Sometimes, when I’m speaking or working with a group of people, I fall into a deep bodily sense of being held by a current of energy. This current is not like anything I could imagine with my mind. It’s not just flowing in one direction—it seems to be multi-directional, so that everyone in the group is giving and receiving all at once. And the more I am able to allow this energy to flow, the more I feel the circle of giving and receiving expand and open.

I know this is true in my writing work. When I am doing any kind of writing or ‘ written inquiry’ work with people, there is a often a sense that once a certain amount has been written, there is no more left to write. My experience is that the exact opposite is true. The more I write, the more there is to write. I have seen this again and again in my workshops. The unhindered flow of the writing opens a deep space inside, and out of that space, things emerge, with less and less effort. Sometimes it feels like a well—the more water you draw out, the more the deep pure spring water bubbles up from below. The conditioned mind has no idea what wants to come forth. It is living in a very narrow realm, cut off from the natural abundance of this source, this ground, that belongs to us all.

This is why it’s so important not to hold back, to let ourselves be naturally generous, and expressive. If we have not been encouraged and supported in this direction, we need help. Everyone needs this kind of help in their lives, at certain times. We hit walls of self-doubt– fear and trembling take us over, and we can’t find the confidence to be fully ourselves, to speak up, to find our voice, our natural way of being in the world.

At these times it really seems like we are lacking, that we have nothing to give, that we are powerless and deficient. How suprising to discover that when we stop holding back, when we reconnect with the flow of our own being, none of this is true. “Everyone has inside them, what can I call it? A piece of good news.” (Ugo Betti)