Because of my interest in subtle activism—defined as those inner activities we undertake to support positive collective outcomes—I am always aware of the constant opportunity to contribute to our collective well-being through the attitudes, responses, and qualities we generate internally and emanate into our world in the course of our everyday lives. Just about every moment of any day, we can stop for a moment, take note of what we are radiating into the environment around us, and make a conscious choice to resonate with states of being that are positive, compassionate, and/or settling.
The other day, as I was settling into the steadiness I inevitably find within my embodied core presence, I was reminded of the fact that the steadiness I experience immediately flows out and into the environment around me and, from there, into the field of information that is our human collective consciousness. A while back, I realized that purposefully orienting to steadiness—or any other quality that supports self-regulation—can be a powerful and dynamic form of subtle activism.
It’s probably not hard to imagine how much our global human species currently needs steadiness. There is so much distress, chaos, and activation in the world that it seems to me that any added moments of steadiness might be a support in ways I haven’t imagined to people I will never know and yet who are people who share with me our connection within our shared collective consciousness.
For this week’s practice in conscious living, here’s a brief outline of a meditation on steadiness that can become a daily subtle activism practice:
- Begin by becoming aware of your natural landing place inside your body. You might want to follow your next out-breath down inside yourself and notice where you land as you settle in. This is your internal center of gravity and it is the place where you can touch into your core presence.
- Also notice the supportive presence of your skeleton—your spine, your pelvic floor, your whole skeleton—your internal infrastructure of support.
- Next, become aware of the surface supporting your body and notice how your body settles into, and receives, that support. Support is always a reciprocal process—support offered and support received.
- Also take a moment to notice the supportive presence of the space around you. Include all the objects and any life forms that are with you in that space. Everything present contributes its particular quality to the overall tone of supportive presence you may experience around you.
- Now, return to your internal center of gravity and notice that there, deep within the place in you that I call your core, is an ever-present steadiness. It’s the part of you that is never disturbed. No matter what unfolds, it is always steady.
- Take some time to feel into the quality of this steadiness and imagine that its quality, the frequency of this steadiness, pervades your entire body. Allow it also to touch your thoughts and feelings. Immerse yourself in this quality of steadiness.
- If you have difficulty accessing the steadiness that’s always in the core of your being, ask yourself, “What would I experience if I could notice this steadiness?”
- Spend a few minutes resonating with this steadiness and holding the intention that the quality of your life experience automatically radiates from you into the environment around you and also into our the field of our human collective consciousness.
- When you’re ready, come on back and go on with whatever is next for you, and give yourself the gift of continuing to resonate with core steadiness as a resource you can return to again and again, as you need it.
As with all these practices, there’s no right or wrong way to do this one. There’s only your experience and discoveries of what works best for you. Please remember to bring along curiosity as your constant companion and to pat gently on the head any judgments that may arise, allowing them to move on through without your having to do anything with or about them.