[00:02] Hi folks, I’m Wils Struthers-Cooper and this is Read, Reflect, Rise where we read a powerful
[00:07] passage, reflect on it together and rise with a practice you can use all week. If you’re
[00:13] new here, you are so welcome. And if you’re one of my listeners back yet again, thank
[00:19] you for being here with me as we learn and rise together with the wise words of others.
[00:25] Today we’re looking at a poem about something that breaks you and in the way that you break
[00:30] that crack, that crack can become an unexpected trap door back to your inner self. Andrea
[00:38] Gibson was an award-winning spoken word poet and activist whose work blends fierce tenderness
[00:44] and radical honesty who sadly left us very recently. Their poems about love, grief, identity
[00:52] and change have spoken to so many and healed many, many hearts. There’s a sublime element
[00:59] in their lines of poetry that you may only have felt before on mountain tops or during
[01:05] acts of true humanity, like there’s a blessing woven in but also a stealing of your breath
[01:11] in the exact same moment. The poem we’re going to explore today, How the Worst Day of My
[01:18] Life Became the Best, is a gut-level story about rupture and resilience. How one of the
[01:25] darkest things in life can become a place of realignment, reclamation and even renewal.
[01:33] It’s that when a door closes a window opens saying but turbo maxed in a way that we all
[01:39] need exemplified for us sometimes. It can be so easy to stay stuck in the mud and sometimes
[01:46] we even choose to be stuck in the mud but if you’re in a space where you’re ready for
[01:50] a switch, this poem is the one for you. This poem is a masterclass on what doing things
[01:58] the other way looks like. It’s gorgeous and profound. I first found this poem when I was
[02:07] glancing through the book and it was one of those days where there was nothing really
[02:11] wrong but I felt flat. You know something had gone wrong, nothing important and I was
[02:18] needing something. I was needing something before I started to have a little spiral.
[02:27] And these words, I say it a lot I know but these words were exactly the right medicine.
[02:32] So whether you have something big going on in your life or something smaller, just that
[02:38] fractious little feeling that something isn’t quite sitting right, that’s the space that
[02:46] this poem is meant for I think. It’s turning from worst to best and seeing what gifts can
[02:54] be offered to us. Let’s hear their words. How the Worst Day of My Life Became the Best
[03:03] by Andrea Gibson and it starts with a quote from Eckhart Tolle. When you’re trapped in
[03:09] a nightmare, your motivation to awaken will be so much greater than that of someone caught
[03:16] up in a relatively pleasant dream. And here’s the extract by Andrea. By night time I was
[03:28] the difference between tying my laces and tuning the string section of my shoes, made a symphony
[03:36] of walking away from everything that did not want my life to sing. Felt love for myself so consistent,
[03:51] metronomes tried to copyright my heartbeat. Finally understood I am the conductor of my own life
[04:02] and will be even after I die. I like the trees will decide what I become.
[04:11] There’s just a tiny taste of what is one of the most inspiring and example of how to be life
[04:19] changing poems that I think I’ve read in quite some time. Let’s now head into a practice.
[04:32] Allow your feet to press down into the ground, allow your seat to settle. If you are moving,
[04:42] I want you to listen to the pressure change as you put one foot down in front of the other
[04:48] or move your weight from one side to the other. Noticing the changing textures, pressures
[04:58] and feeling as you move or as you sit. Perhaps your hands are on your lap, perhaps they’re on a chair,
[05:10] perhaps you are hugging close something warm in a cup.
[05:14] All is welcome.
[05:23] Now paying close attention to any sound you may hear around you.
[05:31] If your eyes are still open perhaps you will notice some details that might have been overlooked
[05:37] before. Then bringing your focus inward as your lungs expand with air, as your chest moves.
[05:53] Perhaps there’s air currents where you are and even your hair is moving or your clothes.
[06:00] Perhaps you are somewhere still.
[06:05] Paying attention to what’s happening in your body and to your body.
[06:18] Allowing yourself a moment of rest in this space.
[06:30] And if you’re doing something with your hands or with your mind at the same time,
[06:37] allow yourself to do that gently and consciously.
[06:44] Just as we so often breathe without thinking but we can be conscious of our breath.
[06:54] Just as in life things can happen and we can be conscious of them.
[07:05] And I’d like you to bring to mind something that caused upset or sadness or sorrow.
[07:13] Not anything too large, this is a practice.
[07:19] Allow yourself to sit for a moment in those feelings.
[07:27] Perhaps something ended. Perhaps it was a closing door or the end of a chapter.
[07:34] Perhaps it was recent, perhaps it was a long time ago. Whatever it was bring it to mind.
[07:43] And as you think of it, you may notice that feelings arise in your body.
[07:50] Could be in your stomach, could be in your shoulders, perhaps in your throat, your jaw, your head.
[07:57] Perhaps in your hands.
[08:05] And now that you’ve acknowledged those feelings,
[08:11] I’d like you to breathe into them.
[08:15] And as you breathe in, I’d like you to also imagine that there is bright white light.
[08:22] And that bright white light is the light of change.
[08:28] This feeling of sadness, this feeling of sorrow or detachment or change
[08:34] is now enveloped in this bright white light.
[08:38] As are you, as is your breath.
[08:42] And as you exhale, allow yourself to breathe out that white bright light.
