I spent most of the weekend at a workshop on Peaceful Communication, facilitated by Melanie Whitham. The workshop was held in a lovely space called the Sutton Yoga Center. A large room with big windows and soft carpeting overlooks the Sutton Valley and seems to hold peace and compassion in its very walls.
I was delighted to see that half of the workshop participants were men. Most often, up until now, I have seen women at such gatherings. These men were open minded, open hearted, openly loving toward their fellow participants and toward the women in their lives. They greeted each other with warm hugs and gestures of esteem and respect toward each other. One by one, they greeted me with gestures and words of great respect. I felt so honoured, such as I have not felt before in my life, except by those who dwell beyond the veil. The divine presence in these workshop participants, men and women, was similar to the divine presence that I have felt from the one whom I call Yeshua Sananda.
I am used to meeting women who are open minded, open hearted, wise and loving. I am not used to meeting men who manifest these qualities. It fills me with joy and hope to see this. It gladdens me to think that we women will be able to enjoy the companionship of men such as these as we move forward into a new era on our beloved Earth.
The workshop was based on the teachings of Marshall Rosenberg. It invited us remember an experience that was troubling to us and then to practice communicating our observations, our feelings and our needs in language that centers the experience within the self rather than outside of it.
For example, my brother-in-law interrupted me as I was speaking. That is the essence of what happened. It was very simple. He interrupted me. How did I feel? Well, I felt angry! Upon reflection, I realize that my need for respect was not met in that moment.
The teachings of Marshall Rosenberg invite us to formulate a request based upon our understanding of our needs which are not being met by a situation or a person. We can make the request of that person, of another person - perhaps we need to be heard, but we understand that the person we originally sought to express ourselves to is not able to hear us as we choose to be heard, so we go elsewhere, or we can make the request of ourselves. I make the request of myself that I seek the level of respect that I need from people other than my brother-in-law, for in all the time that I have known him, I have not felt that level of respect from him. Perhaps he never learned to give it, having never received it. I no longer feel angry. I take responsibility for the fulfillment of my needs. I look elsewhere and am given the respect that I anticipate.
We worked a lot with words and with the energy of our hearts throughout the day on Saturday and then again on Sunday morning. We did an exercise in empathic, or compassionate, listening. You may recall my post on listening. Oh! I so enjoyed that exercise! I was given the opportunity to listen to the expressions of another divine human being with all of my self, in full point of presence. After I had done so, and had asked a good question which brought my partner to a new point of clarity within himself, I was given the experience of being heard as I spoke of what was in my heart.
All of this was wonderful but it was a lot of words! As often happens to me at such times, my third eye area began to hum and to feel very heavy. I can't describe it very well, but it feels huge and too full. That is when I need to remove myself, to spend time alone in Nature, to allow the energies stored there in my third eye area to be cleansed and moved. So, it is probably a good thing that I had to leave the workshop early. I didn't want to be late for my own offering to the community - Dancing in the Moment!
It was not at all easy to leave the beautiful energies and people at the workshop at Sutton Yoga Center, but I could not disappoint those who expected me to be at the Sunshine Center for the dancing. It took me about three minutes to drive from one blessed place to the next. The energy was different. The colours were different. The lighting was different. I took five minutes to eat a little something and wash it down with water. Then I was ready!
The dancing was facilitated by Ilia Kavoukis. She chose great music, which flowed out of her laptop computer and into the sound amplification system in the dance and yoga studio in the Sunshine Center. Initially there were three of us, then another person came and then another with her young daughter. So in the fullness of the dancing there were six of us, all female. It was marvelous! We all felt so free! Gone were all of the words and the heavy energies that had been filling my third eye chakra started to flow through the movements of my body and out of me. (It might seem strange that I choose the word heavy to describe energies such as love, honour and compassion, yet even these become a bit of a burden to me after prolonged immersion in them. I am one who has the need to spend a lot of time in solitude because I hold so much of the energy of other human beings in my third eye area - this gives me strong intuitive sense when I converse with another and I wouldn't change that for anything, for it is a large part of the service that I offer from the center of myself to the world - yet it means that I must take time to be on my own every day.)
To transition from such a deep focus on words and feelings conveyed and shared, to a focus on free movement of the body gave me a clear sense of the importance of moving in the moment. Most of the time, we are using words. We read, write, type, speak and think, think, think. When I began to dance to the music that Ilia had ready for us, it was just such a relief! Then it became a healing and renewing of all of the energy centers of my body. Then it became an expression of joy in simply being in my body. How often do we do that?!
Finally, after I had freely expressed my essence in the moment through the dancing and the sheer luxury of feeling free to move in any way I chose, I began to turn toward the other people in the room with me and to enjoy their energy. I was so glad to see their gladness. I was so enheartened to see how much they seemed to be enjoying themselves. At the very end of the dancing, which lasted for just over an hour, we danced with partners, enjoining our energies playfully, and then all together in a tight circle, taking turns being the one in the center of the group - being fed energies of appreciation and complete acceptance of self by the others. It is through the creation of experiences such as this that we begin to create heaven on Earth for ourselves.
Never underestimate the benefits of moving freely and joyfully in the moment. Move your body. Move your hands and arms, your torso, your legs and feet. Put some music on the sound system and dance in your living room. It is a wonderful expression of self in the moment because it is not words, but body's movement that is being engaged. Love comes through such activity. Love of self. Love of body. Love of music. Love of being.
Blessings of movement in the moment be yours.
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