Leslie Hershberger: 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.

Leslie Hershberger is a master facilitator, Enneagram expert, and spiritual guide, focusing on the second half of life. In 2023, Leslie launched Thresholds, which are sessions supporting people in the second half of life. Leslie believes in the power of human transformation through intention, awareness, and practice. She is passionate about supporting people in cultivating self-awareness in their inner life, relationships, and spirituality. 

Here are some introductory resources for the 3-centered Enneagram.

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.

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

 One of the most foundational practices that you've heard in the other podcasts is the practice of the pause  and you have to first pause rather than jumping in reflexively. And with the pause, what you can notice is the difference between up and out or in and down. And for in and down, it's simply sitting back,  making contact with the felt sense of your own breathing,  noticing the difference between the thought of breathing  and the actual felt sense of your own breath.   Feeling your feet on the ground  where they make contact with the ground  and sensations in your own body. And you can do this while you're with other people. I do it a lot of times, whether I'm teaching or whether I'm in a conversation,  and they don't have to know you're doing it.  

Now, I work a lot with the Enneagram,  there's three different types who engage differently in a conflictual situation.  The initiators, which is type three, seven, and eight. If this is a familiar language for you, you kind of jump in like street basketball, you sit forward, you prefer action diving in getting engaged, and that can overwhelm others. So sometimes your pause  is to come in and down. Notice that tendency to want to keep the momentum going your way, right? Maybe talk fast, kind of a go ahead energy 

and with your pause. It's sitting back in the chair,  finding your breath,  the felt sense of your breath, not rushing to think about your breath, but really pausing, going in  and down,  feeling the felt sense of your own breathing,   feeling where your feet make contact with the floor.   Notice, do I want to go up and out and talk fast, maybe interrupt, sit back,   come inside yourself, ground, and then look around the room and take others in, and each one in the space is having different emotions that may be different than yours.  So the practice here is to stay inside your pause and also be aware of other people in the space. Thanks.  That each one of them may be feeling something differently and seeing, you know, kind of playing around with holding your own interior and then making kind of expansive room for the other. Use that kind of go ahead energy energetically with breath,  grounding  intention  that I can hold space right now  for another point of view.  When you feel the clench because it inevitably is going to happen throughout today, you feel it,  welcome it.  Breathe into it a   little bit of kindness for yourself  and also opening what would it be like if I could open to empathy for others who are in this space right now. 

 Where if you're a cooperator, sometimes called the compliant types, what types one, two, and six, there's a lot around the demands of the super ego, meaning, you know, we're very dutiful. So notice when I'm starting to feel like what's the right thing to do here. I've got to take my time, maybe if I'm a two, figuring out other people's needs. For some types, it's like I have a lot of questions about what are the roles, who's in charge. And notice that when you're in that space, you're outside of yourself. You're not in and out.  All right. You're out with others. 

And so your pause practice could be to come in and down of where am I,  what do I notice inside of myself as I connect to my breath?   Maybe I'm noticing my heart's accelerating  pause. Thanks.  Welcome the acceleration of the heart. Give it a little bit of space.   I may notice there's a kind of a gurgling in my stomach  and you can pause.  Welcome it with a little bit of kindness for yourself and give it a little bit of space.  

 So those are the more compliant types or cooperators where you tend to be more predictable. You wanna know those potential conflicts.  

There's another type called the soloists, and that's types four, five, and nine. And if this is you, if you don't know the Enneagram, it's kind of more like golf. You want to be independent here. Sometimes, maybe even reflexively in a conflictual situation, you kind of reflexively withdraw  and your pause. Just notice, am I disengaging now?  Am I doing it right now?   You can kind of check inside, does this resonate with me?  But don't forget to come outside as well, to notice what's happening with other people, to notice what's happening, sometimes the resonant field, the field of others.  Now if you're some types, you may kind of just start to merge with others. Like I'm going to try to kind of go along with them so I don't have to feel any discomfort or any conflict.  That's not the practice. The practice is the pause.  

You come inside and notice somatically, meaning heart beating, stomach clenched, maybe a tight jaw. Pause and welcome it with kindness for yourself.  Engage the space, maybe feel the length of your spine  from the base of your skull to the base of your spine. Just feel it, the length, one vertebrae at a time.  Feel the width of your own being, your own presence in this group. in this space.   Feel the rib cage and all of the organs inside your rib cage.   But it's really noticing your internal space, building bandwidth for maybe a little more discomfort, a little more conflict,  a little more joy, a little more expansion. Just notice what's happening for you right now.   And then what does it feel like if I can take others in without merging with them, without feeling like they're going to overwhelm me, want too much from me,  not see me,  see inside of you while holding the others in this space.  

So these three very different ways of being in a space matter and for you to know what is your interior template.   And then one other practice you can really work with once you start to understand your own interior tendencies is the yes, no, and maybe and with the yes. It's standing with one foot in front of the other, feeling the length of your spine,  and putting your hands down at your side, open to the world, and a yes.  I feel a yes inside of me right now.  Notice what it feels like to say yes. Given your type structure, that may feel comfortable or more awkward, but just notice.  What's it like for me to say yes to another right now  and feel that in your body. See if you can move from your mental center to your body  and feel what a yes feels like.  Then notice what it's like to now do the practice again. Come back to the pause, breathe.  And notice what it's like to say a no. So do the same stance. Stand with one foot in front of the other, feel your ground, feel your sturdiness, your connection to the ground. Hold both of your hands all the way out in front of you and say, no,  no.  What do you notice what it's like given your type structure and your tendencies to say no.  For some of you, that could be very comfortable, familiar, others, it could feel like kind of strange.  No,  I've done this with people and they can really feel their power when they say no.  Then the last one is maybe because we don't always know our yeses and nos. Sometimes we need some time. And so the maybe can be something more like your hands extended to your sides,  Maybe,  maybe  with your hands out this time, they're going to be facing the floor.  I don't know. Breathe, find your center.  Maybe  I have to wait on this  because it's okay to not know yet. But for some of you, this might be a permanent holding pattern. So maybe it might feel really comfortable for you.  Okay, so pay attention to in a conversation with yes, no, and maybe, what's your reflexive tendencies?  Pause,  breathe in and down.  Notice sensation in your body.  Notice yes.   No   and maybe.   Just go throughout your day to day and notice the difference between in and down and up and out. And get curious about what your natural tendencies are.