I’ve been doing a simple practice I thought I’d share with you. It’s called “Where am I?” It’s an exercise in presence. Presence is so important for coming fully into your own energy, and you need to be in your energy body in order to feel clear, good and right directed in your life choices.
When we’re distracted from our self, life delivers us distracted, fragmented results. A childhood friend and I were catching up when she shared that after years of being single, she decided to online date…But she said her energy was scattered so that was exactly what showed up. When she recognized she wasn’t getting the results she wanted, she stopped, and started working on her own patterns. Now she says she feels so close to finally being ready for a love relationship grounded in authenticity and soul.
No matter what you are working on in your life, presence is the foundation of all desirable change.
But enough about you… 🙂 Why did I start this practice?
-I noticed, when I thought of someone (a memory, “I wonder what they’re doing?” or random thoughts) I was picking up on their energy. I’d start feeling a little wonky.
-I noticed, when I started “thinking” – as in, I’m going to really figure this out with my logical left brain- I’d become ungrounded and/or uncentered in my energy body.
-I noticed, when I wanted to have a hard conversation and stay in my seat of power, I got into trouble. I tended to go into another’s energy instantly, which meant I absorbed their feelings/thoughts/energies.
-As a result of being out of my energy body a lot, I didn’t feel like “ME”– like myself.
In what area(s) of your life are you feeling wonky, fragmented, scattered, unclear?
The Practice
The practice goes like this: Sit down in a quiet space for a few minutes. Get quiet. Feel your feet on the ground. Breathe into your solar plexus. Ask yourself “Where am I?”
Your consciousness can be anywhere — it is not attached to your body. Is your consciousness ten feet in front of you? Is it on the other side of the world? At work? In your partner’s/mother’s/sister’s/kid’s energy? Is it playing dress rehearsal for something in the future? Is it ruminating about a past situation?
After you’ve discerned where you are, without judgment, invite your consciousness to come back into your body, where you want it to be. Focus on sensation: areas of tension and relaxation. Invite your energy to settle back into your center, behind your heart chakra, and your solar plexus. Breathe with it. Are you feeling a little more relaxed? A little more present? This practice is meant to be subtle, small.
Be gentle, not demanding or perfectionistic: Invite yourself to pull within to enjoy your own presence. I love the word invite because it’s not pushy, but gracious and generous and has lots of permission built in. You can always refuse or accept an invitation. That’s the spirit of the word invite.
Depending on how much time you spend with your attention, focus or energy turned outside of yourself, this practice might sound undesirable to the distraction loving Ego. You want to make coming back into presence, being in your own body and energy, a far more attractive and delicious place to be than not.
Do this throughout the day for just a few minutes at a time. Just see where “you” are, try to gently smile at your self when you realize you are soooo not right here right now, then invite “you” to come back into your body. As your consciousness returns, notice what it feels like to be inside your body (vs. outside).
It’s no big deal to practice presence. This isn’t a meditation session. No harsh Zen master is going to whack you for not being present. Yet like all things spiritually true and resonant, the practice is simple, not easy. Again, kindness, not perfectionism. With practice, you’ll get the hang of it.
Virgo Full Moon …& a Little Forecast
Virgo Full Moon is the perfect time to become aware of the small daily habits and practices that are serving us, and those that aren’t. Health, work and daily routines, pets, mentor/apprentice relationships, spiritual practice, and consciousness itself, all fall under the guise of Virgo-Pisces.
We typically want to “be better” at something under a Virgo Full Moon, and as we work that out, our powers of analysis and problem solving (and worry and insomnia) increase. The shadow of Virgo may get activated… perfectionism, criticism, self-shaming, over-analysis…all the ways we don’t measure up.
This is why taking small, practical steps, paired with reasonable expectations, resonates so well for Virgo.
A light touch is always best.
