July Blog - From Out There to In Here and Back Again.
I have just come back from a week’s work in Austria, which was a wonderful experience. Rolling mountains, trees, abundant flowers and openhearted, welcoming friends, old and new. One of the many reasons it felt so nourishing was because without phones or emails I was able to focus on one thing alone – being here.
What I notice, in myself and in others, is how much of us can really be ‘not there’ and how much power and energy we can give away to all sorts of distractions. All sorts of wonderfully helpful techniques exist to help us come back and re-focus our energies – hypnotherapy, regression, soul retrieval, yoga, martial arts etc. – for me, the power of sound enables me to gather myself in one spot.
I am often called powerfully into being present by the experience of standing in front of a large group of people. In that moment of ‘what now?’ where the emptiness and expanse of possibility opens out ahead of me, there is a feeling of both taking off and landing simultaneously. Landing, because I am instantly rooted to the spot and have nowhere to hide, taking off because I instantly have a heightened awareness of the creative energy that sparks in each moment. Right now, I write this not knowing what sentence is coming next. Life is continually teaching me to trust and to support others to trust that even in the most hair raising ‘what now?’ moments, creative energy, call it whatever you will, is always accessible and available.
Where the in breath meets the out breath is where In Here and Out There meet in our body. This can sometimes give an illusion of separation, but any didgeridoo player will tell you that it is possible to breath in and out simultaneously. The truth is that out there is always in here and vice versa. There is no where to go to or return from and everywhere to experience within this moment.
Holding this remembrance peels off a lot of expectations, and pressure. We so often feel that we need or want or should be doing more, achieving more, buying more, producing more to somehow rubber-stamp our existence. We delay our take-offs with endless security checks – do I deserve it? am I ready? did I pack my toothpaste? am I wearing the right clothes? We have bumpy landings when we are still thinking of how it worked out last time or what might happen this time. In times of heightened change, all manner of fears, resistances and scary monsters will appear to seduce us out of the moment and into a story that is happening somewhere else. Letting go of needing to be anywhere other than right here, right now is incredibly liberating.
Standing right here, or sitting as I am, enables me to allow the chaos that arises, and to watch, befriend and understand its purpose. For surely the divinity of distraction is to teach me to focus, the joy of anxiety is found when it reveals itself as exhilaration, the gift of pain is its challenge to me to discover new sources of strength.
I have been honored to witness many beautiful, brave beings turn trauma into treasure this week and it inspires me beyond words. One of the most wonderful experiences to witness was seeing people realise just how easy and natural it is to do what they are longing to do and in so doing benefit everyone else. So many 'shoulds’ and ‘have-to’s’ can be left behind when we discover our creative calling and liberate our innocence – our inner senses on every level – which flourish in the space of this moment.
Summoning up the sounds and songs from within allows us to express our heart’s yearning for our true vocations and to take a true vacation from the soap opera that we are conditioned to imagine life as. For truly, every day is a holi-day, every moment is a new adventure. Out There is In Here, Right Now. When we value and connect authentically with In Here, our experience of Out There transforms radically. Our truth can start resonating at new frequencies, enabling us to make powerful contributions to the world.
One example of the power of voice and song in action in the world is Sing for Water, happening at the Thames Festival on the 10th & 11th September. Many choirs will be participating in this amazing event raising funds for Water Aid. I am very excited about singing with them, to find out more please visit my JustGiving Page - http://www.justgiving.com/KatieRose
For those wishing to explore their song this month, I will be leading Kirtan at Triyoga on 23rd & 30th and July. I am also inviting babies and their carers/ parents to join me for a free sounding session, Blissful Babybuds on July 21st at Crystal Palace - full details on my website.
www.therosewindow.org
Wishing you the jubilant expression of your summer song
Love Katiexx
