Tag Archives: 12 senses

Take a deep breath…

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[image from www.sacredbodyinstitute.com]

Breathing practices help you become aware of subtle energies and rebuild your vitality and inner spiritual force. You can use breath work to over-come obstacles, maintain clarity of focus, energize your spirit, relax your body or calm down when you are over excited.

Folk wisdom says to calm yourself when you are upset, ‘take a deep breath and count to ten before speaking’. Stress reduction therapists train patients to take deep breaths to soothe anxiety. Lamaze childbirth coaches teach pregnant women to use the breath to ease pain in labor and delivery. The Hindu culture has made a study of the breath and developed the science of pranayama, yogic breathing practices. In India, it is taught that slow, deep breaths relax the body and calm the mind; while rapid breathing stimulates the body and energizes the mind.

Radical Self Care, Chapter 4 “Energy Awareness and Breath Work for Radical Self Care”. Dr. Beth Hedva.

Learn to support yourself with your breath.

How are you breathing right now?

Are you breathing in or out?

Are you holding your breath?

Is your breath shallow?

Are you breathing deeply?

What do you observe?

In one of our embodied awareness seminars, Meaghan, who works as a psychotherapist and counsellor, shared,

“The aspect of embodied practice I feel most serves me is breath work. I integrate this for myself by getting on my yoga mat nearly every day. I really notice a difference when I am grounded how much space I have available to do a number things, including supporting others.  I bring this embodied practice and really notice the impact when I sit with clients in my work, particularly the earth breath and the water breath”.

“I use these to bring grounding when people come in the door from the flurry of whatever their life has been in the moments prior to deepen and come into a place of inner work. The water breath is great for soothing once we have dived into something significant that may have stirred things up a little for them”.

“Breath work is a foundation I am currently grateful for and see the impact of on a daily basis”.

 How has breath work helped you stay present in your body?

What type of breathing practice do you rely on most?

Following Inner Guidance to Realization

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Inner guidance is a spiritual sense that takes you in the direction of realization of your true nature.  Those . . . .’ah ha!’ moments that bring a spontaneous break-through beyond ordinary limitations.

When we unify with our spiritual Self, and awareness expands—we emerge into feeling peace, happiness, infinite possibility, creativity  mystical states of ‘oneness’ and freedom– all independent of one’s external circumstances or external conditions. Realization is a glimpse into ‘enlightenment’.   India describes it as a state of spiritual Self-realization, ‘nirvana’, stillness. Japan calls it ‘Satori’ or ‘beginner mind’; and in the West it has been called self-actualization.

Realization implies making it real through embodiment of the experience.  Intuition is integrated through action. Intuition (and all the subtle senses) clarifies a pattern.  Spiritual discernment helps us see the many paths and options ahead of us – to continue the pattern, to walk a new direction, and how to choose which direction to go. Realization organically follows.

The choice is to continue down the path of Self-realization…to continue to check in for guidance, to be guided by an emerging inner sense of freedom, well-being, health and wholeness–free from conditioning, re-activity, prejudice or expectations–and to act from that.

[Radical Self Care, Chapter 5 “The 12 Senses of Embodied Awareness”. Dr. Beth Hedva].

In one of our Embodied Awareness seminars we used a sentence completion exercise to expand intuitive perception and cultivate the inner Observer and therefore inner guidance, by answering a series of questions. We sat in a circle, and each person explored the experience of realization by answering the question:

“What is it like when you courageously follow your guidance…” .     Here are some of the responses:

When I courageously follow my guidance…everything is radiant.

When I courageously follow my guidance…there is Feminine receptivity.

When I courageously follow my guidance…there is light.

When I courageously follow my guidance…I must  dance with my resistance.

When I courageously follow my guidance…I sometimes get in trouble!

When I courageously follow my guidance…I get pretty excited.

When I courageously follow my guidance…I am open to making mistakes.

When I courageously follow my guidance…I am able to embrace the light and the shadow with love & joy.

When I courageously follow my guidance…I move mountains.

When I courageously follow my guidance…there is a tidal wave of joy.

When I courageously follow my guidance…I become acceptable.

When I courageously follow my guidance…I burst at the seams with ideas.

When I courageously follow my guidance…It feels right & good.

When I courageously follow my guidance…I feel unburdened.

When I courageously follow my guidance…I end up where I need to be.

When I courageously follow my guidance…there is wisdom.

When I courageously follow my guidance…I am open and curious and full of joy.

When I courageously follow my guidance…I step around the source of my resistance rather than reacting to it.

When I courageously follow my guidance…I learn to understand my body and deal with my fears.

When I courageously follow my guidance…there is rebirth.

{ Rebirth Oni H. }

{ Rebirth Oni H. }

When I courageously follow my guidance…I surprise myself and enjoy myself.

When I courageously follow my guidance…I am peaceful.

When I courageously follow my guidance…I jump rather than thinking about everything way too much.

When I courageously follow my guidance…I honor the information from all my senses as opposed to doubting it.

It would be great to hear from you.

                                                    What is it like when you courageously follow your guidance?                                                                                                               

Intuitive Perception & Spiritual Discernment

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A unique synthesis of all the subtle sense-signals brings realization, a new vision, and important insights that support a creative evolutionary leap for humankind. Integrative intuitive functions are processed by the neo-cortex and pre-frontal lobes of the brain. This may include intuitive insight that empowers spiritual discernment, prophecy, psychic dreaming, clairvoyance and creative genius that humanity so needs right now in order to respond to the many concerns we face in the world.

Spiritual discernment is a sense of expanded clarity and choice. One senses the right direction to go forward, without judgement or analysis (as is required in rational thinking). What is right is not a moral judgement between making a right or wrong choice. Rather, clarity comes from one’s synergistic perception of the whole truth, which perceives all paths including automatic responses, as well as new possibilities, and options that awaken one’s full human potential as a spiritual being. [Radical Self Care, Chapter 5 “The 12 Senses of Embodied Awareness”. Dr. Beth Hedva].

Spiritual discernment comes in the form of inner knowing, guidance or direction.

We can ask for guidance to awaken spiritual discernment.

The questions we ask ourselves guide our quest.

Do not ask ‘why’. “Why” will take you down the path of rationalization rather than toward inner guidance. Ask an open-ended question that is free of imbedded assumptions. Practice choosing questions that help you go in the direction of ultimate happiness instead of needing to be right or wrong. 

During one of our Embodied Awareness seminars we used a  sentence completion exercise to expand intuitive perception and cultivate the inner Observer and therefore spiritual discernment, by answering a series of questions. As a continuation of the previous blog post, Come To Your Senses, the question “What is my life in service of….” is the next in the series. Here are some of the responses:

My life is in service of…deep connection.

My life is in service of…transformation.

My life is in service of…self actualization.

My life is in service of…transformational guidance.

My life is in service of…self acceptance.

My life is in service of…finding joy from a lost child.

My life is in service of…love and joy.

My life is in service of…developing intuition.

My life is in service of…continually seeking truth and  authenticity.

My life is in service of…the fertility of darkness.

{Artist Unkown}

{Artist Unknown}

My life is in service of…exploration and introspection.

My life is in service of…spiritual pilgrimage.

My life is in service of…personal introspection.

My life is in service of…self observation without judgement.

My life is in service of…love.

My life is in service of…divine light.

My life is in service of passion and joy.

My life is in service of…inviting voices to sing.

My life is in service of vitality.

My life is in service of…being a vessel and a voice.

My life is in service of…happiness.

My life is in service of…truth and community.

My life is in service of…spreading wings through empowering myself and others.

Your invitation:

What is your life in service of?

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