Sparks in Wisdom's Fire: full body listening

Showing posts with label full body listening. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Have you noticed?

Have you noticed? The days are getting darker — there just aren’t enough hours of light at least for me. It is just sooooooo dark! Sometimes I find myself wondering at what goes bump in these dark nights. At other times I feel the velvety caress of the dark night comfort.

But, most of all, I’ve learned to breathe into these dark moments . In fact, I call these moments between times. Moments that provide opportunity to just be. To adjust to the time of dark. To listen to what is being uttered within the darkness. To find sparks of light within the dark. To grow into my truth.

Now, I am not saying that the dark isn’t a scary place. The not knowing aspect of the dark is disconcerting. What I am saying is that the dark is a place that calls us into awareness. An awareness that invites us to use all our senses. That means for many of us, using more than just our primary sense, our eyes.

Some of us, me included, spend so much time focusing on what our eyes see that we miss what is hiding in plain sight. In the dark, it is really easy to miss what we cannot perceive with our eyes — what is obscured by the dark. We need to learn to perceive with our other senses.

I remember a Merton quote: “it would be good if we would open our eyes and see.” I don’t think that he was talking about our physical eyes. I believe he was talking about using all our senses. Only when we engage in full body listening do we gain a better picture of what is occurring. Only when we use all our senses can we understand what is being shared.

Let’s return to the dark to engage in discovery of the messages within it. First name what emotion is spiking in you. If you can, resist the urge to react to what you are feeling. Resist the urge to turn on a light. Breathe into the dark. Using your all your senses, notice you are picking up. This is a noticing without expectation.

You may ask yourself:

What do you hear with your physical ears? What is your mind saying?
What do you see with your physical eyes? What is perceived by the eyes of your soul and heart?
What dances on your tastebuds?
What flows in and out of your nose?
What do you feel physically? How are your emotions, your other senses impacting your physical body?

Just notice. Within the noticing, intend to understand. You may receive a word, a phrase, an image — something else. Be in the wonder of receiving. And, then, sit in this between time with whatever you receive. You don’t need to make sense of it. Just trust when the time is right you will understand.

While the dark can be a scary place, it is also a place where we meet our true self. Within the dark, whispers of intuition surround us. The whispers pick us up, lift us into the sky of our soul where we catch the thermal and fly into who we are.

Van Hurst, ms, is an intuitive-coach-catalyst. As a contemplative coach, she uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for navigating those places may scare us. The result of time with Van? Creating a blueprint for your life through a deeper connection to your intuition and contemplative nature.

Van is a professional speaker & author who weaves inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are available @ www.wildefyrpress.com. Her most recent book, As Natural As Breathing: Being Intuitive, is available on Amazon. Contact Vanessa for life coaching, intuitive consultations, keynotes, and programs.

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Catapulting from Grief to Your Message

Lately a great welling of grief has flooded into an unsuspecting world. Who would have realized on January 1, 2020, that the world would experience so many challenges and face so much loss in less than a year? We often have to remind ourself of the many avalanches that have happened this year. Through the fatigue we are challenged to recognize our grief, stand in our power, and do everything we can to alleviate the suffering that percolates around us.

All is not dire. We as individuals and as community have an opportunity that cannot be missed. That opportunity is to grow into our message. Gandhi, when asked by a reporter what his message was, simply said, “my life is my message.” Do you know what your message is? How do you discern your message when you are bombarded by the grief that overwhelms both you and the world?

Grief is a powerful shaper of the articulation of our message. Let’s use the five stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance — as defined by Elizabeth Kübler-Ross in this discernment. What follows is my take on using grief as a discernment spring board.

As you go through each step use full-body listening to get a detailed image of how your grief is expressed. As you answer each question, use your primary senses: sight, hearing, sensing (feeling), smell, and taste to formulate your response. Notice how your body, your mind, your spirit, and your emotions are impacted by the questions.

Let’s begin:

Denial: What in your life are you not accepting of? What do you avoid, minimize, or misinterpret? What, in this moment, would you name as the most important denial? How is it stopping you from sharing your truth with the world?

Anger: Reflect upon those things that tangle you in denial. How does your anger stem from each? Dig beneath the anger to its roots; discover what triggers the anger inside of you. How is that root impacting your internal monologue, your emotions, your physical body?

Bargaining: How often do you make the “if this, then that” deal? What do you bargain for? How is your anger a bargaining chip? What is the impact of this bartering on your body, mind, spirit, and heart? What triggers are you willing to neutralize by not bartering?

Depression: Let’s look at depression as feelings of hopelessness that result from reactive anger. Name what you are particularly hopeless about. How can you use the power of your anger to share your message with the world? How is your anger a nonviolent power that triggers transformation?

Acceptance: Look at the answers to the questions regarding the first four stages. Create a panoramic view of what you discovered. Recognize that while you cannot change the situation, you can shift from reaction to response. How are your reactions and responses to grief impacting your message? What is uplifting in the lessons you are learning? How might you use this knowledge as the foundation of your message?

