Most of us start each year with one or more resolutions that we hope to accomplish. Maybe you want to shed extra pounds gained over the holidays, or to get to the gym more regularly. But by the time March rolls around, these resolutions can seem like a distant memory.
What happens? Usually, other things take our attention. To successfully meeting our goals, it helps to have support and information to inspire us to continue to improve our lives.
Being Energy is here to support and inform you! Our community is diverse and its members often far distant from one another, but we come together with the goals of realizing our potential and feeling our best.
Each year, for example, regulars return and new people jump on board for our group Detox Program. Though you do Being Energy’s Detox Program anytime of year, the group support seems to make it all the easier to stick with it so you can enjoy its benefits. The results from the detox are often amazing—more clarity, better focus, deeper sleep and more.
The group Detox Program is part of our Nutrition + Health online class series. We also have new great classes planned throughout the coming year to give you tools and practical information for improving your health and wellbeing.
Find out about your ideal body weight, how to apply your sexual energy to activate your life force even more, what it means to breathe for greater vitality (with a special guest teacher) and what neuroplasticity means and why it’s important, and more.
In fact, the research is in—our lifestyle choices do make a difference in our health, even at the level of our DNA. Learn simple things that you can incorporate into your daily life in our online Nutrition + Health classes. Plus we’ll have time for questions and answers after each class.
Realizing that the present moment is not a physical place, or a time zone; it is not found or lost; it is not a “thing,” I cannot google it; it is not tangible, yet I can embody it.
Most spiritual practices talk about the importance of living in the present moment in the here and the now. I have not yet found a way of understanding what do we mean by “here” and by “now.” Until Now.
The theme of our two latest workshops in Moscow and Tuscany was transformation and it was based on the myth of “The Plumed Serpent.” We presented, with the help of our BE teachers, Valentina, Sergey, Oksana, and Barbara, key aspects of Being Energy® work, key movement sequences, like “Gathering Energy for Silence,” “Intending Presence” and “Flow” to revitalize the body and mind, to invigorate our spirits. And we did a journey into the plumed serpent through movements and story telling.
The effect of the movements and the mass of practitioners practicing them was sublime. All of us entered into non-local states of keen awareness and silence after our first workshop session.
On the second day we had other BE teachers sharing their personal stories of transformation, as a way to illustrate the journey of the plumed serpent that represents the journey of our consciousness. Their stories depicted where we may find ourselves at different stages of becoming, in different facets of our lives.
Now, what we didn’t plan, and what BLEW our minds, was that the stories themselves had such power that they brought us to a new experience and understanding of what it is to be in the PRESENT MOMENT. For the first time I got a glimpse of what is “NOW.”
Pavel told us the story of losing all his savings on a bad investment last year and how he is trying to recuperate from it. What he found out is that he had a deep fear of rejection and wanted to please his associates in the business. He pushed his personal needs to the side for their sake, betraying some how, his own heart. That brought him to connect to an early memory of childhood where that habit/pattern began. It is with admiration for Pavel, for having the courage to put this on the table and start his healing process, that we share parts of his story with you!
Guido shared his experience of working with Doctors Without Borders, an international organization that aids victims of war. That was a dream of his for more than 15 years. He waited for the perfect moment in his life and left his family to work in Jordan on the border with Syria for 7 months. He shared the traumas and the suffering that people go through every day, and how that opened his heart. We all witnessed how Guido changed, his eyes shined brightly, his sweetness unfolded a new knowledge.
Roberta shared with us where she is in this moment of her life: searching for her “power spot,” a new direction, a new job, a new way of thinking and perceiving herself. She was so honest and so open, we all held space for her tears to roll and sweep over us.
Finally, Inge told us her story of how she raised her child by herself. After years of feeling shame, she now realizes what a heroic act she has done. She has turned the wheel of time: she has a completely new view and perception of her life and herself. She embodies strength, impeccability, courage, and, most importantly, immense love. She lives her quest for becoming.
All these stories carried a force beyond our comprehension. We were transported into our own stories of fear, power, shame and curiosity, entering into an unfolding process where past, present and future were happening in the NOW.
We experience NOW, as a NOW-ing, taking place in our minds, bodies and spirits.
A big aha was and is realizing that the PRESENT moment is not a noun, is a Verb. It is not pre-established, pre-existing. It exists as I exist WITH it.
I remember what my dance teacher told me long ago, “Your core is not a physical place in your body. Your core is something you need to find in movement, in the unfolding of your breath.”
The NOW unfolds within me, you, us, with our breath, with our movement, in the co-creation of what we call “reality.”
Thanks to all who joined us in person and in spirit in these two events; thank you to our brave teachers for daring to become in the NOW-ing. Aerin
What do we mean by being in Flow? Think of how you feel when you exhale deeply. Try it. In that moment of letting go, of release, we acquiesce to something outside of us and to something within us.
Carlos Castaneda described how the Mesoamerican shamans understood the universe as energy and that his apprenticeship was designed to guide him to see energy as it flows. The ancient shamans saw that there is an energetic flow to all things and all processes in our world and in the universe at large. As humans, we are expressions of that energy and are deeply connected to that flow.
