Being Seen

What does it mean, "Being Seen"?

"Being Seen" means standing in our truth, genuinely engaging with the external world/public from a place

of authenticity, performing/doing what we call our "purpose" without shirking away when faced with

possible judgement or disapproval. It also means being in integrity - acting from a place of education, of

experience, and stability. "Being Seen" often requires us to go against "the norm" and let our "freak flag

fly." It is something that many spiritual practitioners have various types of struggles with - and frankly, my

own struggle has gone through times of great momentum and growth as well as times of retraction and

nerves.

When we take "being seen" literally - we assume it means being visible. As a practitioner and healer with a social presence and an office space, you could say that I am "seen." But that understanding of being seen necessitates an active effort. Posts on social media, talks, writing, podcasts... getting "out there." Doing this with a family and full time job means burning the candle at both ends and putting way too much pressure on myself to achieve goals that I perceived other's expected from me, especially in effort to "be seen".

In those times of overwhelm, my breath calls my attention to my chest - the place where I (and many people) hold stress. What I thought I was doing to be seen, was not really helping me be seen by the most important person: myself.

Whenever this happens, I will do conscious connected breath which activates a big emotional release: I crying and and feeling overcome with rage and sadness -- I realized it was my actions that made me visible as a version of me - Martha the Healer. But I was simultaneously hiding Martha the Human. In giving everything I had to accomplishing this and setting up that - I was CHOOSING to put myself last. This world values over-production, normalizes fatigue, and expects working parents to prevail while solving the worlds problems and have dinner in the oven at the same time (without asking for anything in return) - so how do I actually put myself first so I can honestly see myself?

My only solution was to introduce something simple that I could do throughout the day when things get

intense: I turned to coherence breath -- 5 seconds inhale, 5 seconds exhale, repeat - calm mind focused on counting and breathing. It helps with stress, no doubt. However, it did help me uncover a question that

yielded a solution to my own problem.

"How do I wish to 'Be Seen?'" - Do I wish to be seen as a"do everything all the time, sacrifice myself to

make others happy" person? Or as a "will get it done within a reasonable time frame, but will take my time

as it aligns with my highest good" person?

The coherence breath shifted my perspective on how I held expectations about tasks in my own body. It was an invitation to release attachments and emotional burdens that I was subconsciously associating with my task list. So this phase has become about me releasing my misconception that achieving multiple tasks was the key to finding my self-worth, and that accomplishing notoriety was necessary for me to fulfill my

purpose. Most frustrating of which was recognizing that I was living life in between the tasks and work.

Furthermore, the coherence breath made me realize that I was going from one thing to the next without a

break in between. It is incredibly sacred to take 2-3 minutes in between tasks to sit and think, "what did I just accomplish? How do I feel now?" By processing after each task, I can be more present in my actual life and discontinue carrying a bunch of extra "to be processed" baggage to the end of the day (which was totally keeping me from sleep)!

So. "Being Seen." What does that mean to me now? Being seen is about expressing my authenticity from a

place of autonomy, self-respect and boundaries. By slowing down my breath, I slowed down my brain. And in doing so, I learned how to truly see myself.