Why do your words have such an impact? How is it that four letters arranged one way can have such a negative charge while four different ones can be so positive? What can you do to orient yourself towards higher consciousness by speaking with care?

You can make all sorts of inferences and assumptions about a person based on their appearance, how they carry themselves, even mundane details like whether they carry a backpack or a briefcase. But you never really have the whole picture until you hear what kind of words come out of their mouth.

If you’ve spent any time with little kids you know how they go through a phase during their toddler years when they discover the impact of certain words. There are few things more hilarious to a three-year-old than calling someone a “poopy head.” They soon discover that certain four-letter words are a sure-fire recipe for getting attention and being shut down by the grown-ups around them.

When you are getting acquainted with another adult, it’s a good practice to pay attention to the subtext and tone as much as the words themselves. “Listening between the lines” can be most illuminating. Cynicism, for instance, is the voice of disappointed idealism. Sarcasm can be a mask for insecurity.

How someone talks about other people when they are not around is a huge clue about how they will likely talk about you. It’s considered to be one of the secret sauces of advancement in an organization to always take care to speak kindly (or at least charitably) about colleagues if you have to talk behind their back. Sort of the opposite of gossip, if you will.

Like your mom used to say, (or somebody’s mom, somewhere), “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all!” Obviously this is good general advice, but it doesn’t preclude standing up for yourself, speaking truth to power or naming injustice. Sometimes a firm and final “No!” is just what the occasion calls for.

The four-letter-word I’m fascinated with today is ‘love’. Bandied about like some distant ideal, held aloft as an unattainable goal, or simply tossed around carelessly without much thought, this word, and the energy it represents is as misunderstood as it is misused. Like other commonly used or misused four-letter-words, there’s definitely an energetic charge to it.

I recently read a charming little anecdote written by a foreign language speaker in an English speaking country. This person was being asked by their new English-speaking friends for some clever ways to insult people in the foreign tongue.

Cleverly summoning their inner prankster, this person would oblige their requests for insults by providing different ways of saying “I love you.” The payoff was watching the supposed insults turned on their heads as the translation emerged.

My theory is that the word ‘love’ is multi-dimensional with many layers of meaning. Certainly, there is the romantic kind held up as the end goal and destination in literature, film, and personal lives since time began. Family members know it as the force that would have you jumping in front of a bus to save a child.

You apply it to all sorts of things you might have a strong affinity for, from your favorite chocolate to the satisfying way your most-used-tool makes your work turn out. Pets provide it abundantly and unconditionally, ready for us to bask in it when we reflect it back. It’s an ineffable essence of life that’s like quicksilver, slipping away when we grasp too hard yet appearing when we least expect it in the most non-linear of ways.

Beyond all of that, however, I like to think of love as an orientation, like the True North on your cosmic compass of consciousness. So unlike a ‘thing’ that you can have or not have or something that you can find or lose, you could think of it more as a direction that’s always there to turn to.

Whether or not you agree with the methods and science behind the theories of David Hawkins as put forth in his book Power vs Force, his hierarchy of energetic vibrations when it comes to human emotions and behaviors is a useful metaphor. Briefly put, his ‘map of consciousness’ places a numerical value on states of mind.

At the very bottom, the most contracted states where the worst suffering occurs, are feelings of shame and guilt, rising up through grief, fear, anger, and pride. Rising higher you pass through courage, willingness, acceptance, and reason on the way to the turning point in the scale which is love.

At love or above, you break through to joy, peace, and enlightenment, the more expanded, and arguably desirable, states of consciousness. There’s an inherent logic to this perspective, and as I see it, a practicable method of orienting yourself in life.

Whenever you find yourself mired in one of the contracting states such as fear, anger, or guilt, simply knowing that an escalator of more expanded energies is open to you is very helpful. Loving-kindness is your compass to keep handy as it will reliably point you towards higher consciousness.

Some people say that love is, in fact, the force of nature that keeps the electrons in orbit around the nucleus of an atom. That it is the essence of gravity itself. By this reasoning then, whenever life has you lost or disconnected at a low vibration, orient yourself towards the solid ground of love and dance your way home!

Metaphorically yours till next Monday!

M+

Mark Metz
Director of the Dance First Association
Publisher of Conscious Dancer Magazine

This week’s Dance First Member Spotlight shines on Amara Pagano and Pier Paolo de Angelis, the dynamic duo behind OneDanceTribe ! Amara is a leader in the world of conscious movement focused on forging a path for its continued evolution. She is the creator of Azul, a path of personal transformation utilizing movement to awaken love. Azul combines Amara’s personal expertise in embodiment and movement into a healing art. Her partner, Pier Paolo, is a dynamic force on and off the dance floor and is a leader in the OneDanceTribe movement.

Azul Conscious Movement supports the awakening of consciousness and recognizes that, as we transform ourselves we create the conditions for our world to transform. The process harnesses the body’s intelligence to facilitate inner healing and evolution, utilizing movement and a psycho-spiritual approach as a vehicle for exploration. Azul supports personal growth and evolution by providing a map that guides us through the various stages of growth and delivers us to experience life in its fullest expression.

Amara and Pier Paolo are the driving force behind OneDanceTribe, a global community of people practicing conscious movement as a pathway to awakening love. OneDanceTribe gathers school founders, senior teachers, spiritual leaders, world-class healers, artists and dancers to share the experience of meeting as one global tribe.

“OneDanceTribe is getting more and more an open field to bring the consciousness into the world. For me, it is a family that grows.” Moya Schlummer (Germany)

On March 6th-11th (yes, it’s coming right up!), you can experience the connectivity of OneDanceTribe at the Garrison Institute in New York . Join with master teachers from a variety of disciplines, including 5Rhythms, Open Floor, Hawaiian Spirituality and Spirit of Aloha, and others to develop your own experiential path of self-exploration! If you’re looking for an extended self-awakening, the full event runs until March 11th. You can register for the weekend event (or the full workshop) here . For our European readers, OneDanceTribe will be hosting another Conscious Dance event in Kisslegg, Germany on June 11th to 17th. Registration is open now!

Azul is also hosting multiple events across Europe and America. Workshops and residencies are currently scheduled to take place in Rome (Italy), Assisi (Italy), Philadelphia (USA), and Kisslegg (Germany). Each event focuses on a different topic of self-enlightenment and spiritual awakening. A full calendar of events and locations can be found here.

As Amara says, “We do this work until all that is left is love.” You can read more about Amara, Pier Paolo, and Azul here.

OneDanceTribe – New York
March 6-11, Garrison Institute, New York