Sensing the Present

The holidays are all around us. Can you smell that crispness in the air, descending with the smell of falling leaves and dropping temperatures? Can you hear the birds calling a bien tot as they leave for warmer places? Do you see the sun, further in the moon, further in her sky than she was only a few months ago. Time is moving forward, as it always does, and it cradles us as we sense our way through our lives – or not.

Taking the time to SENSE what goes on around us is a discipline that brings texture to an otherwise flat canvas. It paints colors in our vision, it invites a symphony to our tastebuds, it plays laughter in our ears, and it sensually dances along the curve of our back and the inside of our arms. Sensing life ignites a new love affair with EVERYTHING. We naturally stop rushing through our days and become aware of the beautiful gift of humanity and nature.

This holiday season, take the time to LOVE the crowds, to enjoy every cent you spend and gift you buy, to leave worry on the side of the road somewhere and to Sense the love of Mother Earth cradling you and Father Time gently guiding you forward. This is a new season and a new year approaches. Fill them both with a sense of self that is unlike anything you’ve ever explored before. Choose time with those you love and gently leave obligation as a thing of your past. Choose to move beautifully, sensually through everything – the wonderful and the difficult. Be PRESENT.

With Love, Leela Francis
CEO of Vividly Woman and VividExistence
http://www.vividlywoman.com
http://www.vividexistence.com

About Leela: Leela Francis offers courses, events and products that support a vivid way of being in the world. She is a sought-after keynote speaker for women’s seminars and gatherings, an instructor in Nia, Yoga, Vividance, & Trance Dance; she is the founder of Vividly Woman and VividExistence and the creator of the Flirting with Nature Process ©

Why Circle?

One of my teachers, Jean Bolen writes "a circle is non-heirchical - this is what equality is like. This is how a culture behaves when it listens and learns from everyone in it." and "a circle is a place to practice honest and caring communication, until this is what you do and expect from others in your life."

I used to think that I created women circles in service to make a difference in the world. I used to think that circles were a fascinating way to draw wisdom down and through us for collective transformation. While both these are true, I now know that circles are a way for me to dance in peace with who and how I am in the divine company of my sisters. It is here, in circle after circle, from coast to coast, that I keep finding the blessing and beauty of who I am through the eyes of my sisters. It is here that I am enchanted and wooed over and over to discover the ancient magic that gives my life meaning.

Laura Day says "the circle is an energetic state of being that allows us to connect with ourselves, with one another and with the transformative powers of the universe. In the circle, what you perceive, what you conceive, and what you create are one- and you are at one with the infinite energy and possibility of creation, the place where everything you are connects as one energy with everything around you."

Sacred Circles are about coming together as beings, in sacred space, where we each bring the truth of our own stories, our unique flavor of chaos and passion, and together in circle we find the one still center, the place where our many stories become just the one story, the center where the chaos and uncertainty of our lives can find an experience of home. This is a place where instead of needing or having to stand out as different to prosper, we actually find that our sameness is a relief and a place where we can rest.

Often at the center of a sacred circle we place an altar, a tangible testimony to the one, a container that holds space for all our dreams and the divine mystery, the bottomless reservoir that sits in stillness as it carries all of creation.

In a circle with a sacred center, all truths are welcome. There is no right or wrong or have to. There is only the honoring that everything, regardless of how foreign or unfamiliar it may seem, is of the one true essence, the spirit, source, or energy that flows through all life and weaves on and on and on.

"Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth that around every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning, and under every deep a lower deep opens." wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson.

A friend of mine recently said to me, "Leela you are changing so many people's lives" and while I humbly hope that to be true, what I know now more than ever is that it is my own life that I am changing. And I know too that it is within a sisterhood of women as fiercely and vividly devoted to the oneness at the center of the sacred circle, where every end is a new beginning and under every deep a lower deep opens, that I come home, over and over to a place where my truest peace and wholeness dance. And that is why I circle!

Leela Francis
info@vividexistence.com

Creativity

I love this Ask Leela thing!

So much wisdom coming through inspired by a virtual dialogue, vulnerable inquiry and reaching out for connection. This is the rhythm of the divine feminine. Through conscious and honest expression, and resourcing of our own and each other's wisdom, we create a stir in the universe that inspires truth to dance forth. Tapping into that well spring of truth is how the paradigm shift is taking place, and we ladies are both birthing and dancing to that rhythmic awakening! Pictured here is my dear friend Kara's creative expression as a mother. She's taken one of her son's first pair of shoes and used them as planters!

Thank you for the great questions once again. Creativity is indeed a loaded issue and based on the abundant questions I received, it seems that so many of us are literally starving for it. Join me below for a powerful infusion of the creative life force that is our birthright.

Creative love,

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In this issue

"My creativity doesn't exist"

What is one thing I can start doing to explore my non-existent creative side? The one thing you can start doing is stop calling your creative side non-existent. How rude of you! How would you like it if you were treated as if you didn't exist? You would likely choose not to hang out in those environments. Your creative side, which is less a side and more a texture of your being, is alive and well, she just needs some loving care, rather than name calling and judgement. Read on!

