Categories
Community

One Dream Takes the Stage as Another Ends: The Act of Being Energy

Hello, everyone! I am Elizabeth Carrillo. I live in Mexico City, I am a Being Energy teacher, and I work in the theater. I am living a dream that is unfolding.

I studied Drama, Literature and Acting in the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). After my graduation, some fellow students and I formed an experimental theater group. Our main goal with the group was self-knowledge and the exploration of awareness as applied to dramatic characters to make a scene vibrant.

For years, we performed psycho-physical exercises and explored different acting styles. The method closest to our hearts, on account of having studied under teachers from the old USSR, was the one implemented by the actor and stage director Mikhail Chekhov (the newphew of the famous writer Anton Chekhov).

Chekhov was a man who suffered from deep depressions. It wasn’t until he came in contact with Indian philosophy, anthroposophy and eurythmy (expressive movement or dances aimed at transforming sound and color into motion, promoted by Rudolf Steiner), that his mood began to greatly improve. Eurythmy dances became an important part of the development of Chekhov’s acting method. He used to say that every actor should feel the inner life of the character and delve into his or her psychological states. Technique must be mastered, practiced and developed. He also placed a great deal of importance on physical training, so that the energy of the body could bring fluidity to actions. This energetic dynamism originates from within, and it should be congruous and integrated with external energy.

We also read and researched the works of different theorists and methods that shared a similar purpose: evolution of the human being at the level of awareness and energy. Carlos Castaneda was among them. I remember that, during Castaneda workshops, when self-importance and reducing oneself to nothing was discussed, it was a very strong blow to my artistic and personal ego. I suppose the same thing happened to my companions from the actors’ group.

At the beginning, it was really hard for us to tell if we were on the right path. However, as we kept working on ourselves and practicing Energy movements for preparing our work on stage we realized that answers come each time we intended them from our humbleness and impeccability—toward ourselves and to others.

For years, we have offered different performances that show our explorations as actors and the progress of our self-knowledge. The scenes that stem from these explorations are presented to small audiences who, before the performance, share with the actors the energetic warm-up, so that they can be more receptive to the sensations, emotions, ideas and feelings that their Energy bodies will receive. These scenes may be drawn from things such as a heartbeat or the fire in the Earth’s core. They are usually done with percussion, string, wind or metal instruments as accompaniment, and also with smells that make the energetic magic blossom in the theatre of life.

Today, this group that formed twenty years ago out of our desire to enhance awareness and become better human beings is getting ready to end. We thank the place that has sheltered us all this time, and also our benefactor, the owner of that Big White Elephant. This ending will be a departure. The departure will be formalized by dreaming the stories that intertwined their energetic lines and thanking infinity for allowing us to corroborate the Energy of the Energy Body, realize a dream of our making, and keep our purpose of personal and creative learning.

Being Energy was there with my work in the theater, and I have implemented Being Energy exercises in acting workshops for professionals, because they are excellent both as a warm-up before stepping on stage and to reactivate the body and our Energy during the work process. These exercises keep us in the “here and now” that the scenes require.

I also teach Being Energy movements during summer courses to kids between 6 and 12 years old; and also to teenagers, adults and seniors to help them bring dynamism to their bodies and their lives in a more harmonious way. I have also taught Being Energy movements in schools, mostly for junior high and high school students, and in formal acting lessons. I do this especially when we work with aspects of the tangible and intangible heritage of Mexico—like pre-Hispanic legends—to help create awareness of the importance of keeping, knowing and conserving the cultural heritage of Mexico, including its people.

Thank you for allowing me to share this theater Dream which is being Dreamed in reality.

With Affection,

Elizabeth Carrillo

Categories
Stories of Power

How Did My Heart Open?

What does it mean to have an open heart, and how do you get there? Here is how it happened for me, and why I’m inspired to help others open their hearts and lives.

I have almost always been connected to my emotions. It started in childhood as a survival mechanism: I was tuned to the emotions of those around me so that I would know when to approach them, or when to run! Emotions were my guides for making decisions, for taking action, for almost everything I did.

What I didn’t realize was that being aware of my emotions didn’t mean that my heart was open.

From the age of seven, I was a spiritual seeker. Back then, I didn’t feel connected to my mother or the rest of my family, and so I began a journey of seeking some greater connection and meaning. I explored the abstract ideas of God, Universe, and so on. When I was around 15 years old, my search brought me to the writings of Nietzsche and Carlos Castaneda, and to an examination of Zen Buddhism. At 19, I joined a Sufi dance group and then, finally, a few years later I actually met Castaneda and became one of his students.

Deep spiritual practice opened my whole being to a different way of thinking and seeing the world and myself. It expanded my idea of who I was, and of the possibilities in my life; it awoke my inner resources. I learned to speak a new language, earned a University degree, committed to my practice, became enthusiastic about my work, and started to learn what it means and how to love someone.

