What I want to share this week invites us to engage the idea that we are all part of a collective information field, what we might call our collective human consciousness, and that we have an effect, an impact, on one another even when we are separated by physical distance. Within the context of our collective information field, our quality of emotional, mental, and physical presence affects our collective and all the individuals in it. We touch each other whether we are aware of it or not. Because of this, I’d like to offer a practice this week that speaks to the fact that, collectively, we are one energy organism and our presence matters.
One of the things that I emphasize in my work as a psychotherapist, and also in what I teach, is a focus on our wholeness. Within a context of wholeness, I also emphasize paying attention to what aspect of that wholeness is currently in the foreground and what has dropped into the background of awareness. Someone once said, I think the French philosopher Emile Coué, something along the lines of whatever is in any human being at any time in history is also in me. This is a statement of wholeness, that we all contain everything and anything that is part of being human across all time.
Nothing can be deleted from our wholeness. The key is to become increasingly aware of the quality of our presence so we can choose what we want to express in our everyday lives. If we find that we are in a frightened or angry mood, those are the aspects of wholeness that have moved into the foreground of our expression, while our steady presence has shifted into the background.
What the world needs now from as many of us as possible is for us to bring into the foreground of how we move through the world a quality of steady presence. That’s what the following practice invites you to explore:
- Settle yourself in a seated position if that works for you and follow the next out-breath down into the place inside you that you experience as your internal center of gravity.
- Notice that this is a place of your core presence, the place inside you where you automatically radiate the energy of your body-mind being. This radiating energy is your unique energy signature, your unique presence.
- Take a moment to notice the quality and tone of your radiating presence.
- You may also notice that here, in your core, there is a steadiness that is always there. This is an aspect of your being that is never disturbed, no matter what may be happening.
- Notice your experience if you are able to touch into this steadiness. It is a fundamental aspect of your wholeness, always present, even when you have no awareness of it.
- Imagine that your radiating presence, along with the ever-present steadiness, moves throughout your body-mind being and out into the world around you.
- How is it for you to imagine sharing your steadiness and presence with not only the world around you but also with our human collective?
- We automatically share ourselves with the collective in every moment whether we are aware of it or not, so notice how it is to be more aware of that and to imagine how it would be if you were to offer your steadiness with intention, to make it available to those who may not be able to access their own right now.
- If it makes sense to do so in this moment, also notice the steadiness of the surface supporting you right now and notice, as well, how your body receives that support.
- Take a few minutes to simply be with the steadiness of the support under you and the steadiness in your core. In whatever way makes sense to you, soak it in and just be with it, without having to do anything at all.
- Now, notice what it’s like to allow the resonating tone of the steadiness to radiate from you into the environment around you and then into our human collective, offering this quality of steadiness to those who may desperately need to draw on it even though you probably will never know who they are.
- Imagine how it would be if more and more of us were able to spend time offering our steadiness to a troubled world simply by being aware of our own radiating presence and remembering that we are all connected in every moment.
- Also, notice how it is to be even more aware that not only do you automatically offer your radiating presence to the collective but that everyone else does so, as well. We touch one another in every moment…
- When you’re ready, bring your practice to a close. Bring your awareness to the environment around you, listening to whatever sounds are there, wiggling your fingers and toes to bring yourself all the way back.
As with all these practices, please remember to bring along curiosity as your constant companion and to pat gently on the head any judgments that may arise, allowing to move on through without your having to do anything about them. And, please remember to return to steadiness as an ongoing practice to create a habit of orienting to steadiness as you move through your everyday activities.