Just as the universe is expanding and growing, we too expand our awareness and become open to new possibilities. We are beings of energy that flow in and with the universe, in a deeply personal connection that exists within us and outside of us.
When does energy stop flowing for us? How are we stopping the flow and inhibiting our perception? How are we keeping ourselves from remembering our connection?
Anger and resentment are two forces that stop energy in its tracks. Energy stops flowing and we retreat. It closes the heart and we get depressed. Over time, holding feelings of anger and resentment seep into our subconscious and may settle as physical illness or disease, or even affect us on a cellular level. Stopping the flow of energy in this manner uses more energy and we age more rapidly, losing vitality.
If there is anything we should be afraid of, it is our own resentment and grudges. This week we want to invite you to try an exercise of letting go, of tapping into your own healing processes. Find a quiet spot and take 5 minutes to:
Check in with yourself, e.g., where is your body tight or holding tension?
Acknowledge the negative thoughts you have.
Give yourself what you wanted from someone else, e.g., affection, attention, acceptance, recognition/appreciation.
These simple steps will release energy and guide us toward a state of flow, where we are vulnerable, with open heart and open mind. Allowing the energy to flow, we allow our breath to flow easier and we exhale more fully.
Thank you for practicing with us. Let us know how you feel!
Join us for more in depth practices for being in FLOW in our new Path With Heart Series XIV, Flow – The Art of Moving the Assemblage Point. You will learn new ways to apply the knowledge of the ancient shamans of Mesoamerica and boost your physical stamina and increase your energy levels. Learn tools that will help your body-mind to thrive and enliven your full potential.
Our hearts fill with joy when the Being Energy community inspires us through their creative activities and group explorations of awareness. This coming weekend there are two communities of practitioners and friends who will be following a heart centered path to practice Being Energy® movements and meditations. They are cool and inspiring people and they offer life-changing experiences!
One of the groups is hosting a practitioner event in Arvillard, France, while the other group will be joining a sustainability festival called Fala Sampa in Sao Paulo, Brazil. These two groups will be sharing their practices locally, and will also join their intent across continents to acknowledge a deeply shared connection and support for each other and the earth.
The event at Karma Ling Institute, a Buddhist center, situated in a breathtaking forest at an altitude of 800 meters (2,625 feet) in France, near the Swiss border, began as a collaborative endeavor among practitioners of Carlos Castaneda’s teachings. Their co-creative intent has been nurtured every year for the past ten years and has always resulted in a diversity of participants, with up to sixteen different countries represented!
Maurice Meyer and Roseanna Sacco have been Karma Ling organizers, together with Rakel Sosa, Gammadian Freeman, Ena Xena and Stephane Senator. They will focus on celebration, as they honor where they were and where they are today.
There has been an energetic exchange with the Buddhist community of Karma Ling over the years, exploring similarities and sharing practices. They will practice Being Energy movements, as well as pranayama breath and experience a gong bath among other activities.
Fala Sampa, or Speak Sampa will take place at the annual Sao Paulo, Brazil Sustainability Festival. Being Energy® Teachers will connect with others in an intense dialogue around the topic of Sustainable Turnaround, to share expression and movements that are already happening in Sao Paulo and turning the city.
Being Energy Teachers have been teaching and practicing Being Energy® movements in Sao Paulo and they will guide a class for hundreds of people at the festival. We can view Being Energy movements as a form of dialogue with ourselves, with others, with the earth, the universe, the dark sea of awareness, or Intent. We are excited to hear that the movements will be shared and used to connect with the Sao Paulo community in the city festival, as well as the Being Energy community.
The Fala Sampa website (in Portugese) quotes Physicist Alain Aspect to inspire our practice of connecting, “…subatomic particles such as electrons are able to instantaneously communicate with each other, despite the distance separating them, no matter if it is 10 meters … or 10 billion miles!”
Being Energy Teacher, Patricia Aguirre, one of the Fala Sampa organizers, invites the Being Energy community to join with the intent of their Sustainable Turnaround. They will practice on Sunday, August 31st at 1:30 PM Brazil time, which is 9:00 AM Pacific Time.
Take a moment and practice a Being Energy® movement, or sit in silence and connect to Sao Paulo, Karma Ling, and the World on Sunday.
Lets start by looking at how we can apply the myth of the Plumed Serpent to our daily lives. First of all it calls for daring. When we decide to do something new, we start a personal process of becoming, a process that moves us from something we know into unknown and unfamiliar territory.
The myth describes the story of a snake evolving into something inconceivable. By growing wings the snake becomes airborne and changes into something new and undiscovered. Earth and sky are united, and conceptually, it reveals a personal process that opens us to uniting the contrasts or contradictions within us. In order for us to change, we need to give something up before the new thought or behavior becomes the new one.
The myth of Quetzalcoatl links the space between the old and the new, and embodies a process of becoming. For the shamans of Mesoamerica the Plumed Serpent is a symbol of evolution. It describes the evolution of the cosmos, or the evolutionary process each one of us embodies.
