A couple weeks ago a piece of guidance dropped into my consciousness as I was washing dishes (there is something about water that facilitates this for me). “For your next gathering, why not look into the energetics of mindfulness?” Now there was an interesting idea. And as the download began to unfold in my consciousness, I got a sense of everyone coming to a deeper understanding of why it’s become common wisdom to “pause and take a breath” to create a “gap” between our habitual reactions and what a mindful response might look like. And as this awareness opened up in me, I felt myself buzzing from head to toe, my heart begin to sing with inspiration—always a good sign that this is guidance I want to be following.
It’s been a couple years since I’ve actually sat down to lesson-plan anything because it’s no longer how I roll. Instead, I set my intention and open heart and mind to continue receiving guidance along that flow, to participate in synchronicity. What usually happens for me is that opportunity to practice and deepen my learning rolls into my lap in the form of people asking for help.
Not too long after this bout of inspiration, I received a call from a friend looking for advice. There was a time when I loved to dispense advice and would be quite pointed and opinionated about it. But at this point in my life, I don’t presume to have answers for anyone. I’m more interested in helping others connect to their own source of truth. And as I listened to this friend describe in detail a worrying situation, I found myself going into that soft gaze I take while I am in session with someone. I stop listening to the language at the level of the mind, and start listening, seeing, and feeling with my inner senses to the subtle energy piling up in the space between us. And as I expanded to contain it all, I knew that my next step was to ask her to take a breath and connect to her Brilliant System.
I’m gonna pull a trick from serial writers and pause the narrative here, not to keep you hanging in suspense, but to offer you a chance to give yourself an experience of this.
This is, indeed, how I opened last night’s Mystery & Mastery circle. I instructed everyone to bring to mind a challenging situation or person, something that triggers you somehow, makes you angry, confused, anxious—choose your flavor. Build that energy up the way you would if you were to tell a story to a sympathetic friend. Then, take a breath and notice what you notice. “In my next installment” I’ll be giving some suggestions around what you can do with your breath, and let you in on some things we learned last night, but I want to leave some space for your inner wisdom to lead you to your own discoveries. Curious to learn what you find!
Got too caught up with post-circle discussions last night so I once more failed to take a photo. (Guys, help me out here when this happens!) Leaving you instead with the view from my train. The colors are starting to change along the Hudson River. How I love it here.
0 Comments