873rd Week: An “As-If” Experiment in Conscious Living: Living in A World of Reciprocal Relationships

ByNancy Napier

This week’s practice invites you to consider something that may be second nature to you, or it may be a new idea that seems way out there. One of the ways I move through the world is with the assumption that everything I encounter is conscious—not in the way I am conscious as a human but in the way that is unique and appropriate for whatever it is that I encounter along the way. I guess that’s another way of saying I believe we live in a conscious universe and that it’s impossible for anything that exists to be outside that consciousness.

I also believe that I am in ongoing and inherent reciprocal relationship with all the life around me, and I wonder if you would be willing to bring that hypothesis into this as-if experiment, as well. My belief is that I affect everything I encounter and that everything I encounter affects me, that it’s impossible not to be in relationship with the consciousness of my world.

At the very least, at the most basic level of biology, everything I encounter is comprised of the same kinds of molecules as those that comprise my body. We share an ecology that arises from the same carbon-based life and, even in that most basic way, we are part of each other.

I am also a believer in collective consciousness so, for me, we share not only our common biology but also our consciousness. (You will know from this that I do not believe that the brain generates consciousness…)

There are two reasons I want to offer this as-if experiment. First is to offer you an opportunity to explore what may be a deeper sense of connection and relationship with the world around you than you may have already. Or, if you already feel connected, perhaps this experiment will offer a deepening or enriching of your experience. The second reason I want to offer this experiment is because our world needs us to awaken to a more vivid sense of our place within the earth community so that we can, hopefully, recognize our responsibility as citizens of a vast and varied collective of earth-kin, most of whom are other-than-human beings.

Here’s the experiment, offered as a guided meditation:

  • Begin by settling in, following your next out-breath down to the bottom of the breath.
  • At the bottom of the breath, notice the gap that naturally exists between each out-breath and the next in-breath. This gap might be expansive. It might be brief. Whatever its quality, it is always there.
  • Take a moment to notice that within the gap between breaths there is an ever-present stillness, that this gap is an entryway into this stillness.
  • Take a few moments to sense into the stillness and notice the quality of your experience as you touch into this deep quiet.
  • Now, become aware of your core, that place in you where you find a steadiness that can never be disturbed and also a place in you where you can sense into the radiating quality of your own unique energy signature, of your unique core presence.
  • Notice that your radiating presence not only fills and brings its qualities into your entire body-mind, but that it also radiates out into the environment around you, touching everything in that environment with the quality of your presence.
  • Next, notice that everything in the environment around you has its own radiating presence, its own unique energy signature. You may not directly sense or experience this. For now, notice what it’s like to hold the possibility that everything around you has its own radiating presence and that this individual and collective presence touches you.
  • Now, take a moment to feel into the fact that you are in constant reciprocal relationships with the world around you—with your human community and with the other-than-human communities with which you interact as you move through your everyday activities. (Be sure to make room for any mixed feelings that may arise, as you may have a range of responses to this practice as you do it.)
  • Next, imagine that you move into your daily activities, at home, at work if it’s not at home, outdoors, shopping—whatever may come to mind now. As you do this, include an awareness that in every moment you move through a world of presence, connection, and reciprocal relationship and that the tone and quality of the presence you offer to the world around you matters. What quality do you offer right now?
  • Notice, what would change in your attitudes or behaviors if you remembered that everything you encounter is sentient in its own way, has consciousness of your presence and is affected by the interactions you have with your world.
  • Notice now what you experience when you take a moment to acknowledge and appreciate, in whatever ways make sense to you, the life in the world around you and, also, your own radiating presence, a gift you offer to yourself and the world in every moment.
  • When you’re ready to conclude this experience, take a moment to become aware of the surface supporting you, of any sounds around you, wiggle your fingers and toes, and come all the way back.

As with all these practices, 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. Also, be sure to welcome any mixed feelings, as your worldview might be very different from what I describe in this experiment. The beauty of our world is that is thrives on diversity, so you may have a decidedly different take on this perspective than I do and it’s important to honor and embrace that difference. 