Creativity is not something reserved for those artsy types. It is an attitude towards life. Anything is a creative experience if you approach it with curiosity, imagination and possibility. Start bringing that to the little every day tasks and you'll notice your aliveness amplified. i.e. take a different route to work, wear colors that typically aren't you, strike up a conversation with a stranger. Live outside of the box you've come to know as your life and watch the creative juices flow.

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Shakti-the Creative life force

How is creativity related (or connected) to spirituality and sensuality? Shakti is the creative life force energy of the universe, the divine feminine that gives birth to all of life. Shakti is the abundant well spring that empowers and ignites all 3, our creativity, our sensuality and our spirituality, because they are each vital for that abundant well spring to flow. These 3 inform, inspire and invoke each other. So if you are missing one, look to the other 2 to spark the flame.

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Time for Creativity as a Wife & Mother

How can I find the time required to satisfy my creativity and still meet my responsibilities as a wife and mother? Make being a wife and a mother a creative adventure. Creativity isn't just about artistic endeavor. It's about bringing fresh insight and innovative approaches to your life. If you spend your life waiting to have time to be creative, you'll wake up one day and feel you missed the boat. If on the other hand you make each experience an excuse for creative play, you will awaken the eternal child that loves to discover. Emily Conrad, one of my teachers and the founder of Continuum Movement, claims that finding new ways of doing things is what keeps the body and the organism young. This is a great definition of creative aliveness.

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Humor and Creativity

What is the relationship between humor and creativity? I love this question. I really don't know the answer for sure but I imagine that finding the humor in a situation requires a creative/original perspective.

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Developing Creativity

How do you develop creativity? I have never thought of myself as creative and feel I lack imagination when it comes to decorating and would love to try my hand at oil painting. I think what stops most people from trying new things, new crafts or expressive hobbies is not that they lack imagination but rather that they feel there is a right way to do something and that they will be judged. The most liberating experience I ever had in a drawing class when I was in art school was when the teacher put us all in a circle with a blank paper in front of each of us. In the middle she dropped a big pile of tools and wires and odd shaped instruments into a heap of abstract mess. We had 5 minutes to render a still life drawing using ink or charcoal or whatever medium we each had. After 5 minutes she had us each stand and walk to the drawing on our right to contribute to that drawing for 5 minutes, and on and on until we went all the way around the circle and had added to each of the drawing boards. Our non attachment and non identification with each piece was incredibly liberating, allowing us to take creative risks.

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Creativity and Business

How can I access my feminine creative flow when I am needing to be business like to accomplish the task in hand?? This is exactly what we as women are now on the path to discovering. I am learning as much about this as you through my own life's dance, and it is precisely each of our committment and humility about this dance that is helping to bring about the paradigm shift. Here a few things that I've found help to cultivate more of what will infuse the feminine into our stress ridden, performance driven world.

1. Ask your heart what it loves about the task at hand. Just bringing that into consciousness will extend a heart vibration that is powerfully healing/feminine/creative flow. The Heart Math Institute teaches this as a way to expand heart resonance/vibration of the feminine and reduce stress vibration/vibration of the masculine.

2. Change your own associations. You've created a dissonance between creative feminine flow and what is business-like. What is begging for change is our attitudes towards business and the standards that have been in place that limit the expression of the feminine in business-like environments. Learn more about your emotional quotient to be able to harness the power of your emotional passion and aliveness rather than have to squelch it in order not to rock the boat. At the Vividly Woman Leaders Circle event we connect to our emotional intelligence to be empowered by the depth of our emotions rather than believing them to be a hindrance.

3. The power to think laterally/creatively is a benefit rather than a limitation. The linear approach of the masculine can be near sited and detrimental to innovative advancement in any arena. Remember the asset of an expansive, lateral perspective that your creative feminine inspires and you will tap into her gifts.

Leela Francis
info@vividexistence.com

Dear Sensual Heart Sister!

Now that we have danced together, we are truly sisters. We've gathered and danced and changed the world through a rising vibration of celebration. We've risked freedom of expression of the very temple that houses each of our souls, the vessel that is ours in this life time to care for , to live in, to learn how to be one with ourselves so that we can dance oneness with all of creation.

Thank you for showing up to dance your voice and be heard in the hearts of our sisters globally.
Remember, your dance matters!

So much appreciation to Maggie Reigh for the beauty of her vision to make this event a brilliant success. Through her efforts and dedication we are donating $650 to the Women genocide survivors of sexual violence in Darfur, and 35 sisters in BC are dancing more vitally and abundantly in our bodies today.

