It’s 8:30 on Wednesday morning as I get comfy on the floor, take three centering breaths, and get ready for my weekly Dreamers Power of 8 intention group. I bring up the group chat on my phone, review the intention and the photograph of the person receiving, click on the link to their chosen music, close my eyes, and lose myself for the next 15 minutes. This is a ritual I’ve come to rely on to enliven the middle of my week.
I’m actually in two Power of 8 groups. I wrote about the first one in my blog post Harness the Power of 8, and it’s been going for well over a year. We meet energetically at 9:00 am on Sundays. This new group is composed of dreamers and we started about 6 months ago.
In both groups, we rotate through a roster of members and when it’s your turn, you can nominate someone who is in need of blessing or choose to receive yourself. It just happened to be my turn this week for both groups - the first time that has happened. I’d been thinking of all of the people in my life who are struggling with loss, health issues, or anxiety/depression, but I didn’t reach out to them. Instead, I realized that this week, I was really in need of a boost of joy. And so I selfishly chose to receive on Sunday and Wednesday.
I felt myself wince just now as I described myself as selfish. Isn’t being selfish a sin? That’s what many of us were taught. I’ve learned, however, that it’s absolutely necessary - at least sometimes - to put myself first. How can I spread joy in the world if I’m weighed down and can’t feel it myself?
On Sunday, I posted this photo of myself and linked to the song “I am the light of my soul”. I asked the group to send me this intention:
My intention is to recapture joy, curiosity and passion for life so that I can share that out in expanded ways.
Schofield pass trail that connects Crested Butte and Aspen
As I listened to the beautiful music and allowed myself to receive from my friends, I felt my heaviness of spirit lift. My body floated off the ground and next thing I knew, I was flying and dancing in the air. One of my group wrote this:
Beautiful Paula! You were dancing with flocks of butterflies in that field of exploding wild flowers, smile glowing, joy radiating.
I asked for the same intention on Wednesday, and linked to this music “I am Light.” Some of that heaviness in my heart had found its way back to me, and I had a slight headache as I took my meditation spot. After a short while, the top of my head felt like it exploded and light poured in. The sensation was overwhelming - in a good way - with sweet tears. My whole being was tingling and alive, and the joy that had been elusive of late, was back.
One of the dreamers in the group posted this description of her experience:
My first feeling was heaviness. In my chest and heart. That evolved to a vision of Paula in the flowers twirling around with her hands up in the air and joyful. Then a bee landed on her nose and she burst out laughing.
I’m actually a bit jumpy around bees, so I was intrigued by this image. I decided to treat this as if it were a scene in one of my own dreams. This Power of 8 group is an offshoot of a dream circle that meets every two weeks to share our dreams and help make sense of them. We have been trying out different approaches to dreamwork and just had a presentation by Rodger Kamenetz about the Natural Dreamwork Method. One of the key aspects of this approach is to bring the dream to life.
So, I pictured myself in the field of flowers twirling all around me. I saw, as if in slow motion, a bumble bee land on my nose. It was absolutely covered in pollen. So much so, that I wondered how it could possibly fly. The bee took off, and in my dream body, I followed it back to its home. There, the bumble bee shook off all the pollen. I found myself sitting in my chair, shaking and shaking. I’m not sure what I was shedding, but I can report that it felt really good to let it all go. As my dream vision ended, I felt even lighter and freer. That lightness of being is still with me several days later. I just needed a boost from my circle of friends to help me come home again.
My question to you: Why aren’t you in your own Power of 8 group? It’s an investment of about 15 minutes per week. My experience, and that of Lynne McTaggart, whose book “Power of 8, ” inspired me to start up these groups, is that altruistically sending blessings to other people brings the blessings right back to you. It’s not a magic fix for what ails you, but it is magic… and over time you trust your group to have your back and remind you of your own goodness and power. Just as you do for them!
It’s pretty easy to start your own group. If you’d like a shortcut, check out my Power of 8 - Spring 2021 workshop. I want to share this magic out by jumpstarting a new Power of 8 group with 8-12 people, who are committed to trying it out for 6 months, and hopefully continuing indefinitely.