Experience Lucia

What it Really Means to Hold Space for Someone

What it Really Means to Hold Space for Someone

How to be there for the people who need you most

When my Mom was dying, my siblings and I gathered to be with her in her final days. None of us knew anything about supporting someone in her transition out of this life into the next, but we were pretty sure we wanted to keep her at home, so we did.

While we supported Mom, we were, in turn, supported by a gifted palliative care nurse, Ann, who came every few days to care for Mom and to talk to us about what we could expect in the coming days. She taught us how to inject Mom with morphine when she became restless, she offered to do the difficult tasks (like giving Mom a bath), and she gave us only as much information as we needed about what to do with Mom’s body after her spirit had passed.

The author with her mother

“Take your time,” she said. “You don’t need to call the funeral home until you’re ready. Gather the people who will want to say their final farewells. Sit with your mom as long as you need to. When you’re ready, call and they will come to pick her up.”

Ann gave us an incredible gift in those final days. Though it was an excruciating week, we knew that we were being held by someone who was only a phone call away.

In the two years since then, I’ve often thought about Ann and the important role she played in our lives. She was much more than what can fit in the title of “palliative care nurse”. She was facilitator, coach, and guide. By offering gentle, nonjudgmental support and guidance, she helped us walk one of the most difficult journeys of our lives.

The work that Ann did can be defined by a term that’s become common in some of the circles in which I work. She was holding space for us.

Learning to hold space for others

What does it mean to “hold space” for someone else?

It means that we are willing to walk alongside another person in whatever journey they’re on without judging them, making them feel inadequate, trying to fix them, or trying to impact the outcome. When we hold space for other people, we open our hearts, offer unconditional support, and let go of judgement and control.

Sometimes we find ourselves holding space for people while they hold space for others. In our situation, for example, Ann was holding space for us while we held space for Mom. Though I know nothing about her support system, I suspect that there are others holding space for Ann as she does this challenging and meaningful work. It’s virtually impossible to be a strong space holder unless we have others who will hold space for us. Even the strongest leaders, coaches, nurses, etc., need to know that there are some people with whom they can be vulnerable and weak without fear of being judged.

Understanding the essence of holding space for others

In my own roles as teacher, facilitator, coach, mother, wife, and friend, etc., I do my best to hold space for other people in the same way that Ann modeled it for me and my siblings. It’s not always easy, because I have a very human tendency to want to fix people, give them advice, or judge them for not being further along the path than they are, but I keep trying because I know that it’s important. At the same time, there are people in my life that I trust to hold space for me.

To truly support people in their own growth, transformation, grief, etc., we can’t do it by taking their power away (ie. trying to fix their problems), shaming them (ie. implying that they should know more than they do), or overwhelming them (ie. giving them more information than they’re ready for). We have to be prepared to step to the side so that they can make their own choices, offer them unconditional love and support, give gentle guidance when it’s needed, and make them feel safe even when they make mistakes.

Holding space is not something that’s exclusive to facilitators, coaches, or palliative care nurses. It is something that ALL of us can do for each other – for our partners, children, friends, neighbours, and even strangers who strike up conversations as we’re riding the bus to work.

Every day is an opportunity to hold space for the people around us

8 Tips to Help You Hold Space for Others

Here are the lessons I’ve learned from Ann and others who have held space for me.

1. Give people permission to trust their own intuition and wisdom. When we were supporting Mom in her final days, we had no experience to rely on, and yet, intuitively, we knew what was needed. We knew how to carry her shrinking body to the washroom, we knew how to sit and sing hymns to her, and we knew how to love her. We even knew when it was time to inject the medication that would help ease her pain. In a very gentle way, Ann let us know that we didn’t need to do things according to some arbitrary health care protocol – we simply needed to trust our intuition and accumulated wisdom from the many years we’d loved Mom.

2. Give people only as much information as they can handle. Ann gave us some simple instructions and left us with a few handouts, but did not overwhelm us with far more than we could process in our tender time of grief. Too much information would have left us feeling incompetent and unworthy.

Knowing how much information to give people in times of grief

3. Don’t take their power away. When we take decision-making power out of people’s hands, we leave them feeling useless and incompetent. There may be some times when we need to step in and make hard decisions for other people (ie. when they’re dealing with an addiction and an intervention feels like the only thing that will save them), but in almost every other case, people need the autonomy to make their own choices (even our children). Ann knew that we needed to feel empowered in making decisions on our Mom’s behalf, and so she offered support but never tried to direct or control us.