Past. Present. Future. It is not just 2020 that catches us in grief. 2020 has stripped away the veneer of normalcy and asked us to peer deeply into our suffering and that of others. This exercise is not one that is meant to trap you in despair. It is meant to give you the power to catapult from the depths of your grief into your message. It is meant to clear the path of hope and compassion in an uncertain world.

Here’s to realizing your life as your message!

Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is an Intuitive-Coach-Catalyst, who uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for personal and relationship transformation. She is a professional speaker & author who weaves inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are available @ www.wildefyrpress.com. Contact Vanessa (vanessa@intentandaction.com) for life coaching, intuitive consultations, keynotes, and programs.

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Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Shake It Up: Living An Adventuresome Life

When I walk, I take the same the same route. That is, until about two weeks ago. My inner voice grew increasingly more vocal about taking a different path. I argued, “it is easy and predictable." I continued taking the same path until one morning when I woke up and thought, “this is it! I am going to take a different route.” That morning, my trek was spontaneous as my intuition guided me.

Since that time my walk has become anything but rote. I have shaken it up. I have walked through uniques neighborhoods that I didn’t know existed. I’ve seen a fence created entirely by live trees, hoofed up and down hills, and peered into wetlands from a raised walkway. Shaking up my walk opens new vistas to me. I wondered, “What would happen if you shook up other parts of your life?”

Now, I am not talking about a shake up for the sake of shaking. I am talking about letting go of the stale and old. This shaking up occurs through discernment or objectively listening to the voice of your intuition, creating a plan, and then acting upon it. For me, this means paying attention to what is no longer working in my life. I full-body listen to gain clues what is outdated and needs to be shaken up.

Notice that I say shaken up not thrown out. Often our life doesn’t need to be radically changed. It just needs to be tweaked. Discernment through full-body listening helps us decide what we can keep, what needs to be let go of, and what needs to be shaken up.

Let’s return to full-body listening. (Find out more about it here) When we listen with our senses to the four aspects of our being — body, mind, spirit, and heart, we gain critical information. How do we do this? Let’s practice:

Choose something in your life — it could be big: your job, a relationship — or something small: your hair style, your interaction on social media.
Objectively reflect upon this piece of your life. Don’t make judgments or defend what you discover. Just gather facts.
Ask yourself how you are impacted by this piece of your life. (For example: you may feel fluttering in your stomach, have a thought that repeats over and over again, or an emotion may surface.) Use your five senses to formulate your answer.
Create a multi-dimensional image of what you are sensing. The image takes form as you discover what the piece of your life looks like, sounds like, feels like, smells like, and tastes like. Shake up how you are experiencing this life piece.
Note how this life piece is impacting your body, mind, spirit, and heart separately and collectively.
Ask yourself what needs to be shaken up and to what degree the shake needs to happen. Sometimes a shake is slight; other times it creates a seismic shift in your life. There is no wrong answer. You choose how the change will manifest.

Now an example: my hair and I have had an uneasy relationship for quite some time. Added to this uneasiness is the temperature at my workplace. The heat, humidity, and subsequent sweat result in my hair becoming what I refer to as “old lady frizz.” This description was only the beginning of what my internal monologue said about me (mind). It triggered emotions (heart). I wanted to make a change but feared how I would look in shorter hair. The voice of my intuition (spirit) grew louder and louder, until I could not longer ignore the stale in my life. I got my hair cut (body).

That haircut was the shake up that I needed. I feel more powerful; more of who I am. In fact, I tell people that I am rocking my Jaime Lee Curtis who I view as a short haired, incredibly powerful, together woman. As a result of that haircut, I have begun to shake up other aspects of my life. This includes a new website and painting aura portraits. I in this shaking up, I am becoming exactly who I am.

So, how are you shaking up your life? How are you rocking your Jamie Lee Curtis? How are you becoming exactly who you are? I’d like to know.

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Tuesday, September 1, 2020

The Wild Ride of Your Heart

When I was younger, my family would drive to the Ferdinand State Forest. Mostly we would take the curvy, hilly road at a meandering. Every once in a while my dad would be adventurous. What a thrill it would be to whip around curves and sail across the dips! On those wild rides the thrill was part fear but mostly a lot of daring.

Lately it seems that life is taking us on unexpected wild rides. The gas pedal never seems to let up as we whip around curves and sail across dips. I grapple with what is triggering my fear. In moments of reflection, I remind myself to acknowledge the possibilities as I sail across the dips and take the hairpin curves. With introspection, I reframe this wild ride into an opportunity for growth reminding myself that transformation is only possible through a wild ride of our heart.

Whether we are meandering or racing in this wild ride of our heart, we show up as our best, most honest self. Ask yourself, “How does my best, most honest self feels?” Get a multi-sensory image of what your best, most honest self is. Let that image seep into your core. That image is the vehicle in which you ride into the wild.

Although aspects of a wild ride are scary and filled with dark, this happening need not be terrifying. A wild ride is an opportunity to shift perception — to see our self in a new light. We are invited, no matter what the circumstances, no matter what our reaction or response, to glimpse beneath illusion into who we truly are at our core. That is key. Each time we sail across those hills and whip around the curves, we gain insights into who we are and who we are not.