Castaneda was the most loving human being I have ever met. He was filled with energy, and was AWAKE. He was not only charismatic, incredibly funny and a true thinker, but he was also a very loving being. He truly cared for his students; he cared for others. He suggested to me that I get out of the “Cult of me, me, me” as he used to sing it, and truly care for another human being.

The “me, me, and me” fixed me to my “old news” story, and tied me to feeling sorry for myself. “Pobrecita,” I thought—no one loves me.

The proposition was, “Can you love someone, truly, unconditionally?” So I made the decision, 20 years ago, to truly open my heart and love unconditionally. That was the first step on a long process that continues unfolding today.
I fell—or actually, stood up—in Love with my dear partner, Miles. At the beginning, it was not easy. I didn’t want to date an Argentine guy, and was filled with so many opinions, judgments, fears an suspicions about his feelings towards me. I have many funny stories about how much I resisted being in partnership with him. The one thing that helped me to stay with it and with him was his unbending presence, which later on I experienced as his unbending love.

When my son was born, I experienced a blast of love, as if a dam that had held so much love suddenly burst open. Through the first years of raising our child and the related challenges, my heart has been continually opening. Opening, opening, opening. Every day gives me the chance to go deeply into my loving.

When someone I love says something that “I don’t like,” I know that I have the choice to “feel hurt and go on the me, me, me path” or to “go deeply into my loving.”

Lately, I have been choosing to go deeply into my ability to love everyone and everything: the parking ticket, the mistake I made at the bank when signing a check, forgiving my “forgettings” and loving each precious moment as it comes, as it flows inside and outside me.

It surprised me at first to discover how much easier it is to be with my heart wide open than to resist love. To keep the heart closed takes tons of energy!

Yes, it is a practice, and it is much more fun to do with other people. We’re so lucky to be with people to share the practice. Thank you to our lovely Path with Heart community for gathering every Sunday so that we can help each other open our hearts!

Are you interested in walking a Path with Heart? I invite you to join our classes, and wish you an open heart in whatever journey you undertake.

I love you all,
Aerin

Categories
Tools and Tips

Three Ways to Create the Relationship You Want

Dear Friend,

Have you ever wondered how to fall in love again with your husband after 20 years of being together?

What about how to renew your view of your friends, and let go of misinterpretations and judgments?

How can you rebuild new, long-lasting, loving relationships?

Our intimate relationships present rich learning opportunities for healing and inner growth. They make way for an inner awakening and spiritual development. Yet we can get stuck.

When something is not working, when we are not getting our way, we can choose to:

Blame the other person or situation

Take responsibility and acknowledge what we can change in us

At some point, we all fall into blaming the other, or pointing the finger at the situation. It happens! But there’s another way—a way that we can consciously take toward growth.

Is your friend to blame? Does your mother, father, friend or sibling need to change so that you can get along? Think again! What is the true issue? Could it be your interpretation of the other’s behavior rather than the behavior itself?

You can take charge of your thinking and create the harmonious relationships you want. And it’s easier than you might think.

One of the greatest gifts of consciousness and being self-aware is that we can choose what to think.

Let’s look at our relationship with money. Does money go out faster than it comes in? Is making money something that is only for others, less spiritually oriented? Can we only earn money through hard work? Are we deserving?

Unconscious beliefs about money can boycott the effort you make to pay your bills on time, or cause you to say no to a great job opportunity that would bring you more money.

Changing your relationship toward money, and toward everyone and everything comes down to three things:

Release any negative thought, image or feeling you are holding about the person or situation or thing

Rebirth your thoughts, images or feelings. Allow yourself to think, “Yes, money flows to me with ease,” “My partner is thoughtful,” or ”I can do well in that job.”

Rebuild a new identity for yourself that has a value and is grounded in truth. For example, you may want to donate money to an organization that’s important to you, or take a class that you feel will change things in your life, or be the person who spends quality time with your family.

Break free from beliefs that may be holding you back so that you can experience abundance in life. Explore the relationship between your ability to manifest and your beliefs about yourself, love, sex and money, and observe how your life changes.

How can we manifest wealth in all things when we feel that we’re not good enough? How can we let go of unhealthy relationships and be open for new ones? What needs to die so that something new can be born?

Birth and death are natural processes, and part of all of life. Everything dies at some point—everything has an expiration date. Sometimes you have to let go so that something new can come forth. If you hold onto things inappropriately, it can create disease-causing toxins accumulate in the form of shame, blame and judgment.

By understanding these processes and learning to organize your experience in new ways, new possibilities and awareness have room to unfold.

You suddenly find a solution to a long-standing financial issue, or an infection that took root heals at long last, or you find the right partner after having felt stuck around intimacy.

We invite you to join us beginning on Sunday, April 12th, for our new Path with Heart series and release, rebirth and rebuild!

We’ll use movement, ”now-ing” and more to successfully transform our relationships and clear the path for your energy to flow.