April 2012

Resilience and Personal Coherence

Dear Friends,

Over the years I have developed a vocabulary of words and phrases that stay in the forefront of my brain to explain the world to me and help to position myself within it. When I consider where these notions have come from, I see my experiences, the conversations I have had and the reading I have done as a grey mass with illuminated spots of light within it. Every so often, a phrase or notion is, as if highlighted for me, to take notice of. It is either something that explains my experiences to me, that I resonate with, or it is something I would like to learn or become more proficient at.

I think, for example, how "What you give energy to, you strengthen" is said to be a universal law. When ever I have involuntary repetitive thoughts of any sort, I consider whether they are about something I want to strengthen or not.

Another phrase I employ frequently, especially if I am apprehensive about a situation that I am unsure of what I am going into, is "a golden pool of light above and a golden pool of light below with intention set for the highest good of all". Invariably, this distracts me from my insecurities and focuses me on the reason I am engaging with the situation.

This phrase came from a book describing energy anatomy. The golden pools are the individuation points where my personal energy fields interface with the universal fields. It is through these pools that I draw energy from the universal fields for my use. It is more over in these pools that my own energy gets recycled, so to speak.

Energy cannot be destroyed. So, if I have been worrying or being anxious or fearful, or something has upset me or over-excited me, I can send this unwanted energy into these pools using my creative imagination, breath and intention. Some of it may get released into the universal fields but the greater part of it gets processed and recycled, coming back to me as a realization or incentive to take some sort of action or make some changes in my thinking or lifestyle.

It is my experience, that the final resolution of a challenging situation in my life, after all has been forgiven of self and others and circumstances beyond present moment influence, is a conscious claiming of a gift. Various times, I have known and felt that all is resolved for the highest good, yet details about the situation keep spinning about in my brain like a hamster wheel. It is not until I acknowledge the gift of some skill or understanding or blessing that the experience brings to my continuing life, that I am free of these thoughts.

I have become comfortable with the vocabulary I use to tell my own unique personal story and it has been a while since any new words have winked out at me, asking me to take notice.

This month, reading the Lorian Association newsletter, I was delightfully intrigued by two new words: resilience and personal coherence. The newsletter explained resilience as the ability to recover personal coherence quickly in the midst of change and pressure.

I think about how, when a situation turns out very differently from what I had envisioned and anticipated, or when something happens outside my comfort zone, I feel discombobulated, thrown out of balance, at a loss of how to respond. It takes me a while to digest and assimilate the unexpected. In fact, I have noticed that I have a bit of a tendency to drag my feet about coming around to co-operating with some sorts of new information, particularly when they challenge some of my long held favorite notions or seem to contradict previous shifts in perception thus necessitating expansions of consciousness in order to accommodate them.

Resiliency, then, is a quality that I would do well to cultivate. I rather like the sound and feeling of the word itself. It brings to mind a plant rebounding after a severe clipping, putting out new growth.

The term "personal coherence" is completely new to me, I have never encountered it before.

What it means to me is a combination of my sense of self or central perspective state and the story I tell myself about my life when I am in a state of being where I feel/perceive that I am on track with my life's purpose, in my power, as it were, as a perfect piece of individual divinity at the right time and place in my life.

Personal coherence seems like a much simpler, mose sensible and down to earth kind of a way to express that. Coherence means natural and logical connection, congruity and consistency. It dignifies an otherwise airy bubble sort of a way of describing things.

To simplify and clarify has been a priority for me these last few years.

How fortuitous to discover some new words to add to the vocabulary of my personal coherence.

May the equinox change of the seasons stimulate your resilience,

may you stay firmly balanced in your personal coherence!

Blessings,

Rita