4. Keep your own ego out of it. This is a big one. We all get caught in that trap now and then – when we begin to believe that someone else’s success is dependent on our intervention, or when we think that their failure reflects poorly on us, or when we’re convinced that whatever emotions they choose to unload on us are about us instead of them. It’s a trap I’ve occasionally found myself slipping into when I teach. I can become more concerned about my own success (Do the students like me? Do their marks reflect on my ability to teach? Etc.) than about the success of my students. But that doesn’t serve anyone – not even me. To truly support their growth, I need to keep my ego out of it and create the space where they have the opportunity to grow and learn.

Keep your own ego out of it

5. Make them feel safe enough to fail. When people are learning, growing, or going through grief or transition, they are bound to make some mistakes along the way. When we, as their space holders, withhold judgement and shame, we offer them the opportunity to reach inside themselves to find the courage to take risks and the resilience to keep going even when they fail. When we let them know that failure is simply a part of the journey and not the end of the world, they’ll spend less time beating themselves up for it and more time learning from their mistakes.

6. Give guidance and help with humility and thoughtfulness. A wise space holder knows when to withhold guidance (ie. when it makes a person feel foolish and inadequate) and when to offer it gently (ie. when a person asks for it or is too lost to know what to ask for). Though Ann did not take our power or autonomy away, she did offer to come and give Mom baths and do some of the more challenging parts of caregiving. This was a relief to us, as we had no practice at it and didn’t want to place Mom in a position that might make her feel shame (ie. having her children see her naked). This is a careful dance that we all must do when we hold space for other people. Recognizing the areas in which they feel most vulnerable and incapable and offering the right kind of help without shaming them takes practice and humility.

A wise space holder knows when to withhold guidance and when to offer it gently

7. Create a container for complex emotions, fear, trauma, etc. When people feel that they are held in a deeper way than they are used to, they feel safe enough to allow complex emotions to surface that might normally remain hidden. Someone who is practiced at holding space knows that this can happen and will be prepared to hold it in a gentle, supportive, and nonjudgmental way. In The Circle Way, we talk about “holding the rim” for people.

The circle becomes the space where people feel safe enough to fall apart without fearing that this will leave them permanently broken or that they will be shamed by others in the room. Someone is always there to offer strength and courage. This is not easy work, and it is work that I continue to learn about as I host increasingly more challenging conversations. We cannot do it if we are overly emotional ourselves, if we haven’t done the hard work of looking into our own shadow, or if we don’t trust the people we are holding space for. In Ann’s case, she did this by showing up with tenderness, compassion, and confidence. If she had shown up in a way that didn’t offer us assurance that she could handle difficult situations or that she was afraid of death, we wouldn’t have been able to trust her as we did.

The circle becomes the space where people feel safe enough to fall apart

8. Allow them to make different decisions and to have different experiences than you would. Holding space is about respecting each person’s differences and recognising that those differences may lead to them making choices that we would not make. Sometimes, for example, they make choices based on cultural norms that we can’t understand from within our own experience. When we hold space, we release control and we honour differences. This showed up, for example, in the way that Ann supported us in making decisions about what to do with Mom’s body after her spirit was no longer housed there. If there had been some ritual that we felt we needed to conduct before releasing her body, we were free to do that in the privacy of Mom’s home.

Holding space is not something that we can master overnight, or that can be adequately addressed in a list of tips like the ones I’ve just offered. It’s a complex practice that evolves as we practice it, and it is unique to each person and each situation.

What it Really Means to Hold Space for a Woman

By Kathryn Hogan on Monday January 16th, 2017

Four important ways you can learn to be truly present

‘Be authentic.’ ‘Hold space.’ ‘Be present.’ These phrases may sound vague, but they’re what the women you love really need. And here’s how you can give it.

“I just need you to hold space for me.”

This phrase may strike fear into even the most stoic male heart.

“You can’t hold space!” you may cry. “It’s space!”

But if you want to be with an emotionally intelligent, spiritually inclined, mindful woman, chances are you’ll be hearing this type of phrase. It’s becoming more and more mainstream, and whether or not you consider it New Agey, this phrase describes an active state of being that is extremely powerful in a relationship.

It is an active state of being that is extremely powerful in a relationship.

It may seem like an absurd, haphazard combination of words that doesn’t actually describe anything. It’s actually describing one of the mysteries of life, something that cannot be described. It’s speaking about a more complex—and complete—understanding of human experience. When a woman says something like this to you, she’s inviting you to live in the moment in a full, focused, joyful way, with her. She’s asking for your help, your support. She’s asking you to pay full attention to her, witnessing her experience, without judging her experience as good or bad.

