INTRODUCTION
WORK – TRUE EXPRESSION IN ACTIVITY
What is work? What is it to work, have a ‘job’, a profession, a career etc? Work is what works. The words tell us. That is: work is a movement that produces what belongs and expands and not what causes friction and more work to restore and or undo.
~ Teachings & Revelations Volume IV, Serge Benhayon
We All Work.
From the beginning of our lives, the intricate bodily systems that make up who we are, work constantly around the clock that we may live and be engaged in life. The ten major systems — skeletal, muscular, nervous, endocrine, cardiovascular, lymphatic, respiratory, digestive, urinary, and reproductive — are designed to work in harmony, animating and supporting each other in a delicate, complex, inexhaustible rhythm throughout the duration of our lives.
We breathe, move, see, register touch, hear, vocalise, comprehend etc, building our physical and mental functionalities as we grow, providing us with the abilities to develop into and hence participate in the activity of life.
Our bodies are the epitome of work, each system having a function, a job to do in every moment. Whether in a resting or active state, each system remains on and part of the whole, guiding us as to what it needs to sustain itself. Our ability to respond to its constant communication determines our quality of life.
The body does not take time off and should a system ‘malfunction’ it has a flow on effect with other systems gathering around to support a return to homeostasis, making it known what is going on so we have the opportunity to not repeat harmful behaviours, hence supporting the body to return to its naturally harmonious state.
Beginning.
Our presence upon entry into this life is significant.
It could be said that our work begins from here.....
From birth, the movement of our bodies in either, the states of repose or motion, is constant. The breath we so naturally inhale, without thought or intention, is the foundation (repose) for the body to then activate the out-breath (motion), in a constant and continuous cycle.
Our connection with our families, responding and or reacting to the world around us is a process of exchange as we grow and develop and engage more and more with our people and surroundings.
We are conditioned to understand and know work as something that we go to, to perform and deliver. Work, we are informed, is for those that are able-bodied and can follow instructions.
But what if work began at the beginning of our lives,
at the moment of our first in-breath?
This is where our responsibility begins for the movements and interactions thereafter.
A woman looks into the eyes of her recently born grandchild and experiences a depth that appears fathomless, but in this depth, there is an invitation for her, the grandmother, to connect to beyond what she knows of this world, the baby communicating in such a way that it activates the woman to then move and engage differently with everything around her.
Without speech or gestures, but through a presence of being, a depth of communication is registered, then responded to. Our essence, our beingness is in activity, powerfully so from the beginning; from our first in-breath.
It is common the world over for people to be responsive to the presence of a baby. Be it a new member of the family or community or encountering a baby out in the world, we smile easily without a guard, drawn to want to engage. There is a purity and simplicity to a baby that draws us in; not yet tainted by the world there is an openness and readiness to connect. We look into the eyes of a baby or small child with ease, as there is no agenda or conditions to the engagement only the simplicity of the connection.
This is the essence of who we are, divinely designed for connection.
And this, our connectedness, is the foundation of work, of all the work we will attend to in our lives.
The integrity and therefore activity of how this is developed becomes our life’s work, and with it comes the responsibility to continue to develop and deepen in our expression of connection.
As we continue to grow in our connection, we move, copy, and play out what we see happening around us. We play house and shops, we build and make things, we collaborate, we are constantly active and curious, and want to engage. It is not uncommon to see a very small child, when asked to do something or when they have initiated wanting to help, attend with a level of focus that they put to the job at hand. There is no judgment or assessment as to whether they can or can’t do the task, or if the quality will be up to scratch, but instead attend with a simplicity of presence. There is an ease and naturalness to want to engage one’s body.
When we are afforded the space, while we are growing, to know work as connection and the natural activity of being human, a space where we are encouraged to explore, pay attention and take care with all that we do, we begin to naturally know responsibility (our ability to respond) and therefore all that we do impacts others, from the smallest to the largest task.
In contrast, if we are judged, criticised, or compared for what and how we connect (work) this can foster uncertainty and fear of getting it wrong. We will then lack the confidence to proceed; we look sideways to check if we are good enough, hence we can lose our connection to our innate and unique way of expressing. In this way of being, responsibility is seen from a different lens, of needing to protect oneself, hence withdrawing from the awareness of everything we express impacting ourselves and others.
Therefore, our beginning and subsequent developmental years are crucial in setting us up to become contributors to our world community through the movement and connection of working.
Our world of working extends beyond our paid or voluntary work where we are seen and recognised for those tasks, jobs and positions as it is also in our everyday movements, in all that we do and attend to. For example, the movement of making our beds, cleaning our homes, cooking, attending to our finances, health, and relationships is the work of our everyday. Regardless of being employed for work, volunteering, working in our homes, or supporting others, our ‘everyday’ work continues unceasingly so.
How we bring ourselves to these particularities and details of our life is an offering of an intimate, consistent, and deeply loving practice that will support our evolution throughout the entirety of our lives.