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Currents: Episode 8 // Essential Self
31 Plays5 months ago
Everything has an essence.
Different flowers have different essences. The moon has a different essential quality than the sun. A soft breeze has a different essential quality than a crashing wave. Their essence is beautiful and magical and has its own gifts to teach - about everything from the energy of wealth, to the essence of freedom and joy.
When we connect with each other as our essential selves, there is something magical that happens. Some know it as alchemy. But the parts of me that resonate with you make you sing. And the parts of you that I lack inform me.
I understand essence in terms of energy. And I understand someone’s essence when I can understand their energy.
You know your energy. If I asked you to put a sound, or a color to your essential self, you could. I’ve done it many times - with adults, and teens. We know who we are.
In this episode, I share a bit about how it is that I experience my essence and the essential energy of those I work with. It's the start of a series of sessions and conversations with inspired humans as a way of sharing the inspired energy and gifts of others in this community.
So tune in and start to get curious about the essence of you. Because when we live that, we make this world that much more whole and gorgeous.
Substack link to the full article on your essential self here
https://reioflight.substack.com/p/the-inspiring-power-of-your-essential
Recommended
Transcript
Unique Essence and Personal Preferences
00:00:03
Speaker
Everyone has a unique essence. Have you ever seen those flower essences at the store? They're the distilled sort of unique quality of each flower. And if you can imagine that each flower has its own unique quality, well then you might imagine that every person has their own too.
00:00:28
Speaker
It's fun to go around the world looking at people and thinking what color they would be or what sound if they were a freak frequency they would be or even what song.
00:00:46
Speaker
the things that we have a proclivity for that we like that we're drawn to or attracted to those all resonate with us because in some way They are us. They carry a similar frequency or aspect to themselves, whether that's a deep, dark bass sound that's very grounding, or a very high pitched, fairy-like frequency that people embody as well. Everyone is so different.
Energy Work and Core Essence
00:01:23
Speaker
And sometimes when I do energy work,
00:01:27
Speaker
I can sort of get a sense of each person's essential self or quality. For me, because I'm an energy worker, I tend to get a sense of this as a frequency of energy that has a particular quality or texture that also expresses itself in different ways in the world through You know, maybe someone is carrying a very aligned frequency of focus and conscious awareness that has the capacity for holding complex architecture in a way that's very grounded and solid and secure. All of those capacities express themselves from that core essence.
00:02:19
Speaker
In our society, we have learned to, I think, over identify with the attributes, with the skills and proclivity because they are supportive to us understanding what our work is in the world. But all of it stems from a more essential self.
00:02:43
Speaker
An energetic, quality,
00:02:50
Speaker
And that quality leads to characteristics and certain gifts or capacities, but it starts at a more basic level.
00:03:02
Speaker
Again, I like to imagine it as this sort of ball of energy.
Exploring Essences Through Interviews
00:03:06
Speaker
And in the series that explores essence, I'm going to be excited to bring in different friends who I'll be doing interviews with to get to share their essence as a way of helping to express and explain, give a sense of how different people have a different essence and core capacities that express themselves in different ways. So again, the imagery that comes to mind is that if you imagine even yourself, what I see is just sort of a ah ball of light. And if you want to, you can close your eyes and just imagine that if you were a ball of light, what color would that ball of light be?
00:03:57
Speaker
Even the color that we imagine and the first thing that comes to mind is great, starts to express or get at what this essential quality of self is like.
00:04:17
Speaker
And so maybe that ball of light is bright yellow and shining like the sun, or maybe it's a soft blue that is very calm and peaceful
00:04:32
Speaker
You can also start to think of sounds or textures that you would say maybe express who you are. Maybe they're loud and bold or maybe they're really soft and gentle like the wind.
00:04:58
Speaker
You can start to think about whether your essence is complex, maybe occupying aspects of the mind, understanding, or maybe it's really about the feeling body and just being in the yumminess of physical experience.
00:05:34
Speaker
And again, it may be multiple of these things together. We contain multitudes, but there are certain proclivities. For example, I don't love heavy metal, but some people really do. And they have that depth of intensity.
00:06:00
Speaker
Maybe the colors that express them are of a darker hue, more dense.
00:06:13
Speaker
Maybe there's an orientation to power or solidity. And so you can start to get a sense for how there are so many different flavors
00:06:28
Speaker
of what someone's essence could be like. And part of what is interesting about this is, again, your expression, your gifts and capacities and proclivities, you can imagine them extending and expressing from this core essential color or texture
00:06:55
Speaker
Maybe if there is a softness, there's a proclivity towards fabrics and objects or soft, gentle experiences.
00:07:08
Speaker
Maybe if there is a cooler, darker color, there's a proclivity towards the ground, nature, water, earth, making things.
00:07:31
Speaker
Maybe if there is a proclivity towards aspects of the mind and consciousness and architecture, there's a capacity to see the scaffolding for how things can unfold and to bring them to life.
Expressing Unique Self Beyond Societal Molds
00:07:53
Speaker
What I love about talking about essence is that it allows us to explore our expression.
00:08:03
Speaker
from the inside out.
00:08:08
Speaker
A lot of our experience can be molded and crafted by what has come before and what we have been exposed to. But sometimes those containers are a little bit too linear and predefine our proclivities. So, for example, if you are have a proclivity for the mental and the architectural, you might have been shown the box of an architect and said, well, that's me, that's what I'm good at, that's what I do.
00:08:52
Speaker
But there, that is, while that is an archetype that may be useful in the world and something that you may be drawn to,
00:09:03
Speaker
It can sometimes be a little bit stifling to have that placed on top of us instead of discovering our own articulation of our gifts from the inside out. From essence first.
