How much soul movement creates a vital stability?  Is vital stability or stable vitality dependent on the movement of  frequency, amplitude or duration for you?  This is a very subtle question but the answer(s) bring a great deal of self-knowledge.   There is no right answer.

It's Labor Day! The end of summer for our daily consciousness.  But what does that mean?  It's still three weeks until the Autumnal Equinox when Nature and the Sun tell us Summer has ended.  The long forgotten festival of Michaelmas (the feast of Archangel Michael, the Dragon Slayer) is celebrated on September 29th.  Rosh Hashannah, the Jewish New Year, occurs on September 13th, which is also the first day of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, prayer and accountability. September 3-4 is the birth of Krishna and September 15 is the birthday of Ganesh  the Hindu gods. 

What a time of year for the human soul. What does it mean to you and your soul??? Good question.  The creator god (s) designed this time of year to bring a certain experience to the human soul. 

Sound of Music is on TV.  One of my top ten films.  And in this film is a song that resonates everything that sings in the human soul at this time of year. "I Have Confidence" Here are the lyrics.  Do pay attention to them.  How do they express what lives in you? What wants to live in you?



The Sound of Music Soundtrack Lyrics

Maria - I Have Confidence Lyrics

What will this day be like? I wonder.
What will my future be? I wonder.
It could be so exciting to be out in the world, to be free
My heart should be wildly rejoicing
Oh, what's the matter with me?

I've always longed for adventure
To do the things I've never dared
And here I'm facing adventure
Then why am I so scared

A captain with seven children
What's so fearsome about that?

Oh, I must stop these doubts, all these worries
If I don't I just know I'll turn back
I must dream of the things I am seeking
I am seeking the courage I lack

The courage to serve them with reliance
Face my mistakes without defiance
Show them I'm worthy
And while I show them
I'll show me

So, let them bring on all their problems
I'll do better than my best
I have confidence they'll put me to the test
But I'll make them see I have confidence in me

Somehow I will impress them
I will be firm but kind
And all those children (Heaven bless them!)
They will look up to me

And mind me with each step I am more certain
Everything will turn out fine
I have confidence the world can all be mine
They'll have to agree I have confidence in me

I have confidence in sunshine
I have confidence in rain
I have confidence that spring will come again
Besides which you see I have confidence in me

Strength doesn't lie in numbers
Strength doesn't lie in wealth
Strength lies in nights of peaceful slumbers
When you wake up -- Wake Up!

It tells me all I trust I lead my heart to
All I trust becomes my own
I have confidence in confidence alone
(Oh help!)

I have confidence in confidence alone
Besides which you see I have confidence in me!

What you see is what you get.  WYSIWYG.  This is certainly true on the surface. But what happens if you begin to see beneath the surface?  What happens if you look again?  Why is sight the only sense that can be fooled - Trompe l'oeil!

Working with the sense of sight and the development of your soul can bring many points of view to consider. You create opinions and prejudices through your way of seeing things. Are you in the dark about certain things? Is your love blind?  Have you been enlightened? Do you want to see the forest or the trees?
 
Now let's look at temperature. Temperature is like balance - we want to keep our cool and not build up a sweat.  At the same time, we want sweat equity - we want to invest our will in the world with full out participation. 

When we are in love we want to melt into each other and have the hots for each other.

The four senses of participation make life worth living.  Enjoy them but manage them with consciousness. 

I've offered some thoughts on how the senses of smell and taste shape our souls. 

If we study the senses from a purely scientific point of view, what do we learn about our humanity?  If we fail to understand our neurological processes and separate our souls from our biology, what do we learn about our humanity?

We need to find an education, a perspective that allows us to develop a fully integrated, holistic picture of our humanity.  My podcasts are designed to help you reach toward this knowledge of humanity through the twelve senses.  I want to engage your imagination.  I want to light your way to a truly thrilling awareness of how beautifully designed we human beings are.

Then I want you to begin to look at yourself.  Ask yourself questions about your sense of smell.  Smell as your perception of odors and smell as your metaphor for intimacy.  What in life do you want to get close enough to to smell?  What other human beings?  What great ideas? What activities?  What aspects of your biography?  Are you willing to smell your weaknesses?

And taste.  What are you willing to taste?  What in your life tastes sweet or bitter.  What in your life has been salted away to remain yours forever?  What in your life is tart, tangy and refreshing?  These are the metaphors that describe how life tastes to you?  What do you want to swallow and take into your existence?  Is is just what tastes good or is it actually what is good?

Write a poem about smells or tastes - the ones you like and the ones you don't like.  Not only will you know yourself better, but you will know these two senses more richly and you will know the nature of the archetype of being human.

With this podcast on the senses of self-movement and balance, we complete our brief exploration of the perceptions of embodied existence within our skin.  Perceiving the world inside our skin is so critical to the health of our soul. 

Among many other qualities a, healthy soul life consists of

Integrity - the sense of contained wholeness.  This is the soul's experience of the sense of touch.  We each meet the boundary of our skin where we find the resistance of the world and the earthly reality of self and not self. 

Coherence -  the sense of  everything in the soul being rightly ordered. Through the sense of well-being, the soul learns to recognize comfort and discomfort in thoughts, feelings and intentions.  We learn to attend to our soul needs.

