FEED THE BODY BY FEEDING THE SOUL

In Europe in the Middle Ages, or India still today there are people who follow the calling of the Spiritual life, who are supported by their community. Their focus on the Spiritual is considered a service to the community and those that lead worldly lives support this with contributions.

Like many who feel called to the healing or spiritual arts, I have at times felt a tension between wanting to do the work I feel called to, and making a living. In spite of what I have heard and "know" about following my bliss, there is this idea in the back of my mind that they are not something that I can hope to do together. There is a mythology of starving artists and rich business people who have lost their souls and in the mythology you have to choose.

Personally I find that there are times when things seem to flow, when I am surrendered and clients come and I am relaxed and happy (more or less). As long as the flow happens I'm OK. But when it slows or falters, or when I feel I have to pay attention to the financial side for other reasons, the part of me that does that, my inner accountant, seems to always operate from a place of fear and anxiety. He is always saying that if I have X number of clients then he will relax and we can have fun again. However, it is clear on several levels that trying to create and manifest from fear is counter-productive.

Earlier this year it came to me. I love what I do, that's not the problem, when I am working I'm happy, I'm in touch with myself and with others, I come alive. This is where the Love is. And I need clients to be in this place. So I can follow my bliss and call in my clients without engaging the analytic, fearful, financial piece, by focusing on the feeling of the work, the joy of it, the service of it.

If I have enough clients to have a satisfying practice, then I will be "taken care of", not magically, but as a side effect. So in this way I can let go of the part that is concerned with money, not as an act of pure faith, but knowing that by focusing on how I love my work, I will have clients and they will compensate me.

This may seem like a mental distinction, but it is subtly important for me, and perhaps for you. By returning to my heart and the joy of working with others I am in a place of Love, I am connecting to my Self and to Source, and can create from there. I can even do the promotional tasks I sometimes resist from the joy of finding the next partners in the healing dance. I can let go of the (for me) fearful side of counting clients and doing sums, knowing that it won't help me to be in the fear that inevitably comes with it.

You can work to have an abundance of work, not because you "need" work, but because you "love" your work. The tricky part is fully releasing the fear, not just in the mind, but in the heart, so that you are truly full of joy, not simply talking yourself out of fear. Then no shadow comes into the intention and you are really walking towards your passion, focusing so powerfully on the joy that there is no room for the fear, you are pulled into the work.

Finding the bliss, the joy, is finding yourself, is being connected to your soul. This is the place of creative power. Feeding your Soul will feed your body also, but it has to come first and be the focus of your attention. Live in joy to work from joy, let go of working from fear as then you will live in fear.

(© 4/10)

TACHIBA AND RELATIONSHIPS

Even though I don't have much occasion to the use the Japanese I learned when living in Japan, certain words will cycle up in my thoughts because they are particularly appropriate to express something I'm experiencing. Tachiba means literally a "standing place", with connotations of "perspective" and "point of view".

On my recent trip to Florida and back I was reminded of how the world is experienced differently, simply by standing on another part of it. As my yoga teacher used to say, on the manifest level its all relative, time, place, and person. Not only is Florida physically different from Colorado, plants, weather, wildlife, and being by the ocean rather than the mountains, but different people live there with different orientations and interests.

If I had gone back to Japan, or to Europe things would have changed even more. The who, what, where of my life changes just by standing in a different place, because it changes my relationships with places, people, and the planet.

Even before this trip I had been thinking about my internal tachiba, which is key to how I relate especially to other people. Where do we stand in our own being? Are we in our heart or our head? Are we focused on our body or our soul? What aspects of ourselves are we in relationship with, in identification with, or out of touch with?

Having a relationship with someone else is like building a bridge, it needs two ends, the foundations for the span that connects. The closer these foundations are to each other the easier it is to build the bridge. Our personal tachiba is like one of these foundations, it is the place where we stand, and the place we relate from. If you are wanting to relate to someone whose tachiba is their emotions, their second chakra, and your tachiba is your mind, your 6th chakra, then it may be a stretch. Not impossible but more of a stretch than with someone who has their tachiba in the same place as yours.

If you want to cultivate a relationship with someone whose external tachiba is different than yours, you might go on line, or to the bookstore and read about where they live. You might even go there, learn the language, live there for a while.

Similarly if their internal tachiba is in a different part of their being, you can explore that part of yourself, learning how to create a new internal tachiba for yourself, to be comfortable in your emotions, your mind, heart or soul. Or the shift may be one of deepening in the same aspect; deeper in the heart, or the soul. Until we can relate to that part of ourselves, and build a new internal tachiba, our end of the bridge of relationship is loose and shaky.

To relate effectively to someone on a certain level or in a certain aspect we have to explore it and know it for ourself. We have to have a level or aspect of relationship to self before we can stand there and relate to someone else in that way. Otherwise it is all mental illusion and a costume parade.

If I imagine that I'm going to Florida, but am still in Colorado, especially if I've never been there, very little will really have changed. If I go, but only for a few days, it is not the same as taking time and living there. If I go for several months or more, then everything begins to change.

When you do your human homework and learn to stand in those parts of yourself that have been unfamiliar, you change your tachiba and all your relationships to yourself and to others change as well. To find the heart and soul relationships we all want requires us to explore our own hearts and souls, to create new tachibas in those parts of ourself from which to form these relationships.

Enjoy your travels and the new or renewed relationships you create as you go.

(© 4/10)