Sink into Knowing
“There in the deep, I could sense something circulating inside me. It was a Knowing!”
Glennon Doyle, Untamed
Have you ever gotten a message that you ignored?
I’m talking about those life messages that tell you, “Hey, maybe you want to think about this…”
Perhaps the words just don’t register in your consciousness the first time you hear them. You have to hear the message repeat, perhaps in a different way, perhaps from another person or via another medium, until finally the words twig in your brain. Ding, ding, ding!
Oh, why didn’t I realize that before, you wonder.
When the light finally goes on, you want to smack your forehead and cry, “Duh!”
For years, I practiced shamanic journeying. I’ve spoken of it before. For those that don’t know, this journeying is an altered state of consciousness accessed, not by drugs, but by a particular rhythm of a hoop drum. Think of it as a meditation, in a way, where you journey to the Upper World or Lower World—this does not refer to heaven or hell, but is based on the direction you travel with your imagination to get there—where you communicate with Power Animals or Spirit Guides.
That was my routine—meet with a group of fellow seekers, drum, journey, Upper World, Lower World—until I found myself no longer going up or down, but inward. To a place I referred to as The Void. A place I didn’t need a drum to access. Confused, I stepped away from my group to explore and ponder this new place of awareness. It hummed softly, content, while I searched for understanding.
In the chakra system, this new place was situated somewhere between the Solar Plexus chakra (above the navel) and the Creative or Sacral chakra (a couple inches below the belly button.) The Solar Plexus is the center of personal power and governs identity, personal freedom, choice and authenticity. The Creative chakra governs emotions, creativity, intimacy, and self-expression. This place that was asking me to contemplate it was an energy place, not a physical one.
Or was it?
Research has shown a brain-gut connection. Known as the enteric nervous system (ENS), nerve cells and the gut microbioata act as our second brain. And perhaps that explanation sits more comfortably with you than an energetic one. Over time, I did find myself making sourdough bread, beet kvass, and sauerkraut to nourish the gut biome. Yet there wasn’t a conscious connection to nourishing that place of awareness. I was following my “gut instincts.”
Then, I experienced Reconnective Healing and pondered knowledge versus knowing. I began writing. I explored emotions and self-expression through creativity. I spoke up instead of hiding. I became courageously authentic. I paused often in that place.
Then this week, I read Glennon Doyle. She spoke of “sinking into the Knowing” and instinctively I knew what she meant, knew that that was what I had been doing all this time.
Sinking into the Knowing.
My knowing.
Doyle says she takes orders only from her Knowing. She sinks a hundred times a day. She is developing a relationship with this Knowing, learning to trust.
Yes, yes, and yes!
Finally, I cognized the message that began with heightened awareness of that place of Being. The only thing to do now is to continue sinking into that inner wisdom and into the Knowing.
Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash.