CHAPTER 1

Centers, Textures, and Lenses

The Dimensions of Living Vividly

We are a small group of women sitting together in a sacred circle.We've gathered items that represent the four elements: earth, water,air, and fire, for a central altar that holds the space of the sacredcenter of our circle, the place where all our respective stories becomeone. We've joined together for the weekend, to share and explore oursoulful, woman-ful connection to life and deepen the meaning of ourexistence.

Many of the women who sit in this circle, are here for the very firsttime. They feel nervous, hesitant; some even feel scared or terrified."Why did I come here" you can almost hear their thoughts in thesilence. "There are so many other things I could be doing this weekend.What's the point of a woman's circle anyway?"

Their nervousness is practically palpable. Many of these women havedone lots of risky things in their life. They've traveled, raised families,held powerful positions in business and policy making organizations,and sought ways to grow and expand, so it's not as if they're strangersto living outside the box. But sitting in a sacred circle with a bunch ofwomen, most of them strangers, is still foreign and threatening. Maybeit's because of the many years we've mistrusted other women, maybeit's because intimacy and vulnerability are scary, maybe it's becausethey can sense something big is about to shift in them. Whatever thereasons for their fears and concerns, they are clearly ready to movebeyond them, because they are here.

Firsthand experience is the best way to learn. It gets woven into yourcellular being and takes you through the resistance and fabricatedexcuses of the mind. Weekends like these are designed primarily to getbeneath the rational mind's understanding into the depth and mysterythat lies behind and beyond the stories we weave as interpretations.

In order to make sense of the why and place the wisdom and insightsin context so that they can be more effectively applied to your life, amethodology works wonders. For a group who are landing in strangeterritory like a sacred woman's circle for the first time, a travel guidethat describes and charts out the journey can be invaluable in helpingus to navigate the process that lies ahead.

The Vividly Woman System of Somatic Awakening, the nuts and boltsof the Vividly Woman Embodied Leader Training, has three maindimensions. These three dimensions: centers, textures, and lenses, arethe tools that we use to orient ourselves, to resource our own deeperwisdom, and to organize our inquiries and investment of life energy.Each of these dimensions stands on its own and simultaneouslyinterweaves with the others creating what we call on a schematic level,the Vividly Woman Solar System (VWSS). The diagram on the nextpage maps it out visually for you.

This system is a way of making it easier for you to explore thewilderness of your soul-body, so that you can learn from its wildmysteries. The VWSS supports you to embrace your body as a canvasfor creative change, so that how you are in your body can help yougrow and change in ways that will bring you greater peace andfulfillment in all aspects of your life.

Power Centers

At the heart of the Vividly Woman Solar System are the three femininepower centers. They sit at the center of the system, like the sun sits atthe center of our earth's solar system, a fiery hot globe around whichthe planets (Vividly Woman textures) constellate.

We sometimes refer to the three feminine power centers as the threeinner fountains of feminine wisdom. This alternative name is less staticand captures the sensual abundance that's an important aspect of them.The centers or fountains are the Sensual, Emotional, and Intuitive.They correspond to the pelvis, the chest, and head respectively. Thismeans that each center's wisdom is primarily embodied in that areaof the body, but is not limited to just that area. That's why the linesbetween the respective centers in the diagram of the Vividly WomanSolar System are broken instead of solid, so that the wisdom andenergy can flow between them.

Our body is an interactive, integrated whole made up of manyparts and systems that function because of their interrelatedness.It's important to remember that each center's wisdom is primarilyembodied in that area of the body, but not exclusively. For instance,Emotional Power is mainly accessed and stored in the area of the heartwhich sits in the chest, however, emotional energy certainly also residesat the level of the throat, where expression is resourced, or can beprofoundly connected to our sexuality, at the level of the pelvis, whereSensual Power and wisdom are prominent. While it can be helpfulto know where in your body you can directly access your EmotionalPower, it's equally as important to know that emotions surf throughyour tissues and can and do affect your entire body. Sensual alivenessand intuitive knowing work the very same way, especially for women,whose bodies are a universe of erogenous potential.