A universe of gratitude and blessings from my radiantly sensual heart to yours,

Leela Francis

Exploring the Vast and Infinite Landscape that is Women's Sensuality

With a topic like Sensuality, so subjective in nature, as I resource the depths of my own experience, I find a tenderness that is both vivid and vulnerable. I see that my own sensuality is a facet of my being that at times I celebrate, and at times I am challenged to keep alive. It is this very dance, a function of the highly masculine world we live in, that is at the heart of the Vividly Woman mission to re-awaken the essence of the divine feminine from within each one of us.

There are reasons ingrained and hardwired why so many of us have forsaken our sensuality. The re-sensualizing revolution that Vividly Woman is all about is as much about re-awakening our sacred sensuality, as it is about caring for the wounds and grieved losses of that same forsaken sensuality.

So in gentleness and humility, with the intention to self-nurture rather than self-blame, let's explore the vast and infinite landscape that is women's sensuality.

What exactly do you mean when you say Sensuality? What does it encompass? How should it leave me feeling to know what Sensuality is?

We are sensual creatures by nature, meaning that we are always relating to the world through our senses. However our conscious awareness and enjoyment of this is what varies from person to person. And our conscious awareness of this is what largely determines how much we prioritize it and, therefore, how balanced a life we are leading. The balance I speak of is body vs. mind -- or sensuality vs. rationality.

Our senses are of the body. When we consciously choose to pay attention to our senses, we are using our sensing awareness to guide and inspire us vs. our rational awareness. Since senses are of the body, practicing sense awareness is a body centered way of living. You will know what sensuality feels like for you when you have a mmmmmmm experience as opposed to an aha insight.

Neither is better than the other, however because we live in a very intellectually dominated culture, many of us spend the majority of our time at a computer and/or relating with each other about thoughts, fact and figures, so our sensuality tends to atrophy. For women this is a recipe for disaster. The feminine requires sensuality, attention and enjoyment of her body in order to thrive.

So notice your mmmmm's vs your aha's to know more of how your sensuality leaves you feeling. For instance, tickle your cheek with a feather to experience your sensuality, mmmmm, now ponder what kind of bird that feather came from for an experience of you rationality, aha.

To your fully lived, amazing life!

Leela Francis
info@vividexistence.com

Finding Home Within

Want to get out of your head and into your body? Are you burning out from work, family, other's expectations and the feelings of never being good enough, thin enough, rich enough, successful enough?

If so it's a really good time to stop thinking and start sensing by tuning into the truth of your soul and the wisdom of your body. Here is a really easy practice to support you getting in touch with your body wisdom to develop a habit of referring inward to the home within you. This is where we find the truth. Chronically referring outside of ourselves for the standards and approval of others is how we get ourselves overwhelmed, sick and starving at the soul level.

Start using this little mantra to interpret daily events and challenges.

"I feel, I Sense, I Think"

Typically we do "I feel, I think" and never even bother with "I sense", disregarding the body's way of knowing and experiencing. This gets us into trouble because our thoughts are often self defeating and externally influenced.

So instead of going from feelings to thoughts, go instead from feelings to body sensations and notice that you are able to move through uncomfortable feelings and sensations way quicker because you are not focusing on the thoughts that perpetuate them. In fact what you are doing is acknowledging that every feeling has a corresponding sensation, and it's actually that sensation that is your discomfort. Instead of feel it, we try to avoid it by going into our thoughts.

But this doesn't help, it just prolongs the unpleasant experience. If on the other hand you accept and face the sensations, you'll find that they are not nearly as unpleasant as when you try to avoid them. In fact, surrendering and breathing into those sensations actually allows them to melt and dissolve much sooner, and helps us to connect with the safe and pleasurable sense of home within.

Here is an example; I notice that I feel sad. I sense a heaviness in my chest corresponding to the sadness. I think "I'm sad because I'm tired of not getting the results I want at work, relationship, etc". I return my focus to the heaviness in my chest instead of belaboring the so called reason for my sadness, the thoughts. I surrender into the sensation of heaviness at my chest rather than resist it. (What I resist persists right?). I breathe into the heaviness, accept it, and notice that it gradually dissolves.

Remember; "I feel, I sense, I think"

Feedback, questions? Blog me!

Connect with the home within you!
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Love,

Leela is the founder of VividExistence and VividlyWoman . A facilitator of groups and individuals for over 20 years, she is an expert in the field of body, self and soul

The Sensual Heart

The first Sensual Heart "Women Gathering Together to Dance Can Actually Change the World" of 2009 was a wonderful success. We were an intimate group in Ventura California hosted by the beautiful Anna Lena of http://www.extremegolfbliss.com/.

Anna Lena is a no-nonsense woman who lives her passion. It was such a joy to spend time with her and meet her family.

I also got to connect with the stunningly radiant and especially on-fire Christie Calder of Santa Barbara. I met some gorgeous Goddesses for the very first time and together we danced up a storm, celebrating, transforming and changing our world!

Stay tuned as the Darfur Basket of Strength and I travel across North America circling with more amazing Sisters!

Blessings, Leela

Leela Francis
info@vividexistence.com
http://www.vividexistence.com/
http://www.vividlywoman.com/



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