I attended a three day event this past weekend in Atlanta. The event was called ‘The Art of Feminine Presence.’ The main intention was to increase awareness about how we carry ourselves in the world physically and energetically.
Exercises throughout the event taught attendees to bring mindfulness to their physical body while minimizing the time they spend in their head space.
Often we spend so much time ‘thinking, planning and doing’, we aren’t embodied and present as we move throughout our day.
The effects of being disconnected can feel subtle but actually create huge consequences in our life that work against what we are trying to create such as financial prosperity, connectedness with others, inner peace and fulfillment.
Attention at the event was also given to the importance of learning how to work with our inner power and light. This can activate our magnetism to draw others to us versus repelling them, which we often do unconsciously.
While our event was happening, simultaneously next to us, a beauty pageant for very young girls was being held. The hall was littered with young girls of different ages wearing fake tans, wigs, ornate costumes that were of varying levels of coverage.
Needless to say, the juxtaposition of events was extremely stark in comparison!
The grumblings started soon after from the retreat participants. Many got triggered every time they walked out to the hall for a break. “I can’t believe they are training their young daughters to believe that their sense of self-worth comes from being fake!”
While it would have been easy to step into judgement of all kinds, I tried to remain neutral on the subject. Not because I’m above stepping into judgement (something I continually work on) but because it felt like hypocrisy to see so easily in others that which also exists inside of me.
The truth is – most of us were taught that our sense of worth and power comes from EVERYTHING outside of us.
And while the Universal Law of Polarity this past weekend brought our retreat face to face with an extreme version of power through physicality, every day in a million little ways, we are engaging life with a similar belief significantly influencing what we do and how we do it. Some examples include:
- Thinking our power and powerlessness comes from how much or how little money we have in the bank.
- Thinking our presence with others is better if we look good and negatively impacted if we don’t. (Of course ‘the don’t’ is a judgment of ourselves that we are too big, too small, too young, too old, too boring, too dramatic, too fill in the blank _________).
- Comparing ourselves to others on Social Media and feeling like crap because they are living a ‘better/more adventurous/five star’ life then we are.
- Being obsessed with manifesting 7 figure businesses, bigger houses, nicer cars, sexier partners, perfect children, etc.
- Grasping at finding our purpose, not because we really have a calling, but because everyone else seems to have found theirs and we will suffer from a fear of missing out.
- Hustling in our businesses and careers that we don’t even like because that’s what everyone does.
- Buying into the belief that we can’t live the way we want because we are trapped in a relationship, have children, care take for others, can’t get the right job, etc. etc. etc.
Collectively we find ourselves so far removed from having an inner light, we wouldn’t know how to turn it on even if it came with a switch!
We’ve never needed the external layer of validation through beauty, materialism or wealth because that’s not where true power or presence comes from.
Wise teachers we’ve exalted from the beginning of time have said the same thing:
“All that you seek is already within you. In Hinduism it is called the Atman, in Buddhism the pure Buddha-Mind. Christ said, ‘the kingdom of heaven is within you.’ Quakers call it the ‘still small voice within.’ This is the space of full awareness that is in harmony with all the universe, and thus is wisdom itself.” – Ram Dass
“When you don’t have anything, then you have everything.” – Mother Teresa
“The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, personal and family history, belief systems, and often political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.” —Eckhart Tolle
However, knowing this ‘intellectually’ does us no good until humanity starts to embody new values.
It’s easy for us to condemn all the obvious ways this plays out around us, be it a beauty pageant or politics, but it won’t shift until we start with the only person we have influence and control over – ourselves.
Where does your sense of power come from, your inner or outer world?
Do you bring full presence and your inner light to everything you do or are you waiting for something outside of you to ‘happen’ first?
I write this post not to condemn the ways in which we judge, but rather to encourage reflection.
To break from the patterns which are not working within us means we return to the intuition that tells us we are more similar than different; and through our connectedness and love we can physically stand in our power and presence.
Your Sacred Truth is connecting to the knowing that you are a magnificent being with unlimited potential and unlocking the capacity inherent within you. I invite you to take the journey of exploration and up level your awareness with a commitment to Discovery of Self.
