Last summer I was blessed to be part of an intimate group of sacred journeyers in deep meditation. Before one of our sessions, we were each invited to connect with a guiding word.
Our guiding words, in this order, were “CHOICE, LOVE, FOCUS, BREATHE”. As we dropped into our deep experience, we each discovered ourselves connecting with all four words as a mantra. In the days following this experience, I came back to that mantra in my own practice, and found that each word had a strong connection to one of my lower 4 chakras:
Choice – Root (1st)
Love – Sacrum (2nd)
Focus – Solar Plexus (3rd)
Breathe – Heart (4th)
Since then, I keep coming back to how the Root Chakra is about Choice, and how Choice is an important part of Alchemy.
The Choice to Embody
Anodea Judith teaches that our chakras develop in succession. The Root Chakra begins to develop while we’re in utero, and continues to develop up till we’re 6 months old. This is the time when our essence (soul, consciousness, self, however you conceive of it), is moving into our physical form.
When we make the choice to embody. If that period of life is safe and we are cared for well enough, our essence moves fully into our bodies. If that period involves trauma, then we don’t fully embody. Part of us hangs back, stays in the ethereal realm, never fully landing in being here.
The gift for people who don’t fully embody is that they tend to have a strong connection to that ethereal realm. But being fully engaged in their lives is challenging.
Fear not, because even if you didn’t choose to embody by 6 months old, it’s still possible as an adult! I did it. I had both a birth trauma, and a significant trauma at 5 months old. And through the journey of my adult life, I did the work, and connected myself into my body and my life in powerful new ways!
What Does it Mean to Choose to Embody?
- It means to choose to be here, in this life, in this place, in this time. And to act with agency and energy in this life, in this place, in this time.
- It means to be you. To learn who you are, and live who you are, and trust who you are. To be a purpose. To discover what is amazing about yourself. To notice what you want to transform in yourself, not because you do not love yourself, but because you want to be more of yourself.
- It means to recognize that “live” is a verb. To be a fully active participant in your life. To find the tools and paradigms that bring more of your Self into action in your life.
What’s essential in all of this is Choice. When you choose to be here as an embodied being, it cannot help but shift your perspective. You move from “life is happening to me” to “I am happening in my life”. Instead of being a victim, or a bystander to the events in your life, you become the actor, the agent, the one creating and trying out experiments in your life. You become the one choosing. Even when parts of life are not going your way, you see the places where you have choice, where you make choices.
Some choices you can make from an embodied place are:
- I choose how I experience my life.
As one of my teachers often said, “Pain is unavoidable; suffering is optional”. You cannot always change the circumstances of your life, but you can change how you perceive them, and how you perceive yourself in relationship to them.
- I choose how I respond to my life.
One of my favorite sayings is “we’re always at choice”. You probably have more than one option in response to the situations in your life. Sometimes you might need help to see them, but they are there. Even if the only options you can see are different attitudes and perspectives, a shift in attitude or perspective can often make a huge difference. Not only in how we feel about a situation, but also in how we emerge from that situation.
- I choose who I am as I move through my life.
Being at choice means we can choose who we want to show up as. For example, my default when I’m out in public places is to put up my shields, to move as invisibly as possible through public spaces. Often I choose to be seen. I choose to engage with people, and to meet them with my energy as well as my words. I know I have that flexibility, and I can exercise it at will.
Choosing who I am also means embracing who I am. As in “I choose you!”, but instead it’s “I choose me!”. Making the choice to be who we actually are is an act of courage. It is an act of love. And it is an act of Alchemy. By saying “I choose me!”, we shift our relationship with ourselves from a struggle to an embrace. We become stronger, more grounded and more flexible in our lives, because we are in a loving relationship with ourselves.
- I choose what I pay attention to
You may have heard people say “Action follows intention”.
One of my teachers likes to say “Action follows attention”.
Where we direct our focus is where we put our energy. And where we direct our energy and focus is where we will go. When I learned to ride a motorcycle, I kept having trouble with turns. Because I kept looking at where I had been going, not where I was turning the bike. My wonderful teacher drilled into me over and over again “look in the direction where you want to go!!”. When I finally did that, turns became easy!
When we are focusing our attention on where we’ve been, or where we could have gone, or on drama, regrets, or other distractions, that’s where we will continue to go.
- I choose what I have in my life
Anodea taught me that decluttering is good for the Root Chakra. Often, we use objects to ground us. Partly because they have density. And partly because we attach meaning to them, and we use that meaning to define ourselves.
When we take the risk of getting rid of things that aren’t truly meaningful for us, we create space to be ourselves more fully. There can be a “noise” to a collection of things, or, alternatively, there can be a dead energy in the collection.
The process of clearing the space around us involves discernment and choice. Recognizing who we are at this point, and what truly matters to us now.
Choosing what’s in our lives goes beyond physical objects. We live in a culture that constantly bombards us with messages that having “the right” things will improve our lives. But remember…where you put your focus is where your life goes.
So, what are the activities that matter in your life? What supports your self-care? Who are the people who enhance your life? Choosing to nourish your life by embracing what brings wellness, delight, growth and depth creates a grounded, lasting sense of abundance and inner strength.
Choice is a foundation of Alchemy. Choice is magic.
When you recognize that you have choice, and that you can make choice, you come to know a power that can never be taken away from you. You discover a part of yourself, what one of my teachers calls “the ‘I’ at the center”, that can observe, discern, and decide without entanglement. You expand your ability to pay attention, to sense and perceive what paths exist, and to direct yourself towards your goals.
Tantra teaches us “as within, so without”. In other words, what is inside us is a reflection of what is outside us; and what is outside of us is a reflection of what is within us. Among other things, this means you can choose whether to address a situation by working on it in the outside world, or within yourself. There are tools for each. You discern where you want to address your energy. You have the ability to evolve yourself in either realm. You have the ability to transform the world around you by working in either realm.
Remember, as with most everything, choosing to embody is a journey. We can transform ourselves, our lives, and the world. But only if we choose to be here; to be present with the parts we want to transform; to face, and fully love, our imperfections, the imperfections of the world, and the imperfection of being human. When we can face, and fully love, imperfection, then we can be fully present with it, and find the spaces, big or small, where adjustments and new choices can happen.
Root Chakra Mantra
I want to share with you my favorite Root Chakra mantra:
I am here, I am whole, I am held
What it means to me is:
I am here – I embody this life and this being to my fullest ability in this moment.
I am whole – I recognize that I am a whole being, perfectly imperfect, complete even as I grow and transform.
I am held – I claim my place in the web of existence, supported by it, actively participating, while also resting in the arms of the Cosmic Consciousness.
Have questions? Ask Dianne
