Are You Speakin' Or Leakin'?

New ways to make things clearer are born in every course I teach. The questions the participants ask cause The Presence to inspire newer, better, more colorful, and often quite entertaining ways to say it.

One of the participants was having trouble not talking in the 5 Day Silent Retreat. I'm commited to every single person getting the full benefit of it. In the process of their spiritual awakening and continual expansion, it's one of the most powerful things they can do. I ask students to take their thoughts and feelings within - everything from joy to despair - rather than speaking them out loud during the retreat. That is extremely impactful.

It's more than just silence. We set up a powerful field of resonance that helps everyone open, receive, let go, and let The Divine do the heavy lifting. They don't have to work at all this, and as a matter of fact, if they work at it, it adds resistance, and that slows them down. We practice powerful effortlessness, let go, go to the Void, then create from nothing, without work.

What happens in that Grace-assisted silence? One becomes available to The Presence in a way they have never been before. They learn to look within, and find, answers themselves rather than relying on outer sources so much.

In the silence of The Fertile Void, they can hear things they didn't hear before, feel things they couldn't feel before. Each time I lead one, I also experience a new level of knowing. It's a constant evolution.

Why is five days of silence so challenging for some? There are various reasons, but the most common is that many people talk incessantly to avoid feeling, filling every moment with chatter, thoughts, distraction, and action -- not aware they're running frantically from feeling. When you avoid silence it keeps you from truly going within and discovering who you are, your Source. The small self wants to find any reason NOT to go within, because once you go within and truly inhabit your Large Self, the reign of the small self is OVER.

I was telling them they'd soon delightfully discover just how much energy talking takes up, and how amazingly much energy is freed up in the silence. How a lot of talking drains your energy off, scatters and leaks your power.

I was looking for a succinct, catchy, memorable, creative, and hopefully humorous way to get this across. In answer, these words suddenly came to mind.....

Of course, not all talk is leaking. But everyone lit up and laughed, and the point was powerfully made.

Even if I'm goofing off, not being profound or serious, and just being meaninglessly silly and having fun chatting, I am choosing to do that, very intentionally, and I'm conscious of what I'm choosing.

Too often, words are just tossed about, and the choices are not made deliberately. Unconscious blabbering (my mom, in her colorful Tennesse slang, calls it diarrhea of the mouth) erodes people's power of speech, and diminishes their power of intention. Their words lose impact. The sheer quantity of it causes people to stop listening and to miss the really important parts. It can be tiring for those listening, especially if they are conscious of their own speaking.

But the most vital thing is that all that talking is running from feeling, and avoiding going within. There are other ways besides talking to stay numb and avoid feeling. Ask yourself if you're always "going" or "doing". Even if you're alone a lot, do you jack yourself up on coffee, drama, relationships, thinking, chatting, Facebook, YouTube, or anything that keeps you in high gear so you don't have to slow down? Are you addicted to speed, so to speak? Do you get nervous if you are quiet and still?

When your own company and your own counsel is not enough, when you have to have an audience to make it feel real or important, what does that say about your self esteem? What if saying it to yourself, or to The Presence was enough? What if you could enjoy a joke with just you and The Presence? What if you were an important enough audience for yourself? How will it be when you are enough?

Wise people have a way of speaking deliberately, succinctly, and with powerful intention when they do speak out loud. People stop and listen, and it has powerful effects.

I invited the group to use conscious language, to be conscious of what and why they're speaking, every time they speak for a while: "Am I feeling, or filling the air with chatter so I won't have to feel? Am I running from feeling? Do I ever slow down? Am I afraid to? (You have to slow down to really feel. If you run fast enough you can't really feel much.)

Am I going within deeply? Do I prioritize silent time (not just meditation)? Am I valuing my own counsel? Am I speaking with power and intention, or am I just leaking?"

Love,
Lola

PS - So you can hear it from someone else's experience too, here's part of a note from someone who just finished the 5 Day Silent Intensive. She fell in love with the silence, The Divine within, and herself:

I felt like I had just been introduced to the kindest dearest friend I've ever met and all I wanted to do was keep "hanging out" and getting to know her.  Or like I was in the beginning stages feeling myself falling in love (only with MYSELF this time) and I didn't want to take any attention away from this new lover. 

I am completely content and appreciative of my own unique experience.  One of my biggest intentions for the 5 day was to come away with a "relationship" with the Divine the is deep and real and powerful enough to not get diluted in my day to day life.  I have that now!  I can hear the presence not just occasionally, but almost nonstop.  It's like we're having this conversation that lasts all day. Mindy, Teacher