| It’s Great British Baking Show season! Tasty layers of sponge, buttercream frosting, and jam are on my mind! Layers just make everything better – they add interest, intrigue, variety, flexibility. In our physical body, our layers allow differential movement – our layers and the grease between those layers allow us to bend, stroll through the world, and dance in beautiful spirals and loops. But layers are not only found WITHIN our physical body – we actually have layers outside of our skin as well – at least according to some ancient schools of thought. And I tend to believe these ancient schools, because they actually had the time and focus to spend on noticing such subtleties. I recently took an online class called Awakening Your Sensory Signature that provided insights into our energetic structure. To be honest, I found the class a little outside of my belief comfort zone – part of me was like, “Wow – this is amazing, and I am so much more open to my creative possibilities!” and part of me was like, “Whaaaaaaaat??? If I hear the phrase “love and light” one more time, I’m going to explode.” The net of it is, though, that I found the whole philosophy super intriguing, and since I’ve actually been able to FEEL one of these layers, I kinda believe it’s real! (more on that later). Here is the Light Body anatomy as presented in the class (each layer corresponds to a specific chakra): Etheric Body Layer – associated with physical form. 1-2” from skin. Root – Safety, security, grounded, stable. Red. Emotional – bridge between mind and physical body, connected to feelings and emotions. 3” from skin. Sacral – Creativity, passions, desires, emotional well-being. Orange. Mental – cognitive processes, thoughts, state of mind. 8” from skin. Solar Plexus – Personal will, self-confidence, sense of self. Yellow. Astral – where we create and maintain astral cords/connections with others. 12” from skin. Heart – love, compassion, empathy, emotional healing. Green. Etheric Template – energetic blueprint of your physical form. Reflects how well our outward expression aligns with your true self. 14-18” from skin. Throat – speech, authentic vocal expression, communication. Blue. Celestial Body – connection to Divine and unconditional love. 24-30+” from skin Third Eye – Intuitive intelligence, inner insight. Indigo. Etheric-Causal Body – holds the essence of your soul’s journey and spiritual evolution. 2-3 ‘ from the skin. Crown – Oneness, unity, enlightenment. Violet & white.  If you are familiar with yoga philosophy, you will notice some similarities with the 5 layers of the Kosha model: Annamaya Kosha – Physical body/food body Pranamaya Kosha – Energy body (breath, aura) Manomaya Kosha – Mind Vigyanamaya Kosha – Wise mind/unconscious mind Anandamaya Kosha – Bliss body In the class, Debbie Rosas (the course creator) provides practices to help tune in to and work with these various layers and chakras. The practices including meditation, journaling, free movement, visualizations, creating art. Despite my desire to be more embodied, I still default to being more in my head, so while I read all the class materials, I didn’t participate in many of the physical practices. Oddly enough, I felt self-conscious doing most of them even though I was home alone with no one looking at me! I still felt silly. Hmmmm. How interesting. AND, I did get a lot out of the little that I did do. My mind was opened further to the possibilities of us not being just flesh and bone. We have these LAYERS, man! Synchronistically, while in the middle of this 7-week class, I was working with a bodywork mentor of mine, and as we were treating a client, my mentor identified the need to work with the client’s emotional field. With his guidance, I was able to feel this subtle field around the client’s body and noted an area where I was almost “pushed off,” which was the area to treat. I guess I first encountered this field when I was at the Barral Visceral Listening class. In the Barral methodology, your assessment is called “Listening.” You put your hand on top of the client’s head, and tune in to the general area of the body with the greatest “pull.” (This may sound pretty woo, but there is science to support the fact that our hands are drawn to the area where things are not flowing well!). Well, I was doing this with the Teacher Assistant, and as I lowered my hand down towards his head, he almost fell over. He told me that when I lowered my hand down so slowly, I touched his emotional field, which threw him off center! I thought it was fascinating that as I’m learning about all these subtle fields in one area of my education, in a completely different, unrelated area, the same concepts come up in a different way. It’s so curious how these threads are woven through the tapestry of our experience! ANYWAY! If any of this piques your interest, I direct you to Debbie Rosas, who is teacher of this work. And if you think all of this is pretty far out and unbelievable, well that is OK too! I think we are all where we are supposed to be in our understanding of ourselves at this moment in time. What do you think? Do you think we are just flesh and blood and bones? Or do you think we are spirit and light and energy as well? Take care, Heather P.S. So…..I started another coaching program. It’s called Organic Intelligence. It teaches us how we can feel better without feeling worse first. I am two weeks in, and I am loving it so far. More to come, as I learn this work over the next year. Ways to work with me – You can book a bodywork session here (prices range from $115 to $85). – You can book a free Wellbeing Coaching consultation here. I am offering a 6-session coaching package for $240. You can read testimonials here. – You can sign up for my $5 weekly 15 meditation/movement class here. Newsletter signup If you would like to get these posts sent to you directly, please click here. |
The Layer Cake of Being Human
We definitely have spirit and energy fields – I think we don’t overtly notice them due to our more dominant senses.