Troy Bronsink: Election Brave Space Series

The Common Good podcast is a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation and structures of belonging.

This 8 weeks series consists of mini episodes which are being produced in partnership with The Hive, A Center for Contemplation, Art, and Action, as a part of an ongoing class they’re offering locally called Election Brave Space: Compassionate Resilience For Our Shared Future. The intention of these episode is to introduce a variety of simple tools and practices to help you navigate this politically tumultuous moment, leading to and through the election.

Troy Bronsink founded the Hive in spring of 2016 with a desire to collaborate with facilitators from various traditions and backgrounds, making space for transformative individual and group encounters. He brings 25 years of experience in small group facilitation ranging from corporate consulting to community organizing, to spiritual formation. Through the Hive, Troy has developed the curriculum for The Common Good Fellowship, as well as hosting the weekly podcast, From the Hive, interviewing local and global contemplative leaders about their work and practice.  Troy is a member of the Living School, an ordained Presbyterian minister, retreat leader, author, spiritual director, entrepreneurship coach, author, speaker, and consultant. He and his family are residents in Northside.  

The Hive  is a grassroots mindfulness community curating multi-week classes, workshops and a Membership community. It has been formed by facilitators asking the question, "What are the resources that lie within our vast lineages, traditions, and modalities of healing, and how can we place them in service of the common good?" In this series we’re hearing from The Hive’s 6 core faculty members.

Here's a link to a loving-kindness meditation (metta practice).

This is the song from the Bengson's sung by Troy at the conclusion of the episode.

This episode was produced by Joey Taylor and the music is from Jeff Gorman. You can find more information about the Common Good Collective here. Common Good Podcast is a production of Bespoken Live & Common Change - Eliminating Personal Economic Isolation.

Transcript

So we're going to work on a personal practice today. One that is inner work that can deeply impact the ways we work interpersonally.  The connection between my regulated nervous system and the ability for us to co regulate the intelligence that comes out when we're connected with one another and not blended with our fear and our anxiety, and other parts of our, uh, nervous system that put us on alert and basically shut down the connection between one another. I heard recently someone say, never allow your emotions to dictate your decision. it was a helpful interview podcast and somebody was describing the importance of basically not acting when you're angry. But I think there's a missing link to this and that is that there are emotional intelligences that are on our side, that are conspiring with us to connect with others. At the core of seeking the common good together is the notion that what's in me is in you. And the capacity for social imagination to, open up between individuals is an evolutionary inheritance. I mean, it's a sense of the biology of a mammal that can sense another mammal. And then our own ability to look into eyes and know, is this safe? Our own sense of, Our heart space, am I, harmonizing with this other person? And, in contrast, anxiety turns the nervous system into a state of alert, where there's no longer a bi directional connection. It becomes an individual experience, and we know that trauma is based in the notion of disconnection, the body's, assumption, belief, perception, that I'm disconnected now from myself, disconnected from, others, from the land, from the things I call sacred, and so this inflamed nervous system That happens as we get in our news feed or on TV, a new, uh, political ad that inflamed nervous system is actually dysregulated and as a result, not able to connect to the other folks for with, and I want to give a few examples of this, that the power of brave space is to create the capacity for trust to arise naturally, not trust that's coerced or bargain for, for.  Not one that has the threat of me invading you or abandoning you and how we regulate that defensiveness is part of our own inner work in the Dysregulation the fear is a natural response to the perception that I'm going to be disconnected So how is it that we rebuild that connection or  The constrictions so that that connection can be restored. I just, I think of a few examples when our kids were babies. I would lay them on my chest  and I remember, uh, with my daughter just, kind of humming. And he's, even as I   do it right now, I can remember that moment where we were feeling into one another, her own. vulnerable self filled with, an expectation of that connection  and my vulnerable self as a dad worried about whatever may have been going on at the moment, maybe just even needing some sleep  and the slowing down.  of the body to get in tune with one another.  I was at a conference last year in LA where the convener, Marcus Walton, began the time, not with some big, speech to the thousand folks in the hotel conference room, but instead with an interview with somebody where they talked about where their hearts had been touched by the work that they did with nonprofits and foundations, and you could feel as folks were able to tap into that story, a sense of connectedness and part of the reservation, and resistance kind of going down. I'm in a group right now called the Bridge for Polarizing Times put together by, Thomas Hubel's group. in this on monthly zoom calls, we meet with folks from around the globe, some of them, Ukrainian, some of them, Russian who have moved to, Western Europe, some of them Israeli, some of them, folks in the midst of the American, election right now. And you could find times where our systems are dysregulated and the facilitators create a moment for us to slow down  and to feel into one another.  To sense that somebody else is sensing me,  and to sense into someone else. This is Howard Thurman's language of the sound of the genuine, that I can notice it in myself so that not at the end of other people's strings, and I can notice it within you.   So for a moment, I want you to just hum with me. Notice. The genuine within you. This feels like a leap, but I'm gonna, make another connection in a second, but just right now, feel what it's like in your body as you hum.  Maybe you wanna put your hand on your chest and do that again.  And   we know physiologically as you're beginning to hum and sense that humming, you're bringing the body online, you're bringing the heart online,  the vagal nervous system, which connects our Sympathetic and parasympathetic are, need to be on alert in that guarded, constricted self or the parasympathetic that sense of connection with.   And while you're doing that connection with yourself, I wanna invite you into a part of a practice in the Buddhist tradition, this is called a meta practice, where, um. We're extending loving kindness, but I want you to try this first within yourself,  so, uh, you can hear my voice say, May you know happiness.   And you can picture sense into me saying that to you. I want you now to take the moment to say that phrase out loud.  May you know happiness   and staying slowed down here,   put your hand on your chest and feel your body say that as if it's saying it to yourself, to your own story, to you showing up in the world, the genuine that's in you, the body saying to you, may you know happiness.   And then I'd like to invite you to say that from the place of your own groundedness, your blessing place to your body, the same thing,  may you know happiness.  And then now we'll do a second one similar to that, keeping your hand on your chest, maybe, or maybe even you want to just gently put it on your throat so you can hear your voice. From that place of blessing, from the genuine in yourself, saying to your body, May you be free from suffering's authority.   I invite you to say that out loud. May you be free from suffering's authority.   And almost hearing the echo of those words, allowing your body to receive that blessing.  And then back to the body.  May you be free from suffering's authority.   And you can continue this as a meta practice within yourself.  You can look up more of those blessings and then see how they would extend to others.  But I want to close now with a song by the Binksons that takes this even a bit further and maybe as you're getting news in your feed, you put it on pause for a second and see if these words help you here.  As you catch on, just sing with us here.  Stay soft to this. Don't numb it out.  Let yourself breathe in and out.  You're strong enough to feel it all.  It'll keep your heart alive.  Stay soft to this. Don't numb it out. Let yourself breathe in and out. You're strong enough to feel it all. Keep your heart alive. Don't numb to this. Don't numb it out. Let it all flow in and out. You're strong enough. To feel it all, it'll keep your heart alive. Don't numb to this, don't numb it out. Let yourself breathe in and out. You're strong enough to feel it all. Keep your heart alive.