“One hand washes the other,” someone said to me years ago when I bought an old car from him for less than it was worth but all I could afford. It’s been a phrase I’ve thought about a lot. It’s sometimes distorted in superficiality: Quid pro quo. “We strike a deal that benefits us both”. But it always sounded much more profound to me than a smart arrangement to gain some profit. It sounded to me like a fundamental truth about life itself.
I am not anyone without the other. We witness and help each other grow. A collaborative effort. A co-operation. We are all elements of life unfolding. Of creation itself. And thus, we are interconnected.
In Buddhism this principle is also called “interdependent arising” – everything exists because of everything else. A giant web of InterBeing. Oneness.
I have been supported and guided and encouraged by others. I have teachers and mentors. I am alive and well only because of other people. The internal and external are intertwined like that. They cannot be separated.
“One hand washes the other.” With that phrase in mind I started working on a degree program in Integrative Counseling last year. What can I do to be of service? What is most needed in the world right now that I can offer?
I believe what is most needed in the human experience right now is conscious connection. To ourselves, each other, our planet, our purpose. As an Integrative Coach and Counselor in training, that is a process I can witness and support for other people. I can’t do the work for anyone; the journey towards connection to Self is a deeply personal one, but I can be present for it. As others were present for me when I needed that.
Ram Dass once said: “All you can do for another person is be an environment in which if they wanted to come up for air, they could”.
When I first read those words my heart started glowing; that is what pure love sounds like. It is also the essence of any form of counseling to me. A place to come up for air, to remember yourself, to allow for things to shift if they need to shift.
It is my ongoing responsibility to clear up my environment to be able to welcome others for a cup of oxygen if they so choose. Imagine if everyone would work towards that goal? What would our world look like? I joyfully uphold and unfold that vision into reality.
For more information about my work as an integrative coach check out the page on Clarity Sessions. If you have questions, feel free to reach out through this contact form.
Yvet Youssef 