Monday, June 21, 2010

Preparing to give birth

I hope you have had time to begin working with the four steps of “The Basics”. The more you work with each of these techniques, the more you’ll see what a difference they can make. They are subtle but incredibly effective. The more you practice them the more you’ll notice when one, or all of them, isn’t in place. The key is to notice the difference in how you feel before doing them and after you’ve taken time with each one to get them set. Make a conscious effort to notice how it feels to have all four active and engaged. As you move through your day if your current feeling doesn’t match that feeling, stop and re-engage what is missing.

I’d like to offer you a few tips on telling which part is off for you. If you feel overloaded or nervous, focus on “ground”. If you are feeling confused, have no reference point or opinion, work with “clear”. If you feel dependent upon others or like you are being controlling, work with “bind”. If you feel clumsy or unstable, work with “core”. These are generalities but will help you move in the direction you need. If you just feel “off” but can’t put words to it, re-engage them all. It only takes a couple of minutes so it’s not that big of a commitment in time, energy or money. Different personality types will be challenged by different steps in the Basics. Everyone will usually find at least one step to be particularly challenging based upon their energetic defense patterns.

It’s easy enough to read over these and think “how could that help? I’m only visualizing things.” Know that as with all things, it’s about trying it rather than just reading it. Take an experimental approach to it if need be. First pick some time bounds, determine the experiment and conduct it within the time constraints and then evaluate the results. For example say “I’m going to try doing these Basics every morning for two weeks” and then do it. At the end of that two weeks (which should be ample time to get very familiar with the process), see if you feel more grounded and centered as you engaged your world. If you like the change, and I’m sure you will, then continue doing it and work on having it become a more robust process that you are aware of constantly. If you feel no change, then stop doing the exercises. The experiment costs you nothing but a couple of minutes a day.

CHANGES

As of the writing of this entry, my life is undergoing major change. I’m about to move my work studio and our apartment into a new home where I can both live and work. All of this needs to happen in the next two weeks and then everything has to get set up. I also have a week of “vacation” planned for mid-July. That along with several other things which require my time, attention and thus my energy are causing me to take a hard look at my life to see where I can free up some energy.

As a result of that examination, I’ve decided that I’m going to be taking some time away from writing this blog so that I can get my life resettled. There is a major birth occurring for me because the stress around things reaching this point has been intense and is still building. I know there are some great lessons in all of this for me and I’ll share those with you when I return.
Since I see this as a birthing, I’m going to allow myself to surrender into the process and then return on, symbolically enough, Labor Day. Big things are in store and I’m very excited about what all this could mean for me, my relationships and also my work. Please check back here after Labor Day and look for some new posts then.

In the meantime, I thank each of you for reading my words and for the beautiful feedback that I’ve gotten from so many of you. I’m deeply touched and honored that you would take time from your life to read what I have to share. My hope and intention is that you benefit from some of it whether you believe it all or not. Please send good thoughts my way and I look forward to continuing our journey together after Labor Day and the birth.

My best to you in all that you do,

Michael

Sunday, June 13, 2010

The Basics - Step 4 - Core

The fourth step of “The Basics” is called “Core”. This process will help become more centered and in your body.


Thus far in the Basics, we have established our connection to the Earth (Grounding), called our scattered energy back into our energy field and cleared others out (Clear) and tied our fibers off to avoid energy piracy (Bind). In this final step we want to pull more of our Essential (Higher) Self into the core of our physical body and into the energetic container we created in the first three steps.


CONSCIOUSNESS MANIFESTING

At the deepest levels of our Being we are energy coming into form. We are Consciousness manifesting in the Physical realm. The bodies we inhabit are just one tiny portion of all that we are. Energetically we are far more than can be held by these temporary bodies yet these bodies are the tools we use to do our work in this realm. To do the work we have each manifested to do, we have to be fully in our bodies. That is not to say that all that we are will be in the body but rather that we will fill all of the body with some of who we are.

