Anyhow, so I'm right now chilling at this awesome retreat spot, in gorgeous Kabak Vadi, see the picture here, (not bragging, just sharing the joy...like they say: "Joy is contagious, so pass it on!")
And I was listening to my favorite yoga teacher of all times Elif Iscan, and her wonderful talk about the Chakras. And then of course it hit me...from the crown to the root, this is the journey that information needs to make in order to really settle in our body.
Sometimes students ask me how one story may have a strong impact when told by one person, and not be that hot when told by someone else.
It's about the integration of the knowledge. It's one thing to know a story, a string of event, an idea, it's another to transmit it.
In order to be ready to transmit an information we first have to let it sit in us, journey inside us, until we have fully integrated it, until we have become that story, and then again, to get ready to tell it, we have to let it travel again, through our selves.
How does it connect with the chakras, and how can we do it?
Hold on, I'm getting there.
The journey between getting an information and being this information goes from the crown to the root, and then from the root to the crown again if we wish to transmit this information. And of course the process of letting a story travel through us in this way helps us grow and deepen.
If you don't know what chakras are, don't be scared, here is a quick update:
In yogic belief the energetic body has 7 chakras, or wheels, which are energy centers. Each of the chakra is connected to a color, a purpose or role and an archetype.
7 Crown Chakra---Role: To know -----Archetype: The wise one
6 Brow Chakra-----Role: To see -------Archetype: The seer
5 Throat Chakra----Role: to express --Archetype: The artist
4 Heart Chakra-----Role: to Love -----Archetype: The healer
3 Solar Chakra------Role: To act------ Archetype: the hero
2 Spleen Chakra----Role: To feel -----Archetype: the lover
1 Root Chakra------Role: To live -----Archetype: Mother earth.
(there is really a lot more that could be said about this, but that's all you need to know to follow how I connect this teaching to storytelling, then you can hit the books on chakras if you wish)
First we hear a piece of information, we connect to the universal knowledge, to the infinite pool of wisdom that's out there, we connect from the crown, the 7th chakra. In terms of archetype we then become 'the wise' one (I know it's weird to start with being wise...but hold on). The one who knows. Great! Next? We've got to let it in, to filter it through our entire self, until it comes to sit in our bones.
The next step? To see it. To visualize it.
It's also the first step in the work of the storyteller: you hear a story, you have to visualize it, not just hear the story but also see the characters. Once you've done this, you've hit chakra 6, you are the seer.
But to tell a story from this level makes you sound a bit like a medieval square fortuneteller: "I see, I see a king, a king seeking a treasure..." it's better than simply relating "the facts and just the facts"...but it's still very much in the head. Next?
Throat chakra, to express this vision with beautiful words, this is the level where this visualized information is dressed in the luxurious silks of metaphors and rhyme. It helps, people start saying that you are an artist, you've reached the 5th chakra...the trap is to stop here....don't stop go deeper.
If you want your story to do more than entertain and please the ears. If you want your stories to heal...you've got to let it into your heart. Yep! the Beatles said it: "Hey Jude, remember to let it into your heart, then you can start to make it better." I'm a flower child, if you ask me, then Beatles have said it all...
The heart chakra, love your story, see its healing potential, recognize it as the symbolic inner journey that it is. Ask yourself: why it need to be told, why you should integrate this information, how it would change you, why it's precious.
Next? If you know that knowledge has healing potential, and you truly hear it, then you should act accordingly. This is the solar plexus level. To truly listen = to act. Up to now it was all in the head in words, in theory. This is the level of your digestive system, it's time to digest this information, and to use its energy to create change in your life.
Only then can you truly feel it in your bones, it has now become a part of you. You own its homeopathic vibration. Welcome to level 2, the spleen chakra. You are the lover. Now when you tell this story, you are feeling it with your core, with your whole self. It literally turns you on. It is your inner light.
The final step? The root. This will come with time, if you let the information into your self, and keep it there, feeling it, alive in you. Then it will write itself on your bones. It will be part of you. Once you have reached this level, you are no longer holding this knowledge in your mind, you are embodying it. You have become the ultimate teacher: mother earth. Now people can actually gain this knowledge simply by spending time in your company.
As I walk in the valley this week, every tree whispers a story, and the sea tells of all the shores it has licked, all the adventurers is has carried, all the bottled messages it has transmitted. Nature transmits us information from the infinite pool of wisdom every time we stroke a bark or watch migrating birds. It is the wish of all storytellers to speak from the bones, not from the head, it's where the magic happens, when your words echo the distant sound of the wind playing the olive tree.
So before you start telling, teaching, transmitting a piece of information, ask yourself, have I let it travel to my core, have I let it seep in my bones?
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