Similar Posts

|

September 2015 Audio Meditation

ByNancy Napier

706th Week:  Living With “Wide Open Eyes

706th Week:  Living With “Wide Open Eyes

ByNancy Napier

As a general practice, I spend time each morning looking at videos, interviews, and professional talks that support a positive sense of connection and wholeness.  Beginning each day orients me to a perspective and sense of being that colors my day with a quality that nourishes my body and soul.  During one of these forays into cyberspace, I ran across an article, which touched me with its emphasis on a more mystical sense of our world.

The author, Michael Edwards, says the following: “…spirituality can give us an actual experience of the unity of all things.  This experience, when nurtured as a constant practice, roots quality-consciousness, non-discrimination, non-violence and reverence for all people and the earth deep into our core.”  Read More “706th Week:  Living With “Wide Open Eyes”

2023 September Meditation
|

2023 September Meditation

ByNancy Napier

Returning to what we explored earlier this year, notice any change in your experience over this time of recognizing the living presence of relationships, collaborative communities, that are everywhere in your life and that your radiating presence touches everyone and everything you encounter along the way.

Notice again your physical relationship with the environment around you: breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide, exchanging resources with trees who emit oxygen and take in carbon dioxide; becoming aware of all the organisms and beings whose presence and activities contribute to what makes the world work for you, i.e., fungi, micro-organisms you don’t see and may not even recognize, insects, amphibians, reptiles, water beings, and many other participants in the collective, interrelated system that creates your local environment and ecology; offering gratitude and blessings to everything in the environment with which you have a reciprocal relationship. Notice your experience in your heart space as you do this.

Please remember never to listen to guided audio meditations while driving or using dangerous machinery.


Here’s the YouTube version if you’d like to see images of nature as you listen:

813th Week: Cultivating an Internal Sense of Safety

813th Week: Cultivating an Internal Sense of Safety

ByNancy Napier

Recently, I had a conversation with a colleague that revolved around the subject of cultivating an internal sense of safety. We talked about how external safety isn’t a sure thing and, in these uncertain times, doesn’t ring true as a possibility for many people. 

My deepest sense, as we talked, was that the only place I could find a reliable sense of safety, and it’s a relative thing, is inside my own embodied core presence. This is because embodied presence is something we carry within us all the time, even when we’re unaware of it. 

I’ve talked many times about the dynamic of “foreground/background”. Depending on what we experience in any given moment, feelings of activation, distress, overwhelm, and/or shutdown may have moved into the foreground of our awareness. When this happens, our internal steadiness and embodied core presence slide into the background and we no longer experience these qualities of our inherent being.

Read More “813th Week: Cultivating an Internal Sense of Safety”
872nd Week: Noticing Mutual-Empowerment and Power-Over Dynamics 

872nd Week: Noticing Mutual-Empowerment and Power-Over Dynamics 

ByNancy Napier

When I actively taught Somatic Experiencing, one of the themes that I passed along from my first SE teacher and good friend, Diane Poole Heller, was the distinction between expressions of “power over” and those of “mutual empowerment.” Diane embodies and expresses mutual empowerment in her relationships with the people around her and her influence and modeling have had a powerful impact on me. The distinction between power over (where there are only two options—you’re on the top or you’re on the bottom) and mutual empowerment (where no one has to lose power in order for things to work out) has stayed with me as an active intention to support mutual empowerment in every way I can. I have lived that not only as a teacher but also as a mentor. When people talk about the “new Earth” that needs to arise from the breakdown of the old institutions that are now being challenged around the world, what comes to mind for me is a fundamental shift from power-over styles of leadership and dominance, including our relationship with the planet and all our human and other-than-human earth-kin, to styles that embody and express mutual empowerment within every aspect of our lives.

A key thing about mutual empowerment is that it has, as its foundation, the belief and experience that your having power doesn’t automatically take away from anyone else and their having power doesn’t automatically take away from you. A stance of mutual empowerment tends to naturally engender respect, as well as wishes for others to have as much success, happiness, satisfaction—whatever—as is possible for them.

For this week’s practice, I invite you to pay attention to those times when you encounter people or situations that express “power-over” dynamics and those where you see, or experience, styles of “mutual empowerment”. Also notice these dynamics in yourself so that if you have slipped into a power-over style of interaction you’ll be able to choose whether you want to continue in that mode or if you want to experiment with shifting into a mutual-empowerment style.

Read More “872nd Week: Noticing Mutual-Empowerment and Power-Over Dynamics “

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.