For most people this concept is a shift in their belief system. We’re taught in Church that we’re a soul trapped in a body which will die one day and then that soul will be judged based upon that single lifetime and then spend the rest of eternity in “Heaven” or “Hell”. This paradigm is incredibly limiting, judgmental and in sharp contrast to the deeper meaning held at the core of all religions and Spiritual teachings. When you can begin to shift your consciousness to the truth of being eternal and not limited by a physical form, Life will take on new depth, dimension and context.



FITS LIKE A GLOVE

The following technique works off of this deeper truth of our existence. A good metaphor for how this works would be to imagine that your body is a glove and your Consciousness (Higher/Essential Self) is your hand. If you slide your hand half-way into the glove and then try to pick up and manipulate objects with it, you would struggle and be limited in your success. However, when you slide your hand all the way into the glove so that each finger reaches the ends of the glove then your dexterity increases and the glove then becomes more useful.

Unfortunately most of us are very disconnected from our bodies due to the experiences which have come our way. When we don’t feel safe in our bodies, we escape into the non-physical realm of thought or fantasy and we disassociate. We may feel safer there and even create all sorts of elaborate mental constructs in an attempt to rationalize our behavior. In truth anything that we experience in the non-physical world serves no purpose for us if we can’t ground in into the physical realm. Without doing that, it all remains in the non-tangible energy world of the thought realm. The Basics offered in these first four steps are designed to help you come more fully into your body and to help you accomplish your reason for incarnating in this realm.



STEP 4 – CORE

After completing the first 3 steps, you’re ready to pull in more of your Essential Self. While this step is in essence the most powerful of the 4, the process is actually the simplest.

Sit with your spine nicely erect and put your full focus (your awareness) at the very top of your head in line with the where the top of your spine would be if it continued up through the crown of your head. Feel like you are connecting with whatever energy you feel outside your body when you hold your awareness there. Some feel it as a slight pulsing, mild vibration or just have a felt sense of movement there. There is no preferred or required sensation. Go with whatever works for you and know that in time that sense will grow more palpable and powerful.

Once you have a sense for the connection (or in the beginning just imagine it and trust), feel like you are pulling that sensation down into the very core of your body. Imagine (visualize, think, feel) that you bring it down through the skull and into your spine. Keep following that down through the center of your body, right through the spine until you reach the base of your spine, the coccyx. Allow any sensations you feel along the spine to radiate out into your physical body as you continue to pull more and more of this energy into your system. Allow it to expand out through all parts of your body and even beyond the physical boundaries of your skin and out into your energy field. Feel that this energy mixes and merges with the energy that you pulled up in the Grounding process.



DAILY PRACTICE

Now that you have all four components of the Basics, I’d like to offer you some guidance in learning to use them. Ultimately you want to become so familiar with these techniques and the feeling that results from them that they become your normal state of being, so that you are constantly and fully grounded in the center of your Being. It takes time to reach that state but as with any journey, it begins with the first step. Once you have a sense for how it feels to be fully grounded in your Basics then the next step is to notice when you are ungrounded and be able to quickly move back into a grounded state.

Scientific studies have shown that it takes about 22 days for us to create a new habit. In this time new neuro-pathways are formed in the brain and this allows us to turn the action over to our subconscious mind. It is much like walking. Once we learned and mastered the technique, we just use our willpower to move and focus on the destination without thinking about all the elaborate muscle movements required for locomotion. Interestingly enough, Science has also shown that it takes about 22 seconds for your subconscious to engage requests from your conscious mind. This is actually a good thing because if our subconscious engaged every random thought our conscious minds had then we’d probably not be very happy about that. So be patient and loving with yourself as you lay down this new habit of engaging your Basics and take time with each step along the way. Remember there is no substitute for personal experience. It is the best teacher and the only way that Truth is revealed within each of us.


FELT SENSE

What I recommend that you do is work with each of these individual steps in the process until you really have a felt sense for how you feel after you engage each one. When I use the term “felt sense” this means that you should notice how your body feels everywhere. Start with your physical body and scan it from bottom to top. Notice places where you might be holding tension. Next notice your mental body. Observe your thoughts. Don’t focus on them but just notice the quiet or the mental chatter that is going on without feeling the need to change it at all. Finally notice your emotional body. What mood are you in and how does it make you feel?

