Telling someone the truth that I thought they were amazing. I didn't know it felt so good. This was not, 'boyfriend, I think you're amazing.' It was, 'You, fellow member of homo sapien sapien, my heart feels your heart and we are one. There is one light, one love, pulsating within all of us, and we are here to do awesome things. I am in awe of your potential and your current practice. You are amazing.' What if we acted this way towards everyone we met? We don't have to get quite so heart-circle expressive about it, but imagine the simple thought of, 'I believe in you.' It's also a great exercise if you need to transmute some unloving feelings. Bring the person or object of conflict into your awareness and use your heart to say 'I believe in you, I think you are awesome.'
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This was a really neat heart circle, because I did not introduce the concept or even suggest that we play a game; rather, the heart sharing spontaneously manifested itself. So I was sitting in a hot tub... full of bright lights, fresh off an Earthskills Gathering... and first we started making simple finger puppets for shits and giggles. Which morphed into a massive group hand sculpture of an orchid. Did I mention said group is also full of botany enthusiasts and permaculture lovers? Once the commotion of pollination ended, we settled into our seats and someone suggested a new activity-a game called Starlight. It is now my new favorite game :)
One person starts and offers Starlight to another person in the circle. Starlight is one being's admiration of another being's expression-complimenting your brother and sister's natural flow. For example, Sarasaurous started the game and she picked me first to offer starlight. She told a story about when we first met and she felt so comfortable with me and healed by my touch. Being on the receiving end of such flattery is fabulous and I truly felt loved. The second part to the game is asking for thunder... dun dun duuunn. If desired, the starlight receiver can ask the starlight giver for thunder. Thunder is constructive criticism, ideally in the form of a question so the receiver can do her own personal work. This part can be scary for some people, especially if you just recently met, so I like to leave it optional. Then you can continue rotating; giving starlight to the same receiver for a deep roast, or the receiver can popcorn some new starlight to another member of the circle for a faster game. Either way, everyone leaves feeling good about themselves and may even learn something. Road Observation: Heart circles seem to naturally appear in primitive/rural settings more spontaneously than in cities. In urban Atlanta, it required meeting times and locations. In Florida farm life, it's an aperitif. (which ironically will not be understood on farms because only 1% of the people I served dinner to during the height of festival knew what crudites are!) J'amie le Francais. I was feeling a bit under the weather with low energy, and had the inspiration to host a heart circle with limited talking. How else can we experience our heart center's and share our love with others without using words to describe it?
We explored the expressions in our hands and eyes :) As a brief check-in we went around the circle, stated our name and made a sound to reflect how we felt in that moment. The exercise brought smiles and giggles-success! The sounds ranged from "La, La, La, La, Laaaaaaaah" to "Yippieeeeeeeeee!" to "Mrph" Without any discussion, we gently slid right into the first drawing exercise. Blank sheets of paper, markers, instructions: draw a representation of how you felt today, use as many sheets as necessary. We did this in silence while listening to Chopin. When everyone finished their masterpieces, we passed them around the circle so each person could sit with one drawing at a time and try to feel the illustrator. <Stretch break> Main Event: Eye Gazing. This was a real treat. It's one of those things that is scary to suggest in mixed company, especially with strangers, as some people had just met that night. Yet, one of the greatest parts of heart circle is the safe space that we create when opening our hearts and flowing with divine presence. Everyone was in. We let anyone with prior knowledge share their experience, and we agreed on a method. Starting with 30 seconds of constant contact, at each break we would twirl around the room and when the timekeeper called time, we partnered with the first person to catch our gaze :) We gradually increased lengths of holding up to two minutes. After this exercise, I let everyone talk about their experiences. The first thing to come up was vulnerabilities. Then healing. Finally, divine inspiration. Farewell Love Offering: Draw a picture of a feeling you want to give everyone. Pass around circle. Float away into peaceful bliss... Heart Circle starts in a circle. The oneness bowl gathers tokens of our physical energy to stew in cosmic interconnectedness.
Heart Circle ends in a circle. A Shaman's prayer carries our beings through the four elements into the oneness. What happens in between is the shape of our hearts. <3<3<3 We used a small bronze peacock with trailing pink tied-on tail as our talking stick. First question: What is your name and what made you smile today? What do you want to do tonight? Stand up, stretch. Alexa led us in a unity meditation. The Earth and Stars met in our Hearts to form a sacred trinity. We naturally delved into talking about the metaphysical leaps that take place in meditation. It brought us to a formal question; How are you personally experiencing the shift from the 2012 winter solstice? We closed with a song and dance led by Nina! *We are Weaving the world with Love* *I and Thou with threads of Light* *We can create a tapestry of our delight* *We are weaving the world with love* Keep reinforcing what makes you feel good. Check-In: Name and what you love about the Earth
Ohms, Toning, Meditation Turnip Meditation: (note: Earth formations in reference to Atlanta, GA) Open your root, share what you have in abundance and ask the Earth to do the same. Feel a soft light moving through your lower chakras and circulating in your heart. Open your crown chakra, feel the top of your brain. Feel a vibrant light fill your upper chakras and blend with the light in your heart. The light from your heart expands into an infinite horizon. There are no limits between you and Stone Mountain, Your awareness expands to Mount Ida in Arkansas, and Mount Shasta in California. See where your heart takes you from there... Goddess Movement: Intention to balance masculine and feminine. Walk around the room with masculine steps and say outloud masculine words. Switch to walking and speaking feminine, then repeat both. Return to center between each round. Question: How do you envision the New Earth? It was a full moon AND lunar eclipse AND...