Flexibility - the sense of the soul's capacity to change.  The sense of self-movement  gives the awareness that the soul can change its positions and perspectives gracefully.  We move from old thoughts and feelings to new thoughts and feeling with ease. 

Harmony - the sense of soul's resonance with the cosmos.  With the sense of balance to soul awakens to its own unique and personal expression of the truth, beauty and goodness of the entire Universe.  This is the sense of "I am." With this sense of harmonious balance, the soul's capacity to love in freedom begins to shine forth.

I urge you to bring your concentration to these four soul perceptions.  Ask yourself how you experience each.  You won't find any quick and easy answers.  So I am asking you to be patient and persevere.  The increase in your self-awareness - your inner sense of self - is truly worth the effort.

Don't be afraid or ashamed if you find shortcomings.  We all have shortcomings, breakdowns and confusions.  These are all blessings in disguise. Have reverence for yourself.  You are on the path of inner development.

Comment, please.  At the bottom of this post is a link that allows you to publish a comment.  Please take the time to write a response or a question or a criticism.  These podcasts are intended to begin conversations and form communities of compassionate self-discovery based on the image of the human soul as a bridge between spirit and matter.  It is this discovery that allows us to cultivate a garden of full bloom. 

I know how much courage it takes to share an experience, a new insight, a question or a concern.  Everytime I communicate with others, with an audience of souls that I don't know personally, whether in my writing, my presentations or my workshops, I get a blast of doubt.  That blast is the energy that actually calls forth courage, humility and vulnerability - it opens up my heart.  With my intellect I can be confident, even arrogant, but I can't be loving.  It takes my heart to be loving. 

Blooming requires loving.  Imagine if nature was filled with closed buds, unwilling to open up.  Making a comment is a tiny soul bud beginning to bloom.  Dear friend, please share your blooming with the Full Blooming Community.

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With this 20 minute podcast we bring our attention to the Four Senses of the Embodied Self - Touch, Well-Being, Self-Movement, Balance.  They tells us we are at home in an earthly life - at home in our skin, at home in the world and at home in the presence of others.  Imagine being perfectly at home.  Alas, karma means we don't have a perfect home. Yet, the grace of destiny tells us we can redecorate, even renovate, our home - our embodied resident self. But first, we need to take detailed pictures of our home.  We need to examine and observe the Four Senses of the Embodied Self.


Touch is the first sense of the four.  It is the sense that tells us there is one, that we are contained and alone.  Well-being is the sense that tells us there are two, one that needs and one that meets needs. These are the "mother" senses.  It is the mother that embraces and contains (the womb) and the mother that nourishes and comforts (the breast).  When we pay attention to the soul-shaping work of touch and well-being we learn about our ability to self-mother as both earthly and spiritual beings. 

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I create these podcasts without a script.  They are spontaneous in the moment and have a foundation of twenty years of paying attention to the senses, my senses and my client's senses.  Spontaneity is wonderful as it allows for imagination.  I get to surprise myself with new insights and angles (angels!) of observation as when I speak about the praying hands in this recording. I am paying attention to the senses while I am recording, not reading a previously thought through text.

However, spontaneity has difficulties. I call these the flubs.  Sometimes I use a wrong word, mix my tenses or pronouns or even not complete an idea.  Forgive these.  Listen for the personally meaningful, the "gem" that sparkles in your soul and makes a difference for you. 

Please make a comment or ask a question by clicking on the link below. 

Here is the introduction to the Twelve Senses.  Yes, not five, but twelve. The twelve extraordinary senses that shape your spiritual and earthly humanity - your sense of self, the world and other human beings. 

There will be seven podcasts in this series.

Part 1: An Introduction
Part 2: Touch and Well Being - Your Boundaries and Your Needs
Part 3: Movement & Balance - Your Possibilities and Your Freedom
Part 4: Smell & Taste - Your Style and Your Knowledge
Part 5: Sight & Warmth - Your Perspective and Your Connections
Part 6: Hearing & Language - Your Listening and Your Judgement
Part 7: Thought & I-Being - Your Resonance and Your Capacity for Love

In the Introduction, I name the twelve senses and briefly describe them. Most importantly, I challenge you to pay attention to your senses, understand your unique "senseprint", work toward enriching your senses, healing your senses and awakening your soul.  Keep a journal that makes notes on the following observations:

1. Your perceptions through each sense - this is a simple listing of all perceptions you are experiencing through a particular sense in a given moment.  For instance, I am touching the rug, the chair, the keyboard, my glasses, my shirt, etc.
2. Your sensitivity to your perceptions - this considers the degree of intensity in each sense.  Some of us have a hypersensitivity and experience the perception too intensely.  Some of us have hyposensitivity or dulled sensitivity.  Your degree of sensitivity in each of the senses has deep impact on your sense of self, your ability to participate in the world and the degree to which you know others.
3. The organization of your perceptions - how do you arrange your perceptions so that your thoughts and feelings make good sense and not nonsense? I will write more on this as we study the twelve senses.
4. Lastly, the integration of the senses - Your senses all work together in creating your life of soul.  They integrate in dyads and triads.  Six work to give you an appropriate selfishness and six work to give you appropriate unselfishness. Understanding and developing a clear picture of the way you integrate your twelve senses will establish a compassionate sense of self.
   

Please add your comments and questions.