Move & Discern:
Working with Water
This course addresses overwhelm, helplessness, issues of control (too much or too little) as well as your relationship to change by 1) becoming aware of your thoughts, 2) bringing illumination and meaning to your inner world, and 3) aligning your own nature with the nature of water energy to realisechange in your life.
This embodied process of revisioning your values and belief systems through the lens of your past, present and future self is facilitated naturally through the use of botanical oils; specifically and for this water element course: clary sage, orange, cardamom, bergamot, marjoram, patchouli and cinnamon
~ Why You Are Here ~
Those of you who can benefit from Move & Discern may be experiencing:
Helplessness and/or feelings of overwhelm.
Flooding’ - when your emotions become so intense that you are unable to respond in ways that either helpful or productive.
Lack of clarity with regard to your life path.
Confusion and/or loss of vitality.
Obsessive thoughts.
Holding onto habits of thinking/feeling/doing that are no longer serving you or anyone else.
The need to be in control of situations to the degree that there is no room for joy.
Your efforts to control are causing pain and/or discomfort for others.
· being stuck.
· feeling ‘at sea’.
· feeling intimidated.
Events and relationships in your life lack meaning, direction and purpose.
Taking on projects that leave you feeling debilitated and wishing you had never started them in the first place.
~ What You Get ~
Understand that the experience of helplessness/shutting down may be a coping strategy designed to protect you in situations that no longer serve you. Working with Move & Discern Practices as contained in this Water Element Module enables you to cultivate an embodied awareness of the ebb and flow of events both inside yourself and outside in the world around you. With this embodied awareness of the transitory nature of all phenomenon you are in a position to recognize that resistance to change only produces more suffering (for you as well as others). Through a realization of flow, you are in a position to cultivate courage in order to discern which feelings/thoughts/sensations can be of service to you and which you can let go. This transformation of your inner state is accomplished by revisioning your alignment between your own inner self-nature and the outer energies of the natural world.
Realize there are underlying causes for your feelings of overwhelm and/or helplessness, many of which pertain to the ego (I need to hold onto XYZ as best as I can because that way, I can protect myself/family/loved from what is unknown and scary). By working with the dynamics of flow you are able to realize that ‘holding on’ (control) is actually a source of suffering that is contrived to protect your ego. With the practice of courage, you learn how to be with flow (rather than resist) in order to discern which of your thoughts, feelings and sensations are healthy and which to let go. Through discernment and flow you can make conscious choices (empowerment) about your inner landscape; what to nourish with kindness, acceptance and validation and what to ‘let go’ - enabling communion, connection and vitality.
Empower yourself emotionally and spiritually to recognize realizable goals (short term/long term) and gather information required to accomplish those goals in ways that are supportive and in alignment with your own self nature and the natural forces that surround you.
~ How You Get There ~
Learn to quiet the mind so that you can begin to discern the nature of flow in your own body. With the cultivation of courage, you practice directing your energies in meaningful directions that support well-being not only for yourself but in community with others. Morality and courage are cultivated to accompany and support this process through establishing a daily 10-minute mindfulness practice.
Bring meaning to your inner world by resourcing curiosity and kindness to find appreciation and wonder with regard to your own embodied (inner) experience.
Through practice you become 1) conscious and aware of your thoughts, feelings and sensations, then 2) engaged in the process of aligning your inner, natural, authentic self with the outer (nature and natural) forces that surround you. Cultivating your awareness of this dynamic relation provides the ground for on-going nourishment and vitality.
Begin the process of revisioning your lived experience as an integrated on-going manifestation of the vital relation between your own inner (natural/authentic) self and the outer (natural, elemental) world.
Reevaluate (where appropriate) the directions you want to take in your life using the light of your own authentic self-nature to support the process of authoring yourself.
Go about establishing where and how to move in these directions by gathering information to cultivate and support your (now conscious) quest for meaning and fulfillment.
Cultivate nourishment of self and others with helpful a) thinking, b) character traits and c) attitudes that enable well-being to grow from being a practice to becoming a lifestyle.
Morality
Take responsibility for your emotions, thoughs and feelings because as you grow in flow you will find that your inner world and the outer world of colleagues, family loves one and acquaintances merge into one great current (57).
Goals/Gather Information
In the process of considering our goals we are considering the direction of flow. This is how we shape the world around us (56).
Courage
As we sit with our thoughts, feelings and emotions, our feelings of want, need and desire - we allow the peaks and troughs of these waves to flow through us. Simply observe. No need to grab. No need to attach (51).