the 333th day of the year with 33 days remaining in 2012. Our circle was the largest ever at ten participants. first sharing around the circle, the question was, "What do you need?" 2nd check-in was, "What is your name and share something about your spiritual journey." Then were took to our feet and did a movement exercise. It is a Qi Gong partner practice. We expand and condense an energy ball between us. Then we circled the room and created a massive symphony of hand gestures and vibrations. Seated again, we ohmed, toned, and sat in silence. Question of the Circle, "Share a recent conversation with your heart." Grounding: Dance a positive affirmation for your heart. The circle is making new loops. New space, time, day. We easily moved through all the koshas of Heart Circle and did a lot of beautiful healing work. First, I introduced the Cafe of Life for new participants, then explained the oneness bowl's symbolism for our interconnectness. Within the woven vessel, I placed a rock wrapped in a thick copper band, that I scavenged from a waterfall in North Carolina; Tori placed her black and gold bracelet removed form her arm.
To get started, I wanted to establish our location and intention. As I am currently sharing an Earth based practice, I called the four directions and the elements of the Twisted Hair lineage of the Americas: East/Fire, South/Water, West/Earth, North/Air, Above, Below, and Center. Our intention is healing. Between each direction I beat my drum from my heart, sometimes 2 or 3 or a string of claps with my wand. It felt appropriate to take it slow on this damp day and check in with what we needed in the moment. We all shared eruptions of stories that were seeking listeners. Sharing from our hearts. Acknowledging our company as mirrors. From there, we opened our healing gates in hands and feet and enjoyed seated stretching and standing movement to stimulate our energy. The most noticeable sift for me came from the next part, toning. Starting with 3 ohms, then we just let it go...up, down, high, low, our voices traveled into the angel-sphere. We knew when to stop, and enter stillness for five minutes. From there, we followed our hearts and asked questions. Spoke out blessings out loud. Closed the circle by thanking the medicine wheel, exchanging hugs, and stepping into the abundance we manifest. Krystian started us into a gentle, reclined meditation. Then we connected our spirits with ohms and tones.
From there, we formed groups of 3 for the ultimate in surrendering-surrender your limbs! Corpse Surrender Exercise One person lays down on the floor. Surrender to the Earth. Surrender control of your limbs. Close your eyes, surrender to feeling the present moment. Your two guides gently lift and mobilize your hands, feet, wrists, ankles, elbows, and knees. Allow the tension to guide you towards surrendering more. Let your guides know where you need more or less help. In my experience in the middle, I felt almost disembodied. Gravity nor my ego was in control. My heart learned to trust love. To re-ground ourselves, we all spontaneously started bouncing on our heels, allowing the vibrations to pour through our whole body. Again, we surrendered our arms and heads to move with the flow of the universe coursing through us. New faces joined our circle and I moved us into an energy exercise that I learned in a Qi Gong class. Polish the Crystal Exercise Imagine a HUGE crystal coming out of the ground in front of you. (If in a group, form a circle around this crystal) It can be any size, shape, and color. For me, I visualized an egg shaped clear quartz with equal mass above and below the Earth. Next, activate your hand chakras (which have a strong link to your heart chakra) bu tapping and rubbing them for 30 seconds each. Begin polishing. Use the palms of your hands to draw small circles in the air--sharing your energy with the crystal. Polish high, polish low, and begin to revolve in a counterclockwise rotation. you are complete when you arrive a the location you started. Half way through, I broke the silence and invited everyone to start toning. For me, I felt more flow in my hands during the silence, but other participants shared that they didn't 'feel it' until we started toning. To wind down, we each shared a positive experience we had recently, and the conversation evolved into a discussion on dreams, revelations, and ascension. We closed with Don Tom's prayer: God is the Earth, the Earth is Sacred, the Earth is my Body, My Body is Sacred. God is the Water, the Water is Sacred, the Water is my Blood, My Blood is Sacred. God is the Air, the Air is Sacred, the Air is my Breath, My Breath is Sacred. God is the Fire, the Fire is Sacred, the Fire is my Spirit, My Spirit is Sacred. I am Sacred, You are Sacred, We are Sacred. ****SPECIAL EDITION!!!! new and exciting location...
Greeting Krystian and I took a respite in the woods along the Tallapoosa River. I arrived at sunset and we built a fire. The evening set in with ohms and tones. We asked each other questions until we felt our hearts had been appropriately palpitated. Then I slept under the protective boughs of young limber trees, warmed by red embers of our invigorating fire. Goals The next morning we established short term goals; 3-4 months out. I wrote a list of 10 items. Both of ours involve traveling. We set and shared our intentions. Intuition I found stillness in meditation and asked for a message for my highest good. It came quickly, and was not understood for most of the day. Applying intuition is often the second lesson to becoming aware of your intuition. At our second sunset of the circle, I realized it was a short term health, vitality lesson rather than a long term routine. Scale of time is also important when interpreting your intuition. Try to stay quiet long enough to be clear on how to act from your heart with this new information. Community If we learn to let go of old patterns, we can learn practices not previously known. We can be open to new talents. We can surrender to our hearts. In the woods, I practiced shedding my ego and receiving through my heart. I felt a message from the trees-love. Communities make LOVE bigger. Yoga, Ohms, Toning.
Outside for bon fire...walking labyrinth releasing things that no longer serve us to the fire offering things of attachment to the fire sharing lessons and questions energy healing drumming, music, singing conversation hung around being present, and being happy. |
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