Supporting others requires us to be thoughtful, emotionally available and open to intuition. While some roles allow or even require touch, it’s not usually the main vehicle of change and in some roles it’s explicitly forbidden. Instead, much of the work occurs through connection, concepts, conversation. As richly valued as these are, they also have an insubstantial quality that doesn’t have clear beginnings, middles or ends.
We know we need to be holistic, and often talk of head, heart and body as our anchors. But what if we adjusted that a little and reframed this as head, heart and hands?
A friend of mine earned her PhD but after a couple of years of working in her field, she gave it up to paint houses. Aside from the relief of leaving behind the frustrations of academia, she talked about the simple satisfaction of her new job. She moved, she solved problems and, at the end of the day, she could stand back and see the walls she had painted.
There is something grounding about helping others through action, particularly when it is repetitive and rhythmic and finishes with a sense of completion. Even better when it’s done in company with a feeling of shared effort, and where talking is optional.
So if we’re in a talking-based role, we might need to get creative to find a bit more balance between our head, heart and hands. Lay bricks. Chop carrots. Stuff envelopes. Pack boxes. Shovel gravel. Knit booties. Scrub walls. Where can we find opportunities to also use our hands and take action?
Helen Mentha 