Belonging and Blessing: Who We Really Are (AHCW)

Belonging and Blessing: Who We Really Are 

• Three Steps of Dis-Identification (Freeing Ourselves: From the Trance of the Small-Self)
• 1 - Moving from our thoughts into our body
• 2 - Opening consciously to that vulnerability
• 3 - Let in love, express love.
• Our training in meditation practice (step 1)
• Begins to wake us up out of the trance.
• If there is a lot of trauma, it goes slow. You have to love yourself into freedom, cannot open up to all feelings all at once. Need for safety
• Gradual or not, thoughts to body and feelings. Feeling the feelings and then opening to love (steps 2 &3)
• Transitions to relax into something more, belongingness. 
• What is it for me, when I'm cut off, to remember love? What is it? What helps me remember love, connection or belonging when I am cut off?
• Our Own Loving Presence (Case Study #1)
• Looking back on past "please love me"
• Bathe yourself in love. "Kiss on the brow."
• Think of people you love, and offer them a blessing (hugging them, different people - different ways). Sense of love expands. 
• Loving-kindness practice, sit and imagine being blessed with loving presence. Helps to open and soften. Then bring to  mind others, and offer them the blessing.
• Little Dog's Rhapsody in the Night by Mary Oliver: 

He puts his cheek against mine 
and makes small expressive sounds. 
And when I'm awake, or awake enough 

he turns upside down, his four paws 
in the air 
and his eyes dark and fervent. 

"Tell me you love me," he says. 

"Tell me again." 

Could there be a sweeter arrangement? Over and over 
he gets to ask. 
I get to tell. 

• We become more real in the field of loving (Velveteen Rabbit), it grows as we offer love out. 
• Field of loving presence is more of the truth of who we are, then that story of the self.
• To Ask and Offer Blessing: Waking Up Together (Case #2)
• This realization doesn't always sit with us when we are triggered.
• Meditation is more of a process, there is no end goal. Be patient with yourself. 
• We all feel desperate at times, we all need help.
• There is no them, there is only us. 
• There is no one outside, it is us. 
• Practice: The Truth of Who We Are
• Scan body, see what wants to relax or let go. 
• With gentleness, check out your heart.
• notice what might want attention
• mood? emotion?
• Is there a place inside of vulnerability you haven't been wanting to feel?
• what keeps us from realness, is the avoiding of what is here.
• breath in directly to whatever feels more vulnerable.
• Aware of something you're afraid of? A loss?
• let the raw feelings be felt. 
• let whatever is here be here.
• Feeling uncomfortable? Turned on ourselves? Breath in to it, open to it. 
• Experiment with the words "Please love me." Then open to receive.
• Imagine and sense the energy of love and presence, in some way blessing you.
• someone you know, a spiritual figure, a formless loving sense
• your own being washed through with love
• Sense an illuminating heart space to inhabit.
• Think of someone in your life, you would like to offer your blessings to.
• This is your true home. 

My Notes:

I love this course, and the reminders to just be more mindful. I lose myself far too often, and get caught up in the clutter. 

Moving our thoughts into our body, opening up, and loving and letting love come in. My goodness, I've resisted so much of these steps. So important to be able to absorb, and understand and move on. 

I love the phrase "please love me." That is all we ask, that is all I ask. Of myself. I've denied that for so long, coming back to this. 

The realness (and most vulnerable part) is tough. Reminders help.

I love the practice meditation. I obviously take notes during, and then listen to it again. Good reminders, good questions to ask. Blessing others, and sending love out. Wanting to love and be loved, we aren't alone. "Please love me." What I'm taking from this today, is the need for gentleness when dealing with the difficult stuff. Also the importance of sensing the warmth of love, and sending it out to those I care about dearly.