Another reason to take it easy: Mercury is getting ready to go retrograde in Pisces (March 5-28) and since we are already in its shadow period, we may feel this earlier. As the planet of mind appears to be moving backwards in the sign of oneness, intuition, presence, the non-rational, the best approaches and ideas we have will be the unusual, left of center, ones. We’re more likely to have perspective altering awareness arrive in moments of being rather than doing, or activities grounded in presence, like washing dishes, taking a walk or shower. The mind is more receptive to working on the spiritual plane, and using spiritual principles, now. Practices like: invite and allow, letting go, and surrendering your requests/desires to Spirit are favored. Acceptance of life, as it is, is key for the next 4 weeks of Pisces.
Lastly, it is another zero degree full moon (each month of 2019 has featured a zero full moon — the next is 3/20). As I said last month, zero is the womb, seed, a symbol of pure potential. We may feel like we don’t know how to proceed just yet, we’re still regrouping and figuring things out. And that’s totally okay.
Just look at how much is in the middle of changing…
Chiron moves from Pisces into Aries today, seeding a cycle that has us turning away from the realm of healing hyper-sensitivity and victimhood (Pisces) to healing what denies our self-empowerment and self-volition (Aries). Inner teacher, Chiron, is cheering on our acts of independence and selfhood. Yay! Also, after dipping its toe in for a few months last year, then retrograding back into Aries, Uranus enters Taurus on March 1, finally, where we are being awakened to changes we need to make in matters of material and physical security, abundance, resources and confidence. In Taurus matters (home, family, security, money, confidence), a new picture is getting ready to emerge for many of us.
New planetary shifts means integrating new energies into our consciousness, and these take time to process. So, really, go easy and gentle on your self. At this Virgo Full Moon, the small shifts will yield big results down the road. For now, stay present to YOU. It is the best foundation for the changes you want!
Frankly I found this confusing. I am not a fan of the current mindfulness as I think it puts a strain on one to have to concentrate on the present moment. My mind travels in different directions, sometimes here, other times there.
Staying in the moment is a trend that I find very boring. I do try to monitor my thoughts though so if I find myself wandering back to the past and picking up negative thoughts I pull my thoughts into the present.Otherwise this is just a today trend and I find no comfort or help in it.
Hi Sylvia, This is not a mindfulness exercise. It is an embodied awareness exercise. It has nothing to do with thoughts/thinking. It’s more like, imagine someone walks into your room. Does your energy stay in your body or go to that person? People are built differently so this exercise would appeal to some more than others.
Sorry you were confused by it!
Thank you Jessica! And for mentioning the degree of the full moons being at zero, that’s interesting and I haven’t noticed others talking about it… I’ve a sun moon square at that degree, so it is particularly interesting to me…
\what a lovely soft piece of writing xoxo
Sylvie i have to agree re mindfulness – bleah, and having to concentrate – what, like i don’t have enough to concentrate on already? i don’t think she’s writing about any of that… you know like when you are relaxed and just there – in the sunshine, or in the tub, and you just notice stuff?more like that.. no effort. To me ( i have Venus in Pisces, who cares, right?)- it’s like self-sonar = a quick ‘ping’ of where am i really? just takes a second or two – now often i find myself sucked into other people’s energies/ dramas (eeek, did’t really want to spend that much time there did I? sheeesh)- or stuck in my head bla bla bla…. so basically – ‘ping’ is this where i want to be. Well, iust got back from my Nucca chiropractor (he only adjusts neck) – i think he physically does this for people – i had gotten up this morning thinking ‘wish this day was over already’ – by time i left the clinic this afternoon was so mellowed, could hardly believe the transformation at how good i feel in my body.. why write this? having spent so much of my life not in my body, but out there somewhere (ya, safer, they can’t get you) then learned to be grounded in it.. and now to discover, oh m,y god there is real pleasure being in it… there’s a feelingof deep connection with the core of my being i’ve never experienced befoe.. yes, love the bit about doing small daily practises – am just starting that… still a big clueless about CHron… wonder if i will notice he shift from pisces to aries (am Aries).. thank you Jessica xoxoxo
Years ago, I went to visit relatives in Europe. One morning, I decided to attend a local Cathedral at 6 am to sit in silence before the “public” arrived. Imagine my surprise when I saw half a dozen woman in their eighties and nineties deep in prayer. I found out later that this was a morning ritual that the old Catholic women observed that no-one was allowed to interrupt. No child, woman and especially no man unless he wanted the wrath of God upon him. I suspect that that hour or so of prayer grounded, armoured and fortified them for the day and what it would bring. I am not Catholic but these modern processes ( of which I have embraced and discarded many) have arisen as we no longer have our rituals. Sylvia, find what works for you. It will be unique to you and it will be easy to do and above all, it will work for you. We all need to find our centre somehow.
