Rooted Sangha – Session Six Summary

Theme: Worrying is a form of violence - discuss!

I have been looking forward to discussing this part of the book, because it is a little confronting! Deborah asserts that worrying about other people is a form of violence, masquerading as care.

Worry is a lack of faith in the other and cannot exist simultaneously with love.

This is a difficult concept to grasp, especially (but not only) for the parents among us. I cannot speak for Deborah, but this is my interpretation of it:

It’s really about the distinction between the natural human feeling of worry, and how we choose to express or act on it. It’s about tending the edges of our inner landscape with care. Worry, after all, is a messenger: it tells us that we love, that we are bound up with the lives of others. But when worry hardens into anxious talk—repeating itself aloud, circling the same story over and over—it can create ripples of unease that spread outwards, unsettling the people we most want to protect.

So the work becomes one of discernment. Can we acknowledge our worries, give them space to breathe, perhaps write them down or carry them quietly, without letting them spill into the room and colour everyone else’s world? It’s not about silencing ourselves, but about choosing when and how to give those worries voice. Sometimes that will mean sharing them in a trusted circle, where they can be held. At other times, it means holding them close, like seeds in the palm, waiting to see which might actually need planting, and which are better blown away on the wind.

Here is the guided meditation to sit alongside this week's circle.

And the journal prompts for this week:.

1. Naming the Stones

• What worries have been sitting most heavily with me lately?

• Where in my body do I feel them?

2. Sorting the Basket

For each worry, ask:

• Does this belong to the earth? (Is it not mine to carry?)

• Does this belong to the fire? (Is it ready to be transformed and released?)

• Does this belong to the stream? (Is there a small, simple action I can take?)

3. Reflecting on Release

• How does it feel to imagine returning a worry to the earth?

• What shifts in me when I offer one to the fire?

• What hope or clarity arises when I place one in the stream?

4. A Lighter Voice

• How might I speak more gently about my worries—without silencing them, but without letting them spill into the lives of others?

• What new space might open up in my home, or in my heart, if my words carried less weight?

Resources

Two books were mentioned, Breath by James Nestor and Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Giving Back

After covering room and fuel costs, all proceeds from Rooted are being saved to support a local cause, to be chosen together later this year — as a small act of Bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion in action.

This week we put £15 aside again, making the total £110. We will be making our first donation of £100 this week to the local branch of the Samaritans!

Going Forward

This week's optional homework is to complete the journal questions above. I will be away next week, so we will meet again in 2 weeks time on 24th September.

Thank you, as always, for showing up. For listening inward. For walking this path with gentleness and grit.

May you lay down the weight of what you cannot control.

May you find strength in loosening worry’s tight grip.

May you trust that not every stone is yours to carry.

May you remember: you are supported, you are safe, you are enough.

With love, Vicki x