Strengthening Your Container

Photo by Dani Sardà i Lizaran.  His flickr page is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/danisarda/.

I’ve been going through a lot of transitions lately that have been draining me and producing a lot of fear. Perhaps these transitions have also been making my blog posts rather dreary.

But fear not!  While I have been freaking out, stomach-achingly tense, and feeling totally wound up, I have also been learning.  There has been a reason for all this nuttiness.

The reason was to test the strength of my container. 

What “container” you say?  Why, the container that is “you” and “me”. Your container contains the essence of who you are and what you stand for. 

Your container is what holds you together.  It is your personal strength, your character, your will.  But it is also more.  Your container is also your ability to love yourself enough to wait until exactly the best solution for you at the right time comes along.  The self-love to not “settle” in your life.  Your container is made up of what is most authentically you.

No one ever really appreciates the strength of our containers until the rough patches in life. 

The most important job your container does, is to contain all the chaotic elements in your life.  Sometimes when you are faced with uncertain times, and difficult choices it is easy to pick something – anything – so that the turmoil and uncertainty within you resolves.  It is only if your container is strong that you can hold all the swirling elements around you until the cloudy bits fall to the bottom.  It is only when the chaos is ready to subside that you become clear.  Once the chaos within you naturally subsides, your choices are clear.

Your container is made up of experiences, skills, self-discipline, and self-love.  All of these things make it strong.  As you grow, mature and learn your life lessons your container gets stronger.

But without any challenges your container never strengthens.  It is like a pot that needs to be fired in a kiln to get stronger.  Only the fire strengthens the clay.

Firing a Pot

Simple clay transforms into a super strong material through the process of firing.

This is an excerpt from “How Temperature Changes Clay”, by Beth Peterson at About.com. 

“As a kiln is firing up and cooling down, the changes in temperature make some profound changes in the clay. The clay goes from this soft, totally fragile substance to one which is rock-hard, impervious to water, wind, and time. The change is nearly mystical in its complete metamorphosis, and might be deemed so if it were not so common.

As the clay is slowly heated, this water evaporates out from the clay. If the clay is heated too quickly, the water will turn to steam right inside the clay body, expanding with explosive effect on the pot.”

In the fourth stage of firing, the quartz crystalline structure of the clay actually changes. 

In the fifth stage of firing, called sintering, clay actually vitrifies.  This means the clay compacts and strengthens, as clay particles begin to fuse with each other. In the sixth stage of firing, the needle-like crystals in the clay knit and strengthen the clay body even further.

Transforming Your Clay

Like the clay pot being fired, our experiences transform us from a weak lump of clay, not only into something stronger, but sometimes into a completely different material.  This material is so much more than the original clay.

Like the clay pot, if we keep strengthening our containers, we may transform into something so strong, that we actually take on a different chemical structure. We become much more unbreakable.

Personal work is the firing that makes our container strong.  Like sintering a pot, getting to know who we are and our strengths and weaknesses is necessary so that we can hold together when times get tough.  We can find the discipline in ourselves to wait until only the best things arise for us.

We all know that life is not always easy.  Shit happens.  But if our containers are strong enough, the fires of our turmoils strengthen us.

Life acts as our kiln.  Sometimes, if we crack, we are forced to repair our containers.  In fact, it is usually because of our cracks, that the most extreme growth of our soul occurs. 

Healing ourselves and self-exploration are all necessary for us to repair our containers, to go forward.

But as we grow and experience and put ourselves back together again, time after time, we finally find the right combinations of skills, self-knowledge and self-love to make our containers super-strong.

We burn off our fears and old patterns in the kiln of our lives.  This burning off process strengthens our containers.

Our containers get stronger as we grow.  What doesn’t kill us makes our containers stronger.

Keeping Up My Strength

So while the turmoil in my life is not over yet, and while my employment situation hasn’t yet landed where I would like it to, I must be patient.  I must love myself to realize that strengthening myself is the most important thing to be done at the moment. 

Focusing on my inner peace, and knowing myself to the best of my ability, keeps my container strong.  Strengthening my container right now is the most important thing I can do to deal with my current life, and help me prepare for my future.

All the experiences I’m going through at the moment are making my container stronger and stronger.  As I get stronger, I’m able to face experiences that require an even stronger container. 

The strength of my container will attract opportunities that need a strong container.

So I’m building my skills, and getting myself ready, so when my opportunities arise, I can take them.

Kara

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Photo by Dani Sardà i Lizaran.  His flickr page is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/danisarda/.

Copyright 2010 : : Kara Thompson : : Conduit of Joy