The Meeting of Circles: Knowing Ourselves in Uncertain Times
There’s a story I’d like to share with you today - the story behind my logo.
But first, in the words of the Rolling Stones, please allow me to introduce myself…
My name is Jana Nightingale. I’ve worked in self-development for over a decade, guiding people around the world towards greater awareness, purpose and happiness.
Some years ago, when I decided to qualify as a Psychosynthesis counsellor and guide, I embarked on a post-graduate qualification in intensive counselling training for 3 years at the Psychosynthesis Trust in London. This was one of the most remarkable and valuable trainings and gifts of my life and a humbling and transformative experience. I often find myself thinking back to the wisdom of my trainers, my fellow trainees and the inspiring course content itself.
One of my favourite trainers at the Trust, Brian Graham, was a character that we all adopted as an honorary wise and loving grandfather. He’d been teaching for many years, and you just knew it. He’d switch between humour and deep wisdom without so much as a blink. We were often brought to tears by his humility, humanity and loving heart.
In one of our training sessions, Brian explained to us the true purpose of counselling, the deep process of connecting with another and the raw and naked intimacy that can emerge when counselling really works. We were witness in that moment to the power of connection and what counselling — or any self-development work — can be.
Brian shared a symbol that beautifully illustrated his point — the vesica piscis (or what you might think of as a venn diagram, in more everyday terms).
He explained this sacred, ancient symbol and the meeting of the two circles, the significance of the new shape created at their convergence/intersection. As he spoke, I got a visceral sense of the ‘two worlds’ colliding into each other and the many ways it can be read: the counsellor and the client creating a third energy in their meeting; a bridge between the world of our everyday, material reality and the spiritual world beyond; the individual meeting the collective and the in between; the feminine and the masculine energies within us marrying; the light and the shadow dancing in perfect balance; the duality of life and the third way created in its midst.
The symbol spoke to me so much. And Brian realised it then, because he brought me a stone the next day with that very symbol on it. A perfect vesica piscis that was etched onto a rock by natural markings, time’s passing, and the movement of water. I treasure it to this day.
Now, this symbol speaks to me even more than it did then. When lockdown happened, so many people I worked with and spoke to told me how the meeting of the worlds they experienced was far from comfortable; the pandemic had crashed into their professional and personal lives — and the boundary between their work and life had all but disappeared while juggling everything at home — or suddenly finding themselves out of work. Others told me of the boundary between them and the collective suddenly feeling paper-thin — the fact that one action could have a ripple effect on so many and the discomfort of the meeting place between them and the other. For others, the comfort, familiarity and love created in the space between them and loved-ones, more important now than ever.
Today, many people I work with are present to the realisation that our actions can impact the world greatly — that we don’t live in a bubble of our own creation. We are connected — we are joined in every respect — and when we connect with each other, we create that third sacred space together, even if we aren’t conscious of it. So many I speak to say this time has forced them to question and review how they want to live their lives and how they engage with others and the world around them.
My work speaks to these new times. My vision is to teach individuals how to reconnect with what I call our Knowing — with our awareness, our purpose and with all of who we are. This work helps us go beyond being identified with our busy thinking mind — which we are so often in touch with in our busy modern lives (let alone a frickin’ global pandemic). It is an expansion of our individual ‘circle’ into wholeness of being and beyond. In essence, it is our direct pathway to experience ourselves as a source of joy and love in the world.
The invitation is to reconnect with our body, emotions, our intuition, imagination and our soul. In my own life, this process of remembering my Knowing has been nothing short of entirely transformative. And the tools I’ve picked up over the last decade teaching Psychology, mindfulness, neuroscience and spirituality have helped me figure out how to teach it to others, too.
Nowadays, I am witness to the purpose and connection we plug into when we open up our awareness to life beyond our material, everyday reality. The energy that emerges when we begin to make contact with that more expansive view of ourselves, who we really are and who we might become.
Perhaps one silver-lining of this pandemic is that it has opened up this potential to many more people, as we entertain the idea that we, and our work, might look different to how we once imagined.
The thing is, we all struggle to access the unique, intuitive Knowing that is our birthright when caught in the busy mindset of the everyday. The uncertainty of day-to-day life, the confusion and perceived threat all around; without grounding ourselves in who we are, life easily becomes fragmented, fraught and anxious — like only having access to half of yourself. When we can go beyond this experience of ourselves, there’s all the wisdom, answers and purpose you’ll ever need. Like finding the biggest treasure you could imagine, right there all along — and you don’t need to burn incense to find it, if that’s not your thing.
May we meet with the infinite unknown and find ourselves waiting on the other side. May we come home to ourselves and figure out who we are in this brand new dawn — as our individual circles expand and meet with each other to form a new space and a beautiful, fresh way of Knowing.