[08:52] And with it dissipates and softens the feelings that arose in your body.
[09:03] Breathing in again and that bright white light is enveloping all of your body, all of your feelings.
[09:14] Softening, maybe even soothing. And as you breathe out, allow some of that light and some of those feelings to soften and exhale.
[09:31] Breathing in with that white light, feeling it reach through your head, your shoulders, your throat, down to your feet.
[09:43] And as you exhale, allowing it to dissipate and disappear like a mist that cleanses.
[10:00] And continue on with that in breath and out breath.
[10:13] Allow yourself to observe these feelings as you bathe them in the light.
[10:21] As you gently and lovingly breathe out and release.
[10:31] What’s inside of these feelings?
[10:36] Is this softened sorrow or loss, is it really actually coloured with love?
[10:46] Was it a time of great happiness?
[10:51] Was it something that you have gratitude for?
[10:58] Was it a time when you exemplified greatness and skill?
[11:09] A time that you were connected and uplifted?
[11:16] A time that you felt competent and heroic?
[11:29] You may find that as you continue to breathe and you dig a little deeper into these softened emotions that the light that you have begins to change colour.
[11:39] Perhaps there’s hues of green or pink or red.
[11:48] Perhaps you notice gifts underneath these emotions that felt so heavy.
[11:58] Perhaps there’s gifts yet to be found.
[12:03] And perhaps more white light and breath is what’s needed for today.
[12:10] All are welcome and all are allowed.
[12:21] Now I want you to drop in a question as you sit or as you move.
[12:31] What do I need?
[12:35] What do I need to accept the gifts from my experience?
[12:52] What do I need to be?
[12:54] Now I invite you to picture yourself seated somewhere receiving the gifts that your experience had to offer.
[13:05] Perhaps they’ll come in the form of memories.
[13:08] Perhaps they’ll come in the form of skills.
[13:14] Perhaps in the form of courage.
[13:21] Perhaps in the form of connection with yourself or someone or something else.
[13:29] I invite you to accept that offering.
[13:34] Perhaps cradling it gently.
[13:39] Placing it onto your heart if it feels like a fit.
[13:45] Knowing that we are shaped by our experiences.
[13:51] And we can choose how deeply to experience something.
[13:58] And by sitting today, practicing opening and allowing and sinking a little deeper into your feelings.
[14:09] You, my brave person, are open to more gifts from life.
[14:20] And with that knowledge, I’d like you to slowly press your feet into the ground.
[14:29] Use your hands to feel a texture.
[14:36] And know that we can make beauty out of grief.
[14:46] Opening your eyes slowly when you’re ready.
[14:56] Sometimes the heart cracks open to let light in.
[15:01] And that space of breaking, that place of opening, it can be an entry point or an exit point.
[15:12] Sometimes those moments of sadness, those moments of grief, those worse moments,
[15:20] they sometimes become the change of perspective that helps the world look different, look new.
[15:28] And you don’t have to rush to get the gifts or even feel grateful for something that is still actively hurting.
[15:40] But you may start to notice a tiny chink of light.
[15:46] It might be in having wonderful memories.
[15:51] It might be in knowing that you are now free to do something else.
[15:56] It might be in an expansion somewhere in your mind or your life.
[16:05] You can notice the doorway.
[16:11] And in the noticing, in the naming, you get the gift that language can heal, imagery can heal.
[16:20] And when you name what happened out loud or in a journal or in a poem,
[16:28] it can create a path away from the isolation of sorrow or sadness or detachment.
[16:37] And it opens up into connection.
[16:40] You can choose the next small acts.
[16:46] And small acts of care matter.
[16:51] Finding gifts doesn’t necessarily erase pain, but it can give it shape and a direction.
[16:57] So if there’s one thing I hope you take away today,
[17:01] it’s that you are allowed to give yourself permission to let a hard day or a hard event
[17:07] be both hard and the start of something different.
[17:13] And it’s in that holding of both that you can find hope, that you can find faith,
[17:22] and in that can be the strength that you are needing all along.
[17:34] And here’s your affirmation to help you rise even further.
[17:40] You could say it aloud, you can write it on a sticky note,
[17:44] you can chant it three times in the shower,
[17:48] write it on your hand, whatever you care to do with it.
[17:56] I am open to the gifts in my experience.
[18:04] I choose to go deeper.
[18:08] I am open to the gifts in my experiences.
[18:15] I choose to go deeper.
[18:20] I am open to the gifts in my experiences.
[18:25] I choose to go deeper.
[18:34] If this episode has landed for you, please do subscribe so you don’t miss a future episode.
[18:39] And if you can, leave a short review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
[18:46] And if you head on over to www.readreflectrise.com
[18:50] you can get signed up where I have a short episode newsletter with the poem link,
[18:55] journal prompts and the weekly affirmation.
[18:57] And another grounding practice in there.
[19:00] So you can sign up to link in the show notes at the bottom of the page.
[19:04] Remember folks, there is magic, medicine and power in the words we weave and wield.
[19:11] So choose carefully.
[19:12] And I have been Wils Struthers-Cooper.
[19:15] Here we are at Read Reflect Rise where we honour the authors,
[19:17] we reflect on their words of wisdom,
[19:19] and we rise with what we’ve learned.