For the sake of learning we focus at first on how, for instance, SensualPower lives in and is resourced in the pelvic area, but once we'refamiliar with the sensations and textures of Sensual Power within us,we can begin to appreciate and enjoy how Sensual Power dances inevery cell and fiber in our beautiful body and will move and changefrom day to day, from moment to moment, dependent on many otherfactors including emotion, environment, and interpersonal dynamics—notto mention physiology.

Power

Let's explore the concept of power for a moment. What is power? Isit possible that some people have more power than others do? I'veoften heard someone say "So and so is a very powerful woman orman." I personally don't believe that anyone has any more power thananyone else. I believe that we all have the same access to power. It'swhat we prioritize as power and how we harness power that makesthe difference. In addition, each of us is more or less comfortablewith our own power. Being in our power may be a threat to the lifewe've created, the relationships we've committed to and built our livesaround, personally and professionally.

When you feel like you don't have the power that you think youneed, it may just be that you're not at home with your power, and thatyou don't know where to resource it from within yourself. "I knowI'm powerful, but I'm afraid to access my own power," Carla, one ofthe Sisters in the VW community, wrote to me a few months beforeattending the week-long Vividly Woman Mexico retreat called SacredSensual Splendor.

I think hers is a sentiment that many women feel, but often aren'tconscious of. Instead, we think we lack power and the right to it. Theimportance of the distinction between not having power, and just notbeing comfortable with it, is that we discover that the judgments andbeliefs of not being enough, that so many women carry, are debunkedand laid to rest. It's not that we don't have enough power, it's that wearen't at home with what we do have. As far as I'm concerned it's a farless daunting, and a far more feminine task to acquire the comfortthan it is to believe that we need to amp up the voltage!

"This last two and a half months [since attending Dance Your Power]have been incredible, as I have certainly been walking in a differentkind of power. One that, once given permission came so naturally tome," another VW Sister, Saria, shared.

Getting well acquainted with the feminine centers of power withinyou, claiming their own unique expression through your body andyour life, will give you authentic access to your own inner power livingright inside of you. You'll discover that looking within yourself forwisdom, instead of outside of you, is the quickest and most effectivepath to power.

Unfortunately, most of us have grown up believing that the powercenters presented here are actually our weaknesses instead of ourstrengths. "Don't be too sexual, don't be so emotional, don't say whatyou really think, and always look for proof outside instead of frominside yourself." These are the kinds of things that have become soingrained in us that we hardly notice them anymore. We operate at themercy of these often-covert beliefs and values, and they unconsciouslyrun our lives, depriving us of our well-being and ultimately of ourinherent aliveness and potential.

The centers are places of energy abundance in the body that alsocorrespond to the three feminine chakras (yogic energy centers). Theorgans that live in each area correspond to the characteristics of thatcenter and clearly contribute to the energetic there. E.g. the ovaries andgenitals live in the area where our Sensual Power resides, the secondchakra. These organs play a starring role in our potential for sexual andsensual pleasure, which is one component of our sensual life expression,our Sensual Power.

For the purposes of embodiment, we access personal informationthrough felt Sense awareness in each of these centers. An example ofthis is listening inwardly for sensations in the heart area to learn howwe authentically feel about something. We also effect change in our lifepertaining to each of these issues, sensual, emotional, and intuitive, bymobilizing and exploring with each of these body areas. E.g. movingour head and neck to unlock Intuitive Power.

Over the next three chapters we'll explore each of the centers closely,one per chapter. You'll come to intimately know the hows and whys ofyour Sensual Power, your Emotional Power, and your Intuitive Power,which will inspire further personal inquiry, which is the highest idealof this book. As I mentioned in the introduction, the ideas and insightsI've set out here for you to explore are not the final word on the topicof embodiment, more accurately, this is a place to inspire greater thirstfor self-inquiry.

Textures

The textures are landmarks in the Vividly Woman System ofEmbodiment, planets that constellate around or relate to the powercenters. They guide us to understand and embody the dance of energyin our life. This energetic pattern is always at play, though most oftenunconsciously. Becoming aware of how the textures play out in yourlife will give you mastery over them so that you begin to recognizeyour habits and can then make conscious choices in your own bestinterest. The textures are: Sense, Ground, Mobilize, Harness, andExpress. And while I list them here in a linear way, they actually existin a circular continuum that is always renewing itself.