Often times we’ll say “I feel good” or “I feel bad” but those are summaries. A felt sense is what is obtained by observing all the components that roll-up into that summary. In doing this observing we will often find that the summary statement is simply a cover-up for how we are really feeling. Our bodies may ache, our minds might be very busy and emotionally we’re a wreck but we ignore all of that with “I feel fine”. Gaining a felt sense is done by simply being honest with how you feel in the moment and not being attached to the story that you tell yourself or others. This is you being honest with yourself. Truly no one wants to be around those that only complain about how bad they feel but for the purposes of this exercise, be brutally honest with yourself without judgment or a desire to change it. Only you need to know your truth here.


THE PRACTICE

So to begin with, focus on each of the components individually for around 30 seconds or more. Hold an image of the end result of each step of the Basics in your conscious mind and allow your subconscious to pick that image up and begin to work with it. Spend more time in the beginning when doing this and know that as you become more familiar with it, it will take you less and less time to achieve the desired energetic state. Once you become familiar with each of the individual pieces then get a felt sense for the end result of having all of the components in place. Focus on that and get a mental snapshot of the end result and hold on to that image with your conscious mind for at least 30 seconds. This is the one where you really want to concentrate your focus and get your subconscious to work with the image. It is also the one that you want to notice when you feel out of alignment with so that you can quickly get your Basics back in place.

WHY "THE BASICS"?

These Basics are essential to have in place before you engage energy. Engaging energy happens when you deal with other people, work with Oracles, work with your chakras, exercise or just generally experience Life. I share all of these techniques with you because most energy training that we have in our society assumes that you already have these Basics in place and so they don’t cover them. I know this was something that I had to learn the hard way. Without a container for the knowledge we gain, the information isn’t useful and our bodies have no place to hold it. With these Basics in place you’ll have a firm foundation and structure for the information to be held in your energy system and you’ll be less likely to take on others energetic issues.

I see the Basics as building an energetic house. The Grounding says “I want to build my house here and give it a firm support system” and so it becomes the foundation. Clear says “now that I have the place, I want to clear the space to build my house” and so it becomes the floor. Bind says “now I’ll build walls to define my house.” And finally Core says “put the roof on the house, fill it up and call it a home.” You need each one individually but you need them all together to have a complete system.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Me, myself and I AM

It has been said that we have three different views of “self”. We have the self that we project out into the world, the self that we think we are and the self that we really are.

FIRST VIEW – “ME”

The first view is the one that we project out into the world. This self is constructed and comprised of the things we share and don’t share with others. The things we share, and thus the view others are given, changes depending upon who we are talking to and what image we are trying to project. For instance to some people I am a body-worker, to some I am an erotic educator, to others I am a whore, a friend, acquaintance, confidant, student, lover, trouble maker, son, strange relative or just another face on the street. While I am each of those things, I am also all of those things but I am also so much more.

This view of me is dependent upon my relationship with the viewer and can change in an instant when more is shared. In essence there are as many views of me as there are people who view me because every person holds a different perspective of me based upon how much they know about me and what personal filters they are viewing me through. If you hold the belief about me that I am “just another whore” then you will most likely not be able to see me as anything beyond that because of your own judgments being projected upon me.


SECOND VIEW – “MYSELF”

The second view is the self the way we think we are. Today I may see myself as a silly, fun-loving guy with a really cool job. Tomorrow I might see myself as a loud-mouthed buffoon who is constantly putting his foot in his mouth. The next day I might see myself as a compassionate friend who does his best to help everyone that he can. Then in following days I could be a victim of my circumstances, the bravest man alive, a rebel, a leader or a wounded child. This view changes constantly and is usually based upon the situation I am in or who I am with. My own filters, which I’ve created from my past experiences, color the way I see myself in relation to others.

