A Grounded Loving Tornado
I have been playing around with naming a very powerful source of energy that I have been able to tap into at times in the last couple of years. I am calling it being a “grounded loving tornado”. My sense is that this energy is a type of human spirit energy – connecting to something larger than ourselves and also acting in alignment with our deepest values (see my earlier blog posts on this – More Than Just a Plum Pudding and Are You Exhausted from Giving? Inspiration from "Give and Take", for example). I think it’s important to share this grounded loving tornado idea with you since very often we are not accessing our human spirit energy and that is a shame because it is a great and powerful resource to tap into. Having been often in the place of exhaustion and overwhelm in my adult life, I am wanting to share the contrast of feeling incredibly energetic.
This is a journal l entry I wrote two years ago after I first felt and named this energy for myself:
Today I reached out to a friend, P, who I had planned a walk with this morning. I asked her to be an “evolutionary partner”. [A Feminine Power term that represents a relationship that is beyond friend – where we hold each other to being the person we want to become, holding a larger space for each other to grow into.] I felt I had to be a little courageous with this… just a little… She immediately said yes. We proceeded to walk 7.2 km (she was tracking it :) ) for almost 2 hours talking non-stop, sometimes walking in circles but not caring because we were so immersed. In fact, the circles seemed symbolic of the chaos that often precedes insights… Anyway we gave new meaning to the term "Power walk", as she pointed out. We both left the conversation incredibly moved (and yes teary) by what we had learned and accomplished and so excited for more. I have been so energized ever since. I felt so powerful and expansive, like a loving tornado, … think upward spiral of connection and positivity. I felt unstoppable. I loved this conversation on so many levels. I felt free to offer my opinions and to really stand strong for my friend and hold her really big. I felt held by her too, which was lovely for me as I am usually in the role of coach, holding others.
After that walk, I drove home with this immense sense of energy. It was a bit too much for me to handle – for example, when parking my car in our (admittedly) very narrow garage in downtown Toronto I banged the door – I could feel that I was not calibrating myself well – there was too much force in my movements. I remember I did a couple of other silly things, one involving my filing cabinet I think, that showed me I was a little out of control in terms of harnessing the energy. Nevertheless, the experience was very positive overall and I still wanted more.
Fast forward to this summer. The Feminine Power Global Leader trainings (aka Advanced Trainings that I have been referring to in my newsletters) have begun. Being on the calls with our teacher Claire Zammit, in smaller groups with peers, combined with my own reflections, has resulted in my feeling again, repeatedly like a loving tornado. This has been really amazing, especially after years of often feeling exhausted and depleted. The big difference is that I am figuring out how to harness the energy so that I am in a little more in control of it to use it more effectively and intentionally. The secret for me seems to be grounding myself in it. Breathing into it. Meditating, doing yoga, Pilates, walking. Connecting with my body. And, really important is consistently connecting with the people closest to me - my husband, my children, my dear friends. There is a supported and connected feeling that comes from being grounded that I am enjoying exploring. So, I am a grounded loving tornado. And further, this past weekend I sensed into being a “force of nature” as a grounded loving tornado and that really resonated with me too. I have breathed into that a few times over the last several days and found it really energizing. I had all this extra energy I poured into making our cottage sparkle – many much cleaner windows as a result! I have this sense that Now Is The Time. What am I waiting for???? It’s time to show up fully and as powerfully as possible in all domains of my work and life. I want to do more than clean windows with this energy!
And I really feel the connection here to the ideas I have shared around work-life synergy in previous posts. I used a spiral to represent that synergy and a tornado is a spiral too. I find it really fun and illuminating to play around with metaphors/analogies/similes like this. It is something I do with my clients too. You can see that in the image I shared with you here, I am playing with the spiral but have added the heart to ground it and to represent the love.
I am looking forward to accessing this grounded loving tornado energy more regularly and intentionally and seeing how others relate to it for themselves. I look forward to using it to contribute to the women’s leadership circles – so excited about those!
I am trying to be really open and vulnerable in this post, hoping that it will resonate with some of you who read it. And, as always, it helps me to write about what I am learning – writing gives me more clarity. If you feel so inclined, please do share what comes up for you when reading it. Thanks for reading!