Apply this concept to your life:
When was the last time you dared to try something completely new? When did you unfold wings? How did it feel?
For example, when leaving the stability of an old job to start something completely different. On the one hand it is exciting and fulfilling to move towards something more meaningful, yet on the other hand, it produces the kind of teeth-chattering fear of not being able to pay the rent or mortgage. What will I lose, what will I have to give up? What if I’m successful?
What else unfolds in that process? If I am moving towards more meaningful work and looking for congruence with one of my beliefs or perspectives, like, “I need to contribute something to the world, I need to give back,” what new view will unfold? I might find that I have reserves of energy I didn’t know existed for working on projects that satisfy my belief of helping others. I might find that helping others sometimes satisfies me more than the people I want to “help.” I might learn that I need to take more time to understand the needs of others before taking action to help them.
Certain aspects of myself unfold and in that process I embody contrasting perspectives. The transformative experience creates a wider perspective that moves me toward new behaviors.
The myth of the Plumed Serpent connects us deeply to the universe and all its contrasts, light and dark, life and death.
You may have heard the quote from astronomer Carl Sagan, spoken in an old television series called Cosmos. In it Sagan said, “We are a way for the universe to know itself. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return. And we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We’re made of star stuff.” When we connect with the cosmos, the evolutionary process inside of us, we can become something new.
We at Being Energy practice a sequence of movements and breathing techniques, the Quetzalcoatl movements to explore new beginnings, or to intend a shift in our lives. Through the practice of this sequence of movements, we shift our perception; we focus our minds and hearts in the unfolding momentum of the present moment.
We focus on the vibrations within us to activate the sinewy, undulating movement of the serpent moving up through our spine. We spark our mind-body to remember and manifest an ancient memory of who we are, and who we want to become.
The Quetzalcoatl movements activate the vibratory force within to connect with something new outside of us. We open ourselves to the moment of our wings unfolding, acknowledge our discoveries and actively choose new paths. When did you unfold your wings? How did it happen? What aspects of you need to unfold?
Share your comments, ask questions and keep exploring!
We have just wrapped up an unforgettable experience at Hawaii. The retreat—the first 5-day event at Being Energy—was an ideal setting for the focus theme of the workshop: the recapitulation technique. Over the course of the five days, everything we did, the Being Energy® movements, the recapitulation sessions, was highlighted by the forces of nature. The lush vegetation, the black lava, the tropical heat and the rain, all gave their distinct bodily experience and were an integral part of the experience at Kalani.
Because of the distance to get to Hawaii—its position in the middle of the ocean is part of its special nature, everyone who came had a great disposition and strong intention. We were lucky to have such a wonderful group. Participants came from the mainland US, Alaska, Argentina, Switzerland, England, Mexico, Lithuania and Russia, a crisscross of backgrounds that allowed us as a group to access a wide variety of views.
Besides the workshop sessions, the group got to start each morning bathing in a local hot springs by the ocean. See our photo with everyone doing feet Being Energy movements at the hot ponds!
During the workshop, we began with the question: Who am I? Peeling layers of how we see ourselves: our deep beliefs. The journey throughout was for each one to discover new layers, to add or expand those definitions or break free from some of them. Details over the recapitulation included guidelines on different types of recapitulation: Observing where does my attention go, Recapitulating how did I wake up, Recapitulating our behavior at work, Recapitulating relationships and Recapitulating a specific event.
The ancient seer’s code gave everyone the chance to experience stopping the flow of their thoughts and leave the ind more readily pliable to see differently and change. These are indeed powerful movements, and they very much resonated with the powerful feel of the Big Island.
On the fourth day, we took those old ideas about ourselves up to the volcano. We took them to Pele, who lives in the lava, to help our individual intentions. For most of the way up, it looked like a storm weather was going to prevent us from making it, but at the end, we descended through a fern forest into the crater floor. It was foggy and mysterious as we hiked across the lava. This is pure earth energy as it gets. In geological time, the lava has barely cooled down for humans to walk on it, but one can still feel the force of the earth coming from deep below the surface under ones feet. This is what Carlos Castaneda called getting a boost from the earth. We each took in this boost to help us turn our wheels—our starting point of Who am I?
It was great to see Being Energy teachers begin to guide some sections of the movements –thank you Keiron. We want to see more and more of this happening at our workshops. We are thankful for the opportunity to have lived this retreat and we want to extend and share this feeling with you, all of the Being Energy community.
Here is a guideline for an easy to follow exercise for you to have a feel of the recapitulation:
Recapitulating how I woke up: Every day we are born again!
Practice any Being Energy® sequence of movements
Close your eyes
Bring your attention to your body, to the sensations in your physical body
Travel in Time: go back to feel how you woke up this morning
Stay present with the physical sensations and feelings that arose
Breathe in and out several times
Open your eyes and keep breathing
Close your practice bringing your hands to your heart. Try not to make any conclusions about it. Just enjoy the feeling of pausing to remembering the way you woke up
Aerin Alexander, Miles Reid and everyone at Being Energy
