On the way to golf this morning, I’m thinking about the weekend at Yogaville. I came back with a tremendous amount of energy—and a new relationship to energy and experience.
I’ve been playing with four elements and different areas of the body: the legs and hips, the chest, and the head. Earth, Water, Fire and Air. It reminds me of the chakra system and even the energy centers in Jewish mysticism. But I’m less interested in whether the systems agree than in what I can actually feel in my own body.
Where is the experience happening?
I can notice activity, sensation and energy in different parts of the body. Then, when an emotion appears, I can connect the emotion with the sensation. Where do I feel it? Where does its energy seem to be coming from?
Even scratching my upper lip just now makes me smile. Maybe I’m nervous. Maybe I’m uncertain. Maybe I’m just making all this up. There’s an edge between what I’ve learned from other sources and what I can discover through my own experience.
That edge interests me.
Once I recognize the emotion and where its energy seems to be coming from, I can ask: Does this energy center need more energy, less energy, or rebalancing?
I think of a wheel.
If the wheel is out of balance, every rotation produces a bump. When it’s round and balanced, it rolls smoothly.
Maybe we’re like that. When our energy is out of balance, we feel the bumps. When it comes into balance, we move more easily. We go with the flow.
But first we have to know where the flow is and which direction it’s moving.
Maybe that’s where the expression comes from: ride the horse in the direction it’s going.
Don’t begin by trying to change the horse’s direction.
First feel the movement.
Find your balance within it.
Then ride.
