We begin Part Two of The Winter FIRE Of  Wholeness 60 Day Breakthrough Experience next weekend. The initial weekend and following 30 days has been all about releasing the core wound at the root of our  limited ego. Participants have been observing their egos tendency to inflate by acting out, proving and being right or deflate by withdrawing, withholding or being passive-aggressive, when their wound (emotional bruise) is bumped in to.

Part Two is titled Connecting With Essence - Intimacy with Your Authentic Uniqueness. Here’s where we begin to look deeply into the part of ourselves that is deeper, truer and eternal. I call it Essence. In preparation for the weekend, I’m asking that all of the participants read an article that I’ve re-written based on a piece I wrote last year. I hope It connects with your Essence.

Finding Presence

Essence is a beautiful and simple word I use to refer to a mysterious something that is hard to define, but we all know it when we experience it. Essence is the physical sensation of feeling a Divine Presence.

Essence comes through when we are swept away by listening to beautiful music, moved deeply through witnessing great art and or expanded through well- crafted writing. We sometimes feel it from the teachers who touch our lives the most profoundly. Yet, we are just as likely to be touched by it when witnessing a simple act of kindness, an amazing athletic feat or when receiving a child’s dandelion bouquet. It is the overwhelming emotion of love we experience when we share a hug with our beloved.

The source of this Essence is God, Spirit, or The Divine. The name that I choose to use is Presence,because in my work, I often experience a sensation of having a Divine Presence working with me and through me as I guide people to heal their deepest wounds. I call this experience Embodied Presence and it is the reason I get so much joy out of my work.

Whatever your word is, we all yearn to connect with this Presence, breathe it in deeply and fully, when those moments come. Essence is the part of us that allows this connection, craves it and seeks it out. I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes by Emerson from The Oversoul:

Embodied Presence is found when we live in the moment and not the past or the future. It’s when we allow the Divine Presence to come through us and express itself. To live as fully, and deeply as is possible, we must move beyond the limits of our Ego to find Essence.

How do we know we have moved beyond our Ego and are living in our Essence? Here are a few observations I have about Ego and Essence from my own life and experience:

• The source of Ego is fear. The source of Essence Is Love.  Or, you might say God, Oneness, Light, Wholeness, Love Spirit or Creator. A  strict scientist may may not call it love and  simply refer to it the evolutionary impulse and its opposite-fear, Newton’s second law of thermodynamics, entropy.
• Ego protects against vulnerability to cover shame and gain power through control. Essence expresses vulnerability  with strength, Love and presence.
• Ego reacts from past hurts. Essence responds freely from  present moment awareness with strength, love and presence.
• Ego seeks pleasure and avoids pain. Essence responds fully to the moment and all the experiences of life with strength, love and presence.
• Ego separates and isolates. Essence connects.
• Ego inflates or deflates. Essence remains centered in Presence with expressing and connecting behaviors.
• Ego want to be right. Essence wants to find truth.
• Ego grasps for certainty. Essence embodies faith.
• Ego is jealous. Essence  lives in the moment and loves without expectations.
• Ego seeks to suppress or impress. Essence seeks to express love and life.
• Ego tries to prove. Essence desires to share.
• Ego defends. Essence keeps an open heart by choosing to live in an undefended way.
• Ego is rooted in separateness. Essence is grounded in wholeness.

Of course, many more distinctions that could be made about Ego and Essence. I invite you to use this as a partial guide to help you clarify when you are acting out of Essence or seeking refuge in your Ego. Add to the list with your own experience. Be aware of the physical reactions of your body and simply ask yourself, “Does this feel more like Ego or Essence?”

In Wholeness,

Michael