Plugging Into The Light
Friday Prompt #2
Our second Friday Prompt, with a short teaching and an Excellent Question to apply just the right amount of pressure to the right spot. PS have you checked out my 3 minute workshop video on the Secrets of Going Gently yet?
Last week I asked you to try and catch glimpses of the light (or, to use another name, the Good Dark). Today I’ll share more about how I like to see the light, using my very favourite part of my very favourite philosophy, Internal Family Systems.1
Internal Family Systems (IFS) holds that we all consist of a community of different parts - as in ‘a part of me wants another cookie, and a part of me wants to me to conform to the thin-is-good ideal’.
Our parts can cause us a lot of trouble - sometimes they fight viciously amongst themselves, do mean things to try and protect us, or keep us wound up like a coiled spring. I’ll talk more about parts next week but this week I’m going to give you the good news - underneath all of our parts (and the chaos they sometimes cause) is something wonderful.
This something wonderful is known in IFS as Self. It’s also known as Self-energy because it’s not a binary state - sometimes we can have access to lots of Self (when we tune into our friend’s suffering and we feel expansive compassion for them) and sometimes none at all (when we totally lose it at our annoying pet).
You will know when you have Self-energy present because you will feel one of the 8 C’s - curiosity, compassion, clarity, courage, confidence, creativity, connection or craziness. Hehe, I’m just testing that you’re paying attention - not craziness - calm.
Another way of putting this: when we have access to Self-energy, we will go gently with ourselves and we will offer gentleness to others. Self never pushes. Self doesn’t get overwhelmed. Self doesn’t have an agenda. Self just sees us, gets it, and feels kindly towards us.
Self is the light that seeps out through the cracks. As I said last week, I believe that it is under everything, if we go down far enough. So how do we get more of it?
Excellent Question: What helps me to access more of the light?
Instructions for using Excellent Questions:
Spend a few minutes right now thinking, moving, creating or writing in response to my question.
Jot down some notes and/or click the comment button.
Write my question down or carry it around in your head with you this week. Check in with it once a day.
Be open to where the question takes you and welcome parts of you that might react to it - get curious about these reactions and include them as a part of your investigation.
Revisit this prompt any time and share your ongoing discoveries.
Don’t underestimate the power of questions.
What helps me to access more of the light?
Go gently,
Satya <3
You don’t have to read my whole introduction to IFS (with puppies) unless your curiosity takes you there…
I'm a very curious person when it comes to "knowing about things." I'm always looking things up. And, I've recently been seeing someone on TikTok who does "skits" about workplace interaction, and I've noticed how curious she is about what the (unseen/unheard) colleague is thinking/feeling/understanding. She asks questions in a an untriggered way, truly seeming to want to know what the other person is thinking. (And I realize it is a very different thing to do this is real life and not in an imaginary workplace interaction.) Anyway, I like to be reminded that curiosity is a way to access the Self. That may be an easier path for me than some of the others.
IFS changed my life. I'm loving seeing it referenced in your writing. Thank you for this prompt!