Communicate with Consciousness

What I love about this week’s title is that it can have so many meanings. And all of them would be an important aspect of Sacred Communication.  It could refer to communicating with THE Consciousness, the Divine, God, the Universe.  I suspect at some point we will expand upon that (this has a double meaning as well!).  But this week I want to simply speak about conscious communication, communicating mindfully.  It’s something we don’t do often enough, and we so need to.

Have you ever gotten in your car and the next thing you knew, you were at your destination.  Almost as if you had driven on autopilot.  It’s somewhat unsettling.  You were in control of a speeding hunk of metal, yet your mind was elsewhere.  You were driving unAWARE. 

Now, have you ever felt the same feeling after walking away from a conversation?  What just happened?  They just told me their name, how did I instantly forget it?  Did I say what I really meant to say?  I didn’t mean for it to come out the way it sounded.  Driving unAWARE can be just as scary in this context.  While the immediate consequences may not be as dire, over time, constantly communicating when we are stuck in our own heads can lead to serious breakdowns in communication. 

Upon further reflection on Sacred Communication and how it came to be, I realized it had origins even older than my pregnancy dream.  A couple of years ago, when I was just beginning this latest leg of my Spiritual Path, my husband, Cory, asked me an important question.  You see, Cory and I are opposites in many ways.  Even though we were both raised Catholic, we ended up with very different attitudes towards institutionalized religion. I wasn’t satisfied with the answers that were offered and so broke away to develop my own Spiritual Compass.  But Catholicism suits Cory just fine.  For him, religion needs to be a set of rules one tries to follow.  Straightforward.  I needed more.  Cory doesn’t agree with all my beliefs and I’m sure he finds many of them downright bizarre, but he’s witnessed the change in my BEing, a fulfilling of potential that he cannot deny.  He’s supportive and questions my evolving belief system respectfully.  I cannot fully express how grateful I am to have someone I trust so completely play that role in my life. 

One evening, as we were driving, I was explaining to Cory my belief that we are all ONE.  Not only did I mean we were all connected in a very real way, but that we were each truly part of a single whole, like cells in an organism, instruments in an orchestra, or the colored rays that make up white light.  “Then why does so much miscommunication occur?” he asked me in earnest.  After a breath, I simply replied, “Because we forget.” 

And we are constantly trying to remember our ONEness, whether we are aware of it or not.  We are constantly striving for connection.

Yet all we do is talk about ourselves.  Because really that’s all we can do. 

Notice for a moment that strange duality that exists in our interaction with a majority of the rest of the world.  It’s polite to ask people about themselves (although some topics are certainly off-limits): How are you doing?  How is your family? Where did you get that fabulous hat?  However, it can be considered rude or self-absorbed to go overboard in answering personal questions.  You don’t want to talk about yourself TOO much.  In other words, some of the more cynical of us may say no one really wants to hear about you talk about yourself.  They’re really just waiting for their turn to talk about themselves. 

So where’s the balance?  What’s the point of a bunch of fleshpods bumping around on this blue-green planet babbling about their personal points of view?  What’s the use if we are all ONE anyway?

To remember.

I want you to think someone you have a relationship with where you can remember its origin (so not a parent or someone who has been in your life since before you can remember).  A friend.  A lover.  A boss, even.  Then think of the moment(s) when your relationship with that person was “upleveled.”  Upleveling occurs when a spark is struck and a connection is made.  It happens when commonalities are uncovered and synchronicity shines.  Perhaps it was something he or she said that prompted you to give out your phone number.  Maybe it’s the point in the interview when you just knew you got the job.    For example, on our first date, my husband introduced me to The Strand in NYC, a bookstore that touted 18 miles of books! Upleveled.  Then, a couple of weeks later, I was talking to him about visiting my aunt for the weekend.  “Where does she live?” he asked.

“In upstate NY,” I answered vaguely.

“Where in upstate NY?” he persisted.

“Nowhere you’ve heard of.”

“Try me.”

“Um okay.  Shortsville.”  (No, I’m not making that up)

“I know where that is! My dad lives two towns over in Rushville.” Upleveled. 

It may seem pretty obvious that our relationships are built on connections.  When we’re lucky we bond over things we mutually enjoy.  But sometimes we have relationships based on occurrences we must grudgingly accept in our lives, like working in the same office building. 

What may not be so obvious is that we are in a constant search to uplevel the relationships we have.  It is the true driving force behind asking about your day or about that book you’re reading.  Whether we are AWARE of it or not.

So why don’t we make the choice right now to be a bit more AWARE.  What questions would you ask if you were consciously trying to connect to the person in front of you?  How would you answer if you were aware that the person on the other end of the phone was seeking to uplevel your relationship? 

It’s something to think about.  To meditate on.  I may not have offered practical practices in this particular post, but if you stay with me for the ride, I promise the concrete exercises will come.  Exercises designed to help us remember our ONEness.  So won’t you linger?  Let’s uplevel together.  Let’s practice communicating with consciousness.