When You Feel the Voice of The Beloved...

Some things just feel right.

That stone that rests in that perfect way in the palm of your hand.

Your favorite well worn sweater.

The feeling of your beloved holding you sweetly.

Those first fat droplets of rain after a long stretch of dryness...

Persian dance just feels right for me. In fact, Persian just about anything seems to feel right for me. Polish though I am, I grew up enjoying Persian food regularly, drinking Persian tea with cardamom every single day, loving the sound of traditional Persian music, and later in life discovering the breathtaking brilliance of Rumi.

And I gotta think… there’s gotta be something to that. How interesting, that when Persian music starts playing, my body know exactly how it wants to move. My spirit is stirred and flows through me like a fountain. I might look awkward and completely ridiculous to a spectator (who will hopefully keep their opinion to themselves), but I feel amazing. I feel right.

This weekend, as I participated in the sacred Sufi practice of whirling at Dance of Oneness - a Persian dance workshop - my gaze was soft and turned inward. The trance of the whirling, and my own curiosity about this lifelong resonance with the Persian culture worked much like a hypnotic induction and regression, bringing forward images, body sensations, buried emotions. And I could almost get a sense of another lifetime… when this was my music… my culture… I could almost get a sense of the body my spirit had chosen for that experience… I could almost feel into the passions and sufferings of that “me.” And for a moment, whirling ecstatically, I felt liberated by the linear confines of time, space, one incarnation or another, one culture or another, myself and "other."

As all those feelings and knowings bubbled up from the depths, a slightly more conscious level of my mind was aware of a whole lot more. Lets just say that the Sema (Sufi whirling) is profoundly intense and provocative. Different voices chimed in loudly and proudly, vying for my attention:

Nice and easy Tess… just focus on the music…

(I bet you look ridiculous)

I am a planet spinning on it’s axis, perfectly balanced in my place in the cosmos

(I am spinning out of control)

I am the expression of freedom, momentum, propulsion

(I’m going way too fast I need to stop i need to stop I need)

I need to go faster!

(Oh shit, I’m afraid)

I’m ok… I’m safe… I can stop whenever I need or want to...

I can do this.  

(I might throw up)

I can feel the other planets in this system, whirling around me in their own perfect balance.

I am One

We are One

(silence)

Before I knew it/an eternity later, the music slowed steadily to silence; and, I slowed my spinning form, coming back from the cosmos and rejoining the rest of my awareness in my body.

As we all rejoined in a circle to chant the name of The Beloved together, I listened to the longing of my body and lay down to simply receive. Another eternity/way too soon later, I emerged from the best savasana I have ever experienced. I was reborn. Grateful. Connected to all. Open. In love.

Later that day as I shared in a delicious Persian meal with some soul sisters, I wondered again at who I might have been, however many lifetimes ago. Had I learned the spiritual lessons of that lifetime? Does it mean something for me in this life, that I’m feeling the vibration of that former self returning through music, dance, poetry, all my senses.

Yes. It means something. It feels right. And that is enough.

When you feel the voice of The Beloved in your body, dance.

When you hear the voice of The Beloved on the wind, listen.

When you seek the face of The Beloved in another, see it, and then find it in yourself.

Find the dance that feels right for you, and dance it with all of your being. That will be enough.

And should you ever need help on your journey towards acknowledging the God in you, it's my honor to hold up a mirror for you.

Infinite Truth Healing provides hypnotherapy and past life regression therapy services in three San Diego, CA location, as well as online sessions via Skype or Google Hangout. Receive support in your self-healing in the areas of: stress reduction, inner child healing, shadow work, relationship issues, chronic illness, life purpose, spiritual and intuitive development, trauma or abuse, skill enhancement, grief and loss, depression, addiction and more.