Well I have a positive comment and my thanks, Jessica! It is so what I needed to hear. Somewhere deep inside I already know this is the way to go but I forget and fall by the wayside. Often into a big hole ?I always find your articles very helpful and very easy to follow. I often print them out to reread. I hope you don’t mind having a little of my grateful energy sent to you ?
Very useful exercise thank you. Felt a huge whoosh and then exhaled a great big breath and definitely feel more me…was all subtle but only way to describe the experience. Also pulled back from other timelines and dimensions.
Jessica, I love this! I related to this perfectly. Thank you!
Thanks for this! I find my Self “out there” most of the time. I love the simplicity of this practice of checking in with and feeling my Self.
Thank you for the grateful energy!!! I am feeling it 🙂
Hi Jessica, At the very top of my list of “Stuff I want to remember” is: At the Heart of It All: The Concept of Presence
Matthew Lombard & Theresa Ditton
First published: 23 June 2006
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1997.tb00072.x
“Where am I?” is such an important question. It is critical to my self understanding and it was a shock to see that those who were studying this in our time were not the philosophers or religious, but the ad agencies (One will find hundreds of papers on presence that are behind the addictive qualities of our current technologies). I am SO glad you are aware of this and spreading the word. Also, if you have not yet found them, I recommend “The Enchanted Map Oracle Cards” by Colette Baron-Reid (currently on my iphone as well as owning a copy of the physical cards and book). I have found it to be a helpful guide to some places I find myself in that I did not previously have words to name.
Thank you, Jacqueline. The most valuable commodity in the world is our attention, isn’t it? Advertisers know this, social media, too.
A lot of people talk about presence through mindfulness, but I don’t hear much about energetic presence. It’s one thing to be aware of your thoughts, another to be aware of what your energy body is doing. It can be shocking to discover how often we vacate our own energy/center!
The Enchanted Map Oracle cards happens to be one of 2 decks I consult at the moment. The other being Wild Offerings by Tosha Silver- which I use more frequently and highly recommend. Thanks again for your great comment.
Hi again Jessica, Thank you for the recommendation! I am not familiar with Wild Offerings and will look for it right away. We seem to be sharing a point in the path at the moment. I have an ongoing interest in the power of attention. Ever since the day in elementary school that another child taught me the fun game of staring at the back of someone’s head till they turned around. It can be felt and is clearly an energy. Part of why some of us need to Herm (my daughter’s verb for being a hermit) from time to time. Too much incoming attention can be disorienting and confusing. I have sometimes wondered if Vesta in our astrology chart might have a relationship to how we channel our attention. Any thoughts on that?
So good of you to bring up Vesta! She is the guardian of focus, helping us do the inner work of integration. I find my ability to focus, go deeply inward, is paramount to everything. Yet I can easily get overly focused and miss the mark.
And yes to incoming information to sidetrack to the point of disorientation/confusion! Just this morning, I sat down to breakfast and had to clear my table of newspapers and computers before I could eat. Distraction during eating upsets my stomach and nervous system. No surprise to all of the above; my Vesta is in Cancer conjunct my Venus, which is my chart ruler.
For those interested here is an article I’ve written about her:
https://www.moonkissd.com/2017/09/24/vesta-wants-devotion/
Not to go too off topic on this post- if you, or anyone, wants to keep the convo about Vesta going, please leave comments on the Vesta article 🙂