Attunement: The Risk Worth Taking

How can we grow emotionally, socially and spiritually without taking a risk? Sure, we're living in the Covid no-risk age but does that mean we have to be stagnant? Is risklessness a life of safety but no growth? Do we even need to grow? These questions are always on my mind and even more so these days. 

While working with a strategic planning client via Zoom, we were articulating guiding principles for her dance company's artistic and business practices. As we dove deep into the purpose of artistic risk-taking the word attunement crossed our screens. What exactly does it mean? Why is it paired with risk? 

As soon as I read this definition out loud we each got shivers as it is accurate for both the artistic experience and this time of living in isolation. 

A blooming succulent - flowers once a year.

Attunement is the reactiveness we have to another person. It is the process by which we form relationships. When we attune with others we allow our own internal state to shift, to come to resonate with the inner world of another. This resonance is at the heart of the important sense of “feeling felt” that emerges in close relationships.

As we stare into our screens we see both a reflection of ourselves and an image of the other. I find myself seeing both of us, simultaneously, breathing in sync. My senses are heightened in this virtual touchless time as I intermingle with myself and the other. 

This past week I was able to transcend pain from my past, guided into an internal state of resonance by another. I was feeling felt, seen and heard. The result - a transformation as I released the load I was carrying - it was no longer serving me. The journey was a risk worth taking as I merged into a more peaceful inner world, guided by a friend.

Reflecting on attunement I am reminded that as a Level 1-2 Reiki Practitioner, I have been through the attunement ceremony. The healing modality of hands and heart.