Comfort Zone

God is...

Early Saturday I attended a “Nature of Energy” workshop focused on intentionally creating an energy boundary around myself for good self-care--for protection from harmful energy coming from others.  It made a lot of sense.  For supper that night I had Chinese takeout and my fortune cookie said, “Comfort zones are most often expanded through discomfort.”  Sounds like paradox where truth reigns! 

At the workshop I learned a little bit of how much I don’t know about human energy work.  I’m familiar with both Myers-Briggs and the Enneagram where the goal is balance through self-knowledge.  This human energy work also promotes knowing who we each are through different defining elements of Air, Fire, Water, Earth and Nature.  Our human nature can contain parts of each element, but one element will be dominant.  Within that dominant element are both positive and negative aspects of ourselves challenging us to become more balanced. 

I found the idea of intentionally creating an energy boundary around myself comforting.  The idea that I can deflect another’s negative energy, or I can do ritual self-cleansing after being exposed to another’s negativity, felt empowering.  And probably the most important thing I learned, and no doubt will be the hardest to remember, is that I can never assume anything I say or do will be received as intended.  Plus, offering care or advice to another must always be done with the other’s permission.

I took a walk in the wood next to the river before the sun set on that Saturday.  There I became aware of the energy boundary I had surrounded myself with earlier in the day.  I intentionally removed it.  I just wanted to be one with the ground beneath my feet, the trees, air, sky, sun, wind and flowing water.  The following morning I again surrounded myself with my personal protective boundary.  Maybe it will help remind me to first ask permission to speak and do for another. 

What if the goal of all this inter-personal balancing work is leading us to a Rumi Guest House where together we will eventually balance each other within?

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary

awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably.  He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.