Postcards from The Edge

Discovering You in The One :  The Art of Feminine Presence® and containing your own energy

 
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So many spiritual practices and teachings focus on the fact that we are all One, One with All That Is – that there is no separation between ourselves and others; we are all part of the same fabric called Life. Who can argue? Quantum physics proves it, metaphysical teachings challenge us to embrace this in programs like The Secret. Just tap into the Oneness and everything is possible. I, too, love this truth; I know it like I know my own name.

But ….

For years, as I explored spirituality, this teaching didn’t bring me much consistent joy.  I continued to feel the hounds of depression. My energy depleted, my motivation flagging under the pressures of my to-do list, caring for those that need me, and my financial responsibilities.

Somehow, this idea of Oneness wasn’t quite enough, perhaps because I couldn’t quite connect to my own purpose in it all. If I am One with everything, then what does it matter if I write this blog? Surely someone else has said it already. No doubt, they have. So, what is the point of ME in this big soup of Oneness? How does my contribution matter if we are all One anyway?

A few years ago, I came across The Art of Feminine Presence ® (AFP) created by my mentor Rachael Jayne Groover. I learned (and now teach) a couple of key concepts that felt new to me. They allowed me to feel the power of Me, my presence, and my connection to the big One. They resonated as an incredibly straightforward path to knowing that I DO matter, and what I do matters.

The first step in every AFP gathering – A Tune In:

• What am I feeling in my body? Without judgement or needing to understand why things are this way today. Just offering my loving attention to the body parts that want it. Simple awareness and wonder at this instrument of Spirit, the vehicle into which I was born. My ride for this lifetime.
• What am I feeling emotionally? Considering how I feel right now, approaching that question with curiosity, has been the gateway to much clarity in my life. Naming what I am actually feeling in this moment is the pathway to getting clear on what I really want. My habit is to focus on what I prefer to feel, what is an acceptable feeling, what life stories I have going on that should have me feeling mad, sad or glad.
• What do I notice about the space around my body? In AFP, we lovingly refer to the space around the body, up to just past an arm’s length, as the Light Globe, or Energetic Presence. Visually, I often refer my clients to imagine the DaVinci diagram of the body stretched out, with a sphere circulating around it.  Not a new idea! It is the space that holds us, contains us, and it is the first experience others have of us – that undeniable “something” that tells someone how we are feeling before our eyes meet. 

In AFP, we do many practices to connect to this space around our bodies, to visualize it, to sense it, and to notice its outer rim. We put a lot of attention on this outer edge – imagining it as a thick, clear defining boundary that ideally ends around an arm’s length away from us, though our experience can vary moment to moment.

Why do we do that, if we are all ONE? Why would we want to feel where we end, and another begins? Isn’t that the opposite of all the big Spiritual teachings?

It might be in some circles. But for me, the recognition of my body, my emotions, and my contained energy, helped me feel my unique part in this big ONENESS soup. When I contain my energy, with a clear boundary, my individual light glows with a radiance that has a powerful effect on those around me. Its defined edge helps me to feel my own space, my sovereignty, my individuality, my responsibility, my freedom, to act from this body, in this lifetime.

Without the consciously defined edge, my energy shrinks or fizzles under stress, when I most need it, leaving me feeling depleted and depressed, my ideas, feelings and creative yearnings unexpressed. I make no impact whatsoever. I feel I don’t matter, since no one can see me. The cycle of depression feeds on itself. I shrink more, causing even more invisibility, and so it goes.

Another common experience, without the defined edge to my Light Globe is that my energy gets wildly overbearing, overwhelming others, making them want to run away, or cross the street when they see me coming. We all know that cringing feeling when unconstrained energy is coming our way. Once again, the opportunity to really make an impact is lost when others are turning away from the blinding light.

Whether I am shrinking or overbearing, that lack of a conscious container means others are less able to experience me in a positive way, and I don’t feel my contribution really matters to anyone.

Before this idea of containing my energy, I didn’t really get the feeling that my unique offering would really make a difference. 

Now, I can feel the palpable difference I can make – ME — my body, emotions, and true desires, surrounded by my contained Energetic Presence, lit from the inside, fueled by the great One (for me, that is where the Oneness thing happens).

Test it … do a 5-minute tune in. Ask yourself, what am I feeling in my body? What am I really feeling, emotionally? How is my Light Globe? Where is the edge?  Use your imagination to draw the circle like a sphere until you can feel it.

And notice the big difference you make in every room when you choose to switch it on, consciously. You will make a beautiful contribution, just as every electric light makes an enormous impact when it is ON — and is more far more attractive and inviting because of the edge that tempers it radiance.