They're called textures because they each have a characteristic feltSense quality within us, which is unique. Your felt Sense quality ofGround will be different than mine and what is essential is that youbecome acquainted with it in your own body. One of the VividlyWoman trainings, Embody Self Love Intensive, gives you a profoundexperience of this. Through psycho-spiritual practices such as dyads,trance dance, and eco-therapy, we excavate our long-buried respectivetruths, pertaining to each of the textures, thereby reclaiming theirauthentic essence in our lives.

When you read the chapters on each of the textures you'll likely see someof yourself in each of them, however you'll most likely see yourself morein one at a certain time in your life. This is very handy information. It willhelp you to look at the patterns and habits in your life and understandmore of what makes you tick and why your life is the way it is. If you wantto see your life change, just look at the textures to see where you need to gonext in order to graduate forward in the continuum.

For instance, about two years ago I identified myself as a Mobilize kindof person. I would have many balls in the air at once, busy with makinglots of projects happen and always taking on new ones without thinkingthings through before I started or committed myself. It was exciting andcreative and kept me engaged. Eventually, I started to feel overwhelmed,and began resenting how much of my time was being consumed, andhow the results of my efforts weren't meeting my expectations. Withthis awareness, I understood that Mobilize energy is great to have, butunless I also engage the energy of Ground, I would keep spinning mywheels and never achieve the blessings of self-replenishing energy thatis the essence of Harness, the next texture after Mobilize. Now, twoyears later, I'm much more picky about how I devote my time. I say noa lot more and my actions are self-sustaining instead of exhausting. I'vegraduated from Mobilize to Harness, but both textures, like all five, areimportant and of great value in our lives.

In Chapters 5-9 you'll taste each of the textures one by one to geta delicious awareness of each of their gifts, wisdom, and life givinginspiration.

Lenses

The lenses that we use in the Vividly Woman Solar System are theSomatic, Spiritual, and Creative. A lens, as you know, is a device thatwe look through in order to see more accurately. The quality and typeof lens we use will, of course, affect how and what we see, giving accessto perspectives and nuances specific to the quality of that lens.

We use each of the three lenses mentioned above to shift ourperspective in order to see differently so that we can gain awarenessand insight previously unavailable to us. Instead of continuing to lookat things the way we always have, we gain a new twist on an old issue,which opens doors and aids evolution of consciousness.

Here's an example: Terry was feeling stuck with regard to her newcompany. Just having launched a business in health care, she washesitant to make the cold calls she knew were necessary to kick startthe business. Using the Somatic Lens, we asked her body what it hadto say about this fear and hesitation. When she went inside to get theanswer, she sensed a quivering in her belly, a little girl part of her thatexperienced terror and dread. "I thought I had healed this woundedlittle girl!" she lamented. "After years of time and money, I thoughtI'd peeled all the layers away around the abuses in my childhood."The Somatic Lens helped us identify the part of her that was holdingher back, and also the judgment, resentment, and rejection she wasinflicting on this innocent, fragile part of her. As she reclaimed andembraced this little girl, she became aware that it is precisely this partof her that can help her make authentic, genuine, trusting connectionswith potential clients in her health care business.

In Chapters 11, 12, and 13, you'll read about how each of the lensesoffers a unique portal into any issue about which you might have losthope after weeks, months, or years of banging your head against a wall.Not only did your spirit (and your head) feel worn and withered, butthe issue did not get resolved. You just continued the inner struggle.The lenses are a blessing that can support you to expand possibility,deepen wisdom, and, most of all, relieve suffering. Who doesn't wantmore of that?

Using three simple questions, a whole world will open itself to you andinstead of frustration you'll be feeling empowered and renewed:

Somatic Lens—What does my body have to say about this?

Creative Lens—What is the creative opportunity for me here?

Spiritual Lens—How am I being used by spirit?

In the lens chapters we'll explore the value of each of these lenses andhow the lens questions can be a portal on the road from victimhood toembodied power.

Embodiment vs. Understanding

Embodiment means the ability to resource your body's wisdom fortruth. While your head is capable of great interpretive skills andstory weaving commentary, your body is only able to deliver truthfulinformation about what's happening now.

Looking to the body for its wisdom on whatever is going on will alwaysgive you pure, accurate, and uncluttered truth. Where embodimentrelies on integration and assimilation, understanding remains purelyconceptual or theoretical.