Who are you? Not the labels and the roles but the true self that you share with each beat of your heart. Notice how that clashes with how others see you, how you show up with your friends, your family, at work. The wild ride is a reminder to be yourself however, wherever, and whenever you find yourself. Using this reframe, the wild ride becomes less scary and more daring.

This wild ride invites you to never stop being who you are — to show up as your best, most authentic, most honest self. So, I dare you to ride the ribbon road of dips and curves not because it is the only way to get to your destination, but because it offers you the best way to experience life. Here’s to those wild rides between here and there that lead you to exactly where you need to be.

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Tuesday, August 25, 2020

A Fine Line: Dream vs. Fantasy

Sometimes fantasy blurs into dream and dream edges into fantasy. There is a fine line between fantasy and dream. Have you found yourself crossing this line? Have you found it difficult to discern between the two? I know that I have.

A dream is a desired goal; it may be your raison d’être. A fantasy is an unrealistic outcome based upon a want. It is easy to see how the line between the two blurs when we are unaware. We become aware of how we encroach this fine line through discerning what we want versus what we need. Only through reflection and introspection can we separate fantasy from dream and reach our goals.

The power of dreams propels us toward our goals — both short term and long term. Each step toward the dream gives us the energy to try one more time to succeed no matter what our perceived and real limitations. In fact, our limitations become challenges to overcome on the road of realized dreams.

Fantasies are illusions. Through them, we create false, unsustainable pathways through our life. Caught in a fantasy, we do not actively engage our soul purpose. We get mired in false hope. The fantasy becomes the beginning, the middle, and the end of the journey.

If a dream is a “wish your heart makes,” then a fantasy is born from unresolved suffering. Through this suffering induced fantasy, we may believe that a challenge is a barrier to be leapt over instead of dismantled by learning its lesson. When we are enmeshed in a fantasy, we lose the capability to reframe. The fantasy deludes us into believing everything will be okay even when it cannot be.

You may be surprised to discover that every dream must have a bit of fantasy woven into it. It is the part of dreaming big that propels us to new heights. But, we cannot allow the fantasy to overwhelm the dream. The fantasy is the place of exploration. Here we are daring and curious as we seek the possible that is birthed from the impossible.

Allowing a bit of fantasy to seed your dream is the power of being a change agent, a willing participant in transformation. It is the power of a growth mindset, a willingness to be flexible and allow your dream to evolve into exactly what you need. A dreamer has goals, has a respect for the potential of the impossible becoming possible, and has a plan while being open to the guidance of her intuition. Within those intuitive whispers are found the fantastical moments that nudge her closer to her dream.

Hoping you ride the fine line into the realization of your dream, Vanessa

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Tuesday, August 4, 2020

Self Compassion: Growing Compassion’s Roots

Do you ever want to hold others tight while sheltering them from a raging storm? Make that storm of worries, debts, and medical ailments — to name a few ailments — dissipate. Maybe you want to make the world less scary and a lot more sane. I know that I do.

It is true that we can alleviate the suffering of another, but to do so the roots of self compassion must deeply twine into the ground of our being. Without those roots we would be lifted into the winds of suffering. We would be depleted by its agony as the storm of suffering continues to rage.

As a compassionista, I have discovered that I cannot save the world; I can only save myself. Now, this is not a narcissistic salvation in which I turn away from others. This is a path of self awareness. I identify my suffering and gently, lovingly turn inward to alleviate my suffering. These acts of compassion increase my personal power. They can increase yours. Through these acts, we gain the fortitude, the strength, to empower others on their journey of alleviating suffering.

This is what our life journey is all about. The only person we can save is ourself. An ongoing alleviation of our suffering creates the space for us to hold the suffer of another. Within that space we listen with intent and respond with compassion while helping the other find ways to heal themselves.

I’ve learned the hard way that fixing is not a synonym for compassion. Our solutions for the issues of another are most certainly not their answer. Our compassion is guidance through their suffering. With this realization comes the inner knowing, and relief, that we are only responsible for healing ourself.

Say to yourself, “I cannot save the world. I can only save myself.” Full-body listen using all your senses to describe your body, mind, spirit, and emotions responses to the statement. Use descriptors to describe what you heard. Allow this knowing to bring understanding.

Gain an understanding of how deeply ingrained your desire to fix or save another may be. Then, reflect upon your reactions and responses to that statement over days, weeks, months — how ever long it takes — to gain a greater understanding of how your desire to help gets in the way of your compassionate action. Act upon your understanding.

You may need to work out a kink or two as you discover what stops you from growing roots of self compassion deep into your being. Continue to gently engage self compassion as you love those barriers away. Do it over and over again until you recognize this life is truly about you. It is only in this caring for yourself that you can show up and shower compassion on others.

Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is an Intuitive, Coach, Catalyst, who uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for personal and relationship transformation. She is a professional speaker & author who weaves inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are available @ www.wildefyrpress.com. Contact Vanessa (vanessa@intentandaction.com) for life coaching, intuitive consultations, keynotes, and programs.