00:09:23
Speaker
I think it's why you see so much copycatting in the world. We see something monkey see, monkey do, right? like We see how something has been done. Oh, someone's done courses. Someone's done trainings. Someone has built a building in this way. Someone has created art on a canvas.
00:09:51
Speaker
And so we take our proclivities and we put them in this box. And that can work just fine, but it's not fully us. necessarily. It's not fully unique.
00:10:11
Speaker
You're applying something that has been done before, learned before, and there's nothing wrong with that. Except when it starts to stifle your expression. Because perhaps there is some way of doing something that only you and your essence could do and express in only wit in only the way that you could do it. And maybe that's never been done before, so you have no idea what it looks like.
00:10:47
Speaker
You can tap into other archetypes for awareness and understanding, but ultimately none of those archetypes are you.
00:10:57
Speaker
So for example, you could say that your proclivities lean yourself towards an architect or a teacher, and you could put on the hat of a teacher or an architect and learn something about what you could do or how the world works currently. But ultimately, again, that is not you.
00:11:23
Speaker
It's maybe one aspect of you or who you could be, how you could express, how this essence that is you could express. But it's just one aspect, one facet of a very multifaceted diamond. And so the question is, what is this essence? And how does it want to express what new pathways would it like to articulate and move through? What old pathways? What new combinations? What old combinations?
00:12:04
Speaker
What would feel joyous and liberated?
00:12:09
Speaker
And how might that be completely different than what you've seen before or been told is possible?
00:12:21
Speaker
And what if it is just completely rote and standard?
00:12:28
Speaker
but that shines a new and different kind of light and touches people in the most beautiful way because you are doing it from a place of fullness from your expression instead of trying to fit into a different mold.
Conflicts with Essence and Societal Expectations
00:12:51
Speaker
Paving a new path is never easy.
00:12:56
Speaker
There are so many expectations placed upon us by our families and society.
00:13:07
Speaker
was having dinner with a friend the other day, and he was just mentioning that his family was saying that, oh, this is a nice starter home. It's a good starter home, but you should really think about getting a bigger home. And his response was, I don't want a bigger home. It has become the societal construct around what we should have at what particular stage of life, what we should want, How we should be able to get that. What a career should look like. And how you should progress ah along it. What a relationship should look like and how one should progress along it.
00:13:54
Speaker
But what if you're meant to do many things? What if your essence doesn't express through a one track of a career over an extended period of time, but expresses as five different domains of expertise?
00:14:17
Speaker
What if your art can just be art and your money can just be money?
00:14:28
Speaker
What if you could completely give away your work?
00:14:37
Speaker
What if you could be supported by one thing and have another domain complete free and liberated exploration free from any expectation? Of it going anywhere? Of any accolade?
00:14:53
Speaker
What if you just did it because that is what it is for your essence to express itself?
00:15:02
Speaker
And what if you contribute to something that saves many people because you aren't setting out to save many people, but just doing one part because that's what feels most appropriate to the expression of your essence. It doesn't have to become your life. It doesn't have to become your career.
00:15:32
Speaker
We don't have to box ourselves up. And so this exploration of essence is in part returning to a more core, essential awareness of ourselves. so that we can have more authorship, direction, determination of where and how it is expressed in ways that are most nourishing to us and the world.
00:15:58
Speaker
If my essence doesn't need to be pumped to create productivity, work or a job or money, then what is it for me to express myself in the world?
00:16:17
Speaker
What does my expression have to do with my career or my relationship? Or just my capacity to create whatever is most delightful for myself?
Indigenous Ceremonies and Discovering Purpose
00:16:35
Speaker
Many people know that there are often indigenous ceremonies, vision quests, where people spend a long time in nature, in silence, where they are sent off in a ceremonial way to discover for themselves who they are, separate from the clan, separate from the community, just you and God.
00:17:07
Speaker
And there is support as you leave and there is support as you return, but the process of that vision quest and of these thresholds and initiatory rituals is for you to know who you are from the inside out and to let that determine your action.
00:17:43
Speaker
We are not trying to find and fit ourselves into a role. We are not trying to duplicate what has come before for security. We are here to be a unique aspect of divine expression through your particular human body, your particular soul, your makeup, no one else's.
Ecosystem's Health and Unique Expressions
00:18:20
Speaker
And that feeds the whole. Your authentic expression and embodiment of your essence, of your uniqueness, allows the whole thing to thrive in the same way that an iris being an iris
00:18:41
Speaker
does only what an iris can do for the ecosystem.
00:18:48
Speaker
An iris does not try to be a redwood, and a redwood does not try to be an iris. Each has its own essence, its own expression, and each is perfect in its difference. and critical to the whole. So in this series, I'm not actually claiming to know exactly or be an expert on this, but more in a co-discovery and a curious celebration of people's unique and different essences.
Community and Sharing Authentic Essence
00:19:35
Speaker
And part of why I'm so excited about it is that
00:19:39
Speaker
In sharing our essential self, our authentic self, there is a gift that is unlocked. And when we do that together, that gift is exponential. And in that exponential gift and unlocking, there is abundance in the sharing that happens.
00:20:07
Speaker
I'm starting to do energy work with community to unlock our essential self. And so this is the beginning of that exploration. What are our essential gifts, aspects that we are here to share with each other in the world? What does it feel like to give that and to receive that? and what beauty and magnificence gets created as a result.
Invitation to Explore and Share Essential Gifts
00:20:41
Speaker
I hope you'll join me for this journey and weigh in because we are here to do it together. Thanks so much for listening and I look forward to your thoughts and feedback on this series along the way.