Oh. I love Mayke. And I feel quite confident that you will too. She’s a dear friend of mine and one of four women in a constellation known to us as Campfire Sisters. Find out more about Mayke Vullings on her website: www.maykevullings.nl and by listening to this podcast, of course.

 

 

Mayke, for me, is a woman who invites the energy of play into my life. This is the energy that Mayke sends out in spades, and perhaps because of that, she’s also one of the wisest women I know. So when the idea of this pod-series came to me (well. When the penny finally dropped after Caspian had nudged me about it repeatedly, if I am truthful.) Mayke was one of the persons I immediately wanted to ask. Imagine my delight when she said Yes!

The energy of play is one of the things we touch upon as we meandered along our conversation on April 14th, 2021, and how play cannot take place unless there is a container of safety around. To be able to play, you need to feel safe. And as I have struggled a lot with letting myself play, in so many ways the word can be used, as Mayke pointed this out, something shifted within. Perhaps that’s one reason why I have struggled to let myself play? That I haven’t felt safe enough to do so?

One of the ways I have been able to help myself play is by using music as an alibi. Put on a great song on Spotify, pop my headphones on, and I can start to dance, and sing, regardless of my whereabouts! I can go dance walking in the park, or in town, dancing and singing my heart out, and I am just as prone to do the latter when I’m on my bike. The music gives me an alibi, because everyone (I think. I hope!) can relate to the irresistible urge to move your body when your favorite song comes on. Right?

In the process-oriented therapy I am currently undertaking, I am discovering a lot of different aspects of myself, and all of that is helping me accept who I am, understand who I am, bring some kind of clarity to those seemingly irreconcilable parts of myself. You know, when you contradict yourself, and your beliefs, being your own source of tankespjärn as it were…

Mayke has come to a place where she can meet someone who says something triggering, and not just accept the lesson offered on a silver platter, but to actually say ”Thank you. Thank you for the lesson. Whatever was triggered in me is inside of me, and has nothing to do with you. All the while, I want to cry out loud… but I don’t. I say thank you.”

There is always a deeper layer. Question is – are we open to receive it? To look at it, to reflect upon it? Are you? Now there’s some potential tankespjärn!

 

 

The episode is available on Youtube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all other podcast platforms.