Daily Voice Dialogue - Issue 26

----- DAILY VOICE DIALOGUE -----

written by Astra Niedra, edited by Mark Belfanti

WELCOME to the twenty-sixth edition of Daily Voice Dialogue, a newsletter about using Voice Dialogue in your daily life.

*** Astra's book The Perfect Relationship will soon be available from bookshops Australia-wide, and we also have a distributor in Thailand (contact us for details) and in the USA through Hal and Sidra Stone's web site.

Best wishes,
Astra Niedra

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TOPIC OF THE MONTH

ENERGETIC CONNECTION

We all connect with other people on an energetic level. Some of us feel this connection while others are not aware of it at all. We have an energy field around us that stems from within us. There is a lot of information about this energy field available from alternative sources but not that much from conventional ones

You an develop your own knowledge of energy from your own experience, for it is possible to fine tune your awareness and sensitivity to the energetic shifts that occur in yourself and in your relationships with others.

Each aspect of the human psyche has an energetic reality. Each self is an energetic entity with physical expression in the body. When you do Voice Dialogue and you separate a self out from a person's personality and speak to the self directly, its energetic reality becomes more obvious.

The energetic feeling of someone's pusher is very different to the feeling of someone's vulnerable child, pleaser or couch potato. And how these individual selves connect energetically with others also differs.

The quality of our relationships with other people is largely determined by how the selves our personalities are made up of interact energetically. If the main part of your personality is open and warm energetically you will like to mesh energy fields with others. If you are cooler and more impersonal you will like a more impersonal connection with others. In both cases, you will also be both attracted to the opposite energy, and repelled, at different times. Now add to the formula the energetic nature of the other selves you are expressing and you can see how complex our energetic interactions with others can be. It really is a 'dance of the selves' in our relationships.

If you want to understand your relationships better and have some choice in how your energetic interactions take place, then learning about this aspect of relating is incredibly valuable. Voice Dialogue will offer you much in this area as will other energy work that teaches you to become more conscious of your energy field.

(Issue 3 of Daily Voice Dialogue also discusses energy and includes additional exercises to the one below.)

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EXERCISE

Sit in a public place, such as a café, park or shopping centre, and observe the people around you. Try to see their energetic state. Watch closely as they interact with others. See if you can detect changes in people's fields as they communicate with different people. In a café you can watch a waiter or waitress and see how their energy changes as they relate to the different customers. Some of the changes will have a corresponding change in body language and you can use the body language changes as cues that an energetic shift has taken place.

Paying attention to energy will increase your ability to sense energy. Do this with yourself too as you relate with others. Does it feel as though there is distance between you and a particular person, yet when you are with another person the contact is more intimate? Do you ever withdraw your energy field when relating to others? Or do you extend your energy field when you are with others? Maybe you can feel someone withdrawing when they are with you, maybe only when you broach a particular subject with them?

You can begin with the awareness of your own energetic patterns by identifying who your primary selves are (see issues 4-6) and what their energetic nature is. Then you will have a better idea of the type of energetic contact you make with others. Once you have this knowledge on the mental level, the next step is to begin to feel the energy changes as they occur. So try the exercises to bring more of your attention to energy and soon your feeling for it will grow.

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MEET THE SELF OF THE MOMENT - A BRIEF INTERVIEW

THE GYPSY

Current job: doing Tarot readings where-ever I happen to be staying, other casual jobs
Favourite holiday destination: Life is a holiday
Favourite movie: Time of the Gypsies*
What kind of car do you drive? I'm never in one place long enough to have a car - I travel world-wide. If I was to stay in one country for a while I'd have a caravan that I could go anywhere in.
Favourite song/music: most ethnic music, folk music
Favourite book: Travel guides, books about interesting places around the world

* You don't have to be a gypsy to enjoy this film - on so many levels I have found this to be one of the most sublime films ever made and I would highly recommend it to any self.

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BABY DIALOGUE

Examples from my experiences with my 4 year old and 2 year old daughters to illustrate how I try(!) to use Voice Dialogue in my life.

Children are more naturally in tune with energetic reality than adults. My children let me know immediately if I lose connection with them - particularly Tinkerbell who is younger. It's quite funny when I'm holding her and talking to someone else - if I don't consciously maintain a connection with her, she grabs my face with her little hands and turns my head toward her face and establishes eye contact with me. You could say she's just being demanding of my attention and that she should learn to accept that she can't have my attention all the time. But for a child who is at an age where she can not yet communicate easily with language, energetic communication is very important for her to feel safe. If I cut off energetically it feels very lonely and scary for her - even if I'm holding her. (You might have experienced the emptiness of a disconnected hug from someone yourself.) The energetic connection is her tie to survival and love.

This does not mean I or other parents should deny themselves interactions with other people when they have young children. You can stay energetically connected to your child (or to anyone) and still connect with others. You can also alter the intensity of the connection, much like you can turn down or up the volume on your stereo. You can do this over distance too.

Some people naturally do this without even being aware of it. Others, like me, have to practise. I am aware that when I am involved in an activity my tendency is to focus entirely on that activity and to cut off everything else. But if I make the effort I can consciously focus on something while simultaneously connecting to other people.

You can try this by talking to a friend, your child or your partner and at the same time placing attention on someone else in the room. Maintain your connection with the person you are talking to while you do this. It might feel strange at first, like you are flipping from one person to the other, but with practice you will be able to stay connected to both.

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COMING UP IN FUTURE ISSUES

Attractions to particular material things
Relationships and children
Dreams
Fantasies

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IMPORTANT NOTE

This newsletter is not to be taken as psychological or medical advice. If you require such advice you should seek it from an appropriate health care professional. This newsletter is also not intended for you to use in making life-altering decisions without communication between you and the appropriate health care professional.

Copyright 2000-2004 - Astra Niedra. ISSN 1444-6022. PO Box 1266, Rozelle NSW 2039, Australia. No part of Daily Voice Dialogue may be reproduced, in any form, without the written permission of the author, Astra Niedra, except for forwarding an issue, in its entirety and complete with copyright information, to a friend.