old friends and even use them to our advantage to help us grow as people.
"When we do not allow ourselves to be in sync with God and discover who we are, our internal structure 'WHO' becomes unstable. We then allow our experiences (inner furniture) to shape our world, making us unstable. Eventually, like the sinkhole, due to an erosion process, our top caves in. Our whole selves crumble."
Why bother acknowledging our hidden furniture and changing? Because if we don't, we will be unstable like sink holes with possible catastrophic results when we explode or implode, creating a depression in the landscape that can claim victims, ourselves included.
But if we bring them to light, we can pray specifically for wisdom to know how to deal with particular issues, the thorns in our flesh so that we can grow beyond our woundedness and become the men and women we were created to be, bold and fearless in loving, where God's power is made perfect in our weaknesses.
For it is only in God's light that truth is without bias, clear in its unvarnished state, and clear enough for us to see with the eyes of our heart, in order to make decisions with wisdom.
The recommended daily Ignatian Review of Consciousness is a powerful way to enable us to understand ourselves a little more (what are we feeling and why) and to take subsequent steps to change. What Doctor David Benner, last week, calls transformational spirituality. This is essential for there is a natural inclination to hide behind the barriers we create due to our hidden furniture.
Darkness is an uncomfortable refuge that we may have convinced ourselves is where we should stay. And yet, being in darkness drives us to pursue life in ways that may bring gratification but often without consolation. We remain in desolation, aching, hungry and yearning to be filled.
In Ignatian speak, as interpreted by Margaret Silf, desolation turns us in on ourselves, where we spiral down into negative feelings and give up on things that used to be important to us. We feel drained, isolated (even though we are the ones that cut ourselves off from others) and this negative state of being blights our entire consciousness, giving us tunnel vision and worse; we may feel like divers diving in miso soup where visibility is extremely poor.
Consolation, on the other hand, directs our focus outside and beyond ourselves. We feel connected to others and we are able to lift our hearts so that we can see the joys and sorrows of others. We have vision and new energy. We feel inspired and our creative juices flow well. There is balance and our inner vision is refreshed so that we can see where God is most active in our lives and where He is leading us.
Thus being in desolation or consolation is not the same as being unhappy or happy, neither is it directly correlated to the events of our lives but has to do more with how in tune we are to the action of God in our lives (assuming that we do desire to do God's will at all times).
A useful test to apply to our moods, Silf recommends, is to ascertain whether we feel drawn (to God in consolation) or driven (to desolation and away from God) when we respond to situations in our lives. Do we experience peace (from God), even in making difficult decisions, or do we experience unease and disquiet (not from God) when we take the convenient, easy way out.
In the innermost space of my heart, is it sinking and shrinking, turning to lead, a stone that cannot absorb the water of God's goodness (desolation) raining on it; or is my heart like a sponge, soaking up God's grace, expanding till it is big enough to contain other peoples' needs and light enough to fly to God (consolation)?
If we are able to track our moods, to see where we experience desolation and consolation, then we will be able to identify our inner furniture and use tools like cognitive behavioural therapy to effect change.
Most importantly the Review teaches us to lift our hearts up to the Lord in every circumstance and give thanks and sing praise. To direct the focus of each experience, good and especially bad, from us to God so that our hearts can beat in harmony with the heart of God.
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