There’s a beautiful concept held in the mathematically designed Gomboc. It’s an object that self-rights itself whichever way it is pushed over. It has one point of stability and one of instability and will always return to the stable point. The shape was modelled on a tortoise which uses it’s shell to rock itself back onto its feet once it’s been turned over, and is dependent on doing so for survival.

If the Gomboc was a conscious being, rather than an object, imagine what it would feel knowing that whatever forces conspired against it, it had the capacity to withstand and return. We as conscious beings can have the confidence in our resilience and abilities to withstand, because if we trust, we know we too will always return to a point of stability.

Trust in self. Trust in process. Trust in life. Trust in knowing and in not knowing. We are resilient beings. We, like the Gomboc, can and will self-right. We may feel vulnerable, like an up-side-down tortoise, when we are off kilter, off balance, knocked sideways, knocked off our feet or our course. We may feel on-edge because we are. Feel unstable because we are. Our locus, our centre of gravity and our energy has shifted. This is movement. A change in our position; discomfort; uncertainty. But what we tend to do in this off kilter position, is fear collapse. As if it’s an irretrievable point; a point of no return.

And yet we return. To our selves, to stability and confidence. The beauty that we have, that the Gomboc is missing, is that our temporary knock or tilt has altered us. And we don’t return to the exact spot. Everything is not the same. We have moved forward. Next time we are off kilter, struggling to resist, struggling to maintain our balance, our control; we can chose to have trust. Rest in discomfort. Know we will be okay. Trust our self, our resilience and the process. Trust too that we don’t know what will happen.

If we can trust uncertainty because we trust our self, we can appreciate that the point of equilibrium is not stability, it’s the space, the bridge, between the stable point and the unstable point. It’s been able to adjust to being off balance. In the same way that using the eyes to focus on a point in the distance helps keep our body balanced; in the same way that a deep breath helps slow our heart beat and master fear, we have the amazing capacity to adjust. If we can find some stillness, rather than struggle against unease, we are more likely to stabilise in that position. This is the art of expansion, of growth, of our circles of orbit increasing. Knowing at our core that we are okay and that if we are not, we will be again. To adjust. To allow for wobbles.

The point of return is trust in ourselves. That is at the heart of the stable point. The point of balance is to be able to stand on one leg instead of two. We can be grounded, or centred with one foot on the ground. We can stand without two feet because we can compensate by shifting our being and our attention. We can learn to become good at it. We can even ourselves out. We have staying power.

If we fall we can stand up again. Have trust. We are self-righting. Resilience is far more powerful than resistance.

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