This view is problematic as well because it is based upon my own false judgments of myself. For example if I think that sex is bad (which I don’t) and I engage in sex then I’m likely to not be able to see all the good things that are possible through sexual expression. If I grew up being told that I’m stupid, lazy, not good enough or a “sinner” and I have adopted these beliefs simply because someone else called me these things then I will most likely judge my every action and only see my faults. This will of course validate these false beliefs that I hold and reinforce them. This negative view of self will of course be reflected in the image that I project out to others because of my own insecurities.


THIRD VIEW – “I”

The final view is the self that I really am. This self is the one that manifested the body that I currently reside in. It is the part of me that animates and enlivens this body. When I complete the lessons and tasks that I manifested to work on, it is the part of me that will leave the body and continue exist outside of the physical realm. It is eternal and ever evolving. I am either in the physical realm or I am not. Unlike the other temporary views of self, it is my deepest, truest self and not dependent upon or affected by any judgments. It is the one small slice of the infinite field of the eternal Divine which is “me”. In sacred texts it is called the “I AM” consciousness. I am one with the Divine and in that oneness I AM the Divine.

Most people believe that they are the body and that all of the judgments they hold upon themselves are what keep them from “Heaven”. As such they hold themselves in a perpetual powerless state because as long as they believe that another has power over them and sits in judgment of them, they will always be a victim. They will live their lives according to the rules and judgments given to them by an external source rather than following the guidance of the inner Divine. For them they will never be able to even conceive of themselves as anything but unworthy let alone the Divine being that they truly are.


EGO OR ESSENCE

The first two views are temporary in nature and represent only a tiny slice of the powerful beings that we all really are. These two views of self belong to the ego. The ego is connected to the temporary physical body. All of those things connected to the physical body fade away at death because of the temporal nature of the body and the personality associated with it. The third view is that of our Essential Self. It is eternal and our direct reflection of the Divine, our True Self, Higher Self, or Soul. It is part of all that is, was and ever shall be. It is the part of us which reincarnates in the physical realm to learn the lessons we manifested to learn or in some cases to help illuminate a path to the inner Divine for others to follow.

We expend so much of our time and valuable energy working on the self that we project out into the world because for most people that is as far as their awareness will penetrate into the true nature of their existence. Each time we create one of these false personalities that we present to others we have to use our energy to maintain it. When we are around those who we don’t allow to see us as we truly are out of fear of rejection, we have to remember what they do and do not know and how much more we are willing to let them know. We believe that others can’t love and accept us if they know our truth so we create a view of ourselves that we believe they can accept. This speaks directly to our inability to love and accept ourselves without judgment. It also says a great deal about our judgment of others and our belief that they can’t handle our truth.

Our internal view of self is not much different. When we judge ourselves and limit the expression of our Divine nature, we compartmentalize ourselves often as a way to cope or delude ourselves into believing that we are the body and the false personality we have created for it. These inner views of self have a direct bearing on the projected views. If we believe we are weak, evil, a victim, a sinner or even a Saint, we will create external personalities in alignment with those beliefs. Remember our beliefs create our realities. When others reflect back their view of us to us, we tend to allow ourselves to believe that we are these fractured personalities rather than a direct manifestation of the Divine.

The third and definitive self is the only true view of self. The more we hold our focus there the more that view informs our view of our self and then that view is projected out to others. This is a paradigm shift for most people because they internalize the world view of themselves rather than expressing their inner true nature. This true nature which exists within every single individual, animal and plant is the Divine expressing itself in so many forms in physical reality. This is true no matter what our perception of others is, even those we think of as “wrong” or “evil” because those judgments belong to the egoic self and are seen through our own judgmental filters.


AWAKEN TO YOUR OWN TRUTH

This inner expression of the Divine is the truth that I want to help you to awaken to and that is happening as you read these words. It is the way, the truth and the Light. It is not manifest in any single individual any more than any other but it is expressed more fully depending upon the evolution of the individual soul. The more deeply we connect with and express this Essential Self, the easier life becomes because we are able to allow our energy to radiate our truth rather than expend energy maintaining false personalities. It requires no adherence to religious dogma, new age belief system or advanced study. It is simply a matter of looking within to the deepest layers of our existence and expressing the truth found therein.

Will you put your awareness on the temporary or on the eternal I AM?