We have been listening to the Power of Now during our meditations this past week, and it has created a great sense of stillness in the practice.  Probably, Eckhart Tolle's voice has something to do with it, but the reminder of the power of presence and stillness awakens that state within.

I encourage you to listen and begin your own practice.  Or come and join us Monday, Tuesday or Thursday at 11:11 AM.  
youtu.be/LfoLGwMhg4Q

It particularly interested me the section he shared about creativity, as it aligns with my own views and personal experience.  

45:00 - starts this thread of thought...

"Thinking and consciousness are not synonymous. Thinking is only a small aspect of consciousness.  Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but consciousness does not need thought. "
46:00
"Enlightenment means rising above thought, not dropping below thought at the level of an animal or plant.  In the enlightened state you still use your thinking mind when needed, but in a more focused form..."

" When you do use your mind, particularly when a creative solution is needed, you oscillate every few moments between thought and stillness, between mind and no mind."

"No mind is consciousness without thought.  Only in that way is it possible to think creatively, because only in that way does thought have any real power."

"Thought alone, when it is no longer connected with the vast realm of consciousness, becomes barren, insane, destructive..."

"The mind is not at all creative.  All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from the place of No Mind, from inner stillness."

"The mind gives form to the creative impulse or insight."

"Even the great scientists have reported that their creative break-throughs came at a time of mental quietude.  A surprising result of a nationwide enquiry among America's most imminent mathematicians,  including Einstein, to find out their working methods, was that thinking only plays subordinate part in the brief decisive phase of the creative act itself.  So I would say that the simple reason that the majority of scientists aren't creative is not because they don't know how to think, but that they don't know how to stop thinking."

If you enjoy creating, or want to engage in creative play, please join us as we create music together the Second Saturday's 1:00 to 3:00PM.

We are starting into exploring the etheric body.  This recognizes the energy flow within and around me.  However, I am struggling with some physical aspects of my being that are demanding my attention.  I have held a great deal of tension in my right shoulder, and in starting to work with my physical body with more awareness, it has now become awakened.  No amount of massage ever was able to awaken this frozen position of tension.  No forcing of the muscle would work.  Rather what did cause it to awaken was the work of Thomas Hannah's Somatics practitioners.  This simple practice of noticing the connection between the spine and the shoulder girdle has brought to my attention all of the frozen positioning.   You can check out the class here.

It makes me think a bit of Wilhelm Reich and his concept of body armour or character armour.  i do feel that this frozen tension reflects some emotional defenses.  Look for his definition  of this concept here.  Maybe, this reflect a type of trapped emotion (as detailed by Bradley Nelson)  Reich was a contemporary of Freud, and why Freud received so much more attention than the brilliant insights of Reich is beyond me.  His conecpt of body armour draws us into such an important awareness between the body and emotions.  Now we have ample research in this area from people like Bessel van der Kolk (The Body Keeps The Score), or Peter Levine (Healing Trauma: Restoring the Wisdom of Your Body).  There is so much to be understood in mind-body research.  And exploring this in our own selves can lead to incredible insights and healing experiences.

In these days of being in our mind, and almost disconnected to our physical being, and in some cases physical world as we spend more and more time in virtual reality, I wonder if we wouldn't benefit as a whole spending an entire year learning to be more present in our body and the physical world.

Nonetheless, I do see a connection between this stuck energy in my physical body and the energetic nature of the etheric.  I think I just need to go out and lie in the grass for a while.

As I follow the step by step journey of coming back into connection with my body, both physical and energetic, I connect more deeply with something more true.  I develop a greater our awareness of myself and of my true nature.

T

It is August and we are starting the journey into the awareness of the etheric plane.  Of the subtle energy bodies, the etheric is closest to the physical.  We can feel this as the aura of others, and it is a dominant part of plant energy.  Many of us are unaware of the etheric plane.  Even if we are unaware consciously, it is affecting us.  To become intentionally aware of our energy at the etheric level is the goal of this months practices.

I have some favorites when it comes to becoming aware of the etheric body, or what I would call the invisible physical, or energy body.  Awareness Through the Body, is one, and Eurhythmy is another.  Both of these practices have exercises to draw our awareness to the way in which our energy extends beyond the body, and to begin to notice that energy.

We are swimming in a soup of energy, and our energy body is participating in and responding to this soup.  To become aware of this can have profound effects on our lives.  When I am aware of how my energy is responding to different situations, I can use that information to help me make sound decisions on what I need to do next.  If I am feeling drained, it is probably not the time to make life-altering decisions.  Likewise, when I am feeling energized, I can notice the surroundings.  Perhaps there is something or someone I am with that resonates with my higher self.

One exercise that I found particularly interesting, was given to me by an energy healer, Mark Earlix.  The practice was simple.  I was to go about the house, or outdoors, or in public, sensing the energy of the objects all around me.  I had some interesting results in doing this.  Notice the boundaries of where you sense energy in both living and non-living things.  Test out handles, rails, or special and sacred objects.  What about spaces?  Do you notice different energies in different spaces?

To get this month started, why not give it a try?  Be sure to bring a journal with to write down any noticings.  Indeed, some of the insights were invaluable.