When a woman says this, she is actually asking you to be with her, and to pay attention to her, fully. This is incredibly important and I can’t stress it enough. My upcoming book has a whole chapter about how powerful it is to be truly present with the women you care about. And as Jordan Gray says, another way to say ‘presence’ is ‘paying attention.’

She is actually asking you to be with her, and to pay attention to her, fully.

They say our bodies are 80% water—but we’re really 99% space!

To hold space for another person, you have to first do it for yourself. They say our bodies are 80% water—but we’re really 99% space! So breathe deeply, opening up your body further. Hold space within yourself first, which means allowing yourself to simply be. Whatever arises, don’t judge it as good or bad. Witness it, allow it, accept it.

Holding space for another is to hold space for them, within yourself. This isn’t just foo-foo energy talk: it’s building a connection with this other person, based in part on subconscious physical cues. It’s holding the person you’re with in your awareness, just as he or she is; to witness their emotions with empathy, whatever they are.

Anyone can hold space for anyone else. However, I feel that there’s an added dimension available when a man does this for a woman; namely, he is able to be present in his masculine power, and thus allow her to relax into a more feminine state. My experience is that holding masculine for myself can be very exhausting, and being with a man who is willing to step into the masculine fully so that I can ‘drop my guard’ is a huge relief.

Holding space is a way to make your masculine power available for the women around you, for the good of all. We need your presence, your masculinity, and your power. When women realize that this is what you’re doing (and yes, you’re allowed to tell them!) they will relax. Unwind, release tension, melt. They might cry, they might simply smile, they might snuggle up. However they express it, what they will really do is show you a part of themselves that few people ever get to see. It’s beautiful, and it feels great for both of you.

Here’s a primer on how you can integrate holding space into your daily life, to improve your relationships with women, other men, and yourself.

They will show you a part of themselves that few people ever get to see.

Pay Attention to Your Experience

You don’t have to be a yogic master to experience the benefits of mindfulness in your life—and your relationships with women. You don’t even have to meditate! All you have to do is be aware of what is actually happening right now, within you and all around you, while trying not to judge it as good or bad.

That’s it.

It’s the simplest thing in the world. And the hardest.

Being mindful of the people around you means witnessing their experiences, their emotions, their words…without becoming reactive. Mindfulness is an inner space of stillness, of being, which manifests outwardly as focused attention.

Witnessing their experiences, their emotions, their words…without becoming reactive.

Pay Special Attention to the Women Around You

You have an incredible power when it comes to women. The power to hold masculine space, so that they can relax into their feminine selves. A very simplistic description of the sacred masculine is that of a container. The feminine is the fluid within, able to flow because she doesn’t have to contain herself. If you’re craving feminine presence—softness, receptivity, playfulness, authentic adorable womaniness of an indescribable quality—holding space for the women around you is how to get it. This doesn’t just benefit you: it is a huge relief to be able to just be feminine. It’s a huge relief for anyone of either gender to know that they are being truly seen, and that they are not judged. Holding space makes life easier for the people around you.

The next time you’re in a fight and don’t know how to move forward, or find yourself getting frustrated, feeling that you aren’t helping, it’s time to take a deep breath, and hold space for this woman.

This can be especially powerful when the woman you’re with is feeling sensitive, upset, hurting, or needs your emotional support and listening. The next time you’re in a fight and don’t know how to move forward, or find yourself getting frustrated, feeling that you aren’t helping, it’s time to take a deep breath, and hold space for this woman.

Turn your focus towards her fully. Really notice this woman, the details of her appearance, her posture, and how she has chosen to present herself; what she is doing, how she’s doing it, the things she’s saying and the things she is leaving unsaid; anything and everything. If a reaction starts to arise in you, accept it within yourself, and try to provide a non-reaction externally. You don’t have to give any compliments in order to hold space. You don’t have to provide advice to be providing your masculine presence.

You don’t have to say anything at all.

Really notice this woman and how she has chosen to present herself.

Body Language

This is really about holding space within yourself. Be aware of how you feel, place the nexus of yourself, your consciousness, fully in your body. This has the effect of holding space for the other person, within yourself. Doing that creates a connection between you, an exchange of energy, with subconscious cues. The same way yawns are contagious, if you tense up in response to another person’s emotional charge (to protect yourself from it, which is understandable and we all do it!) the other person will do the exact same thing: tense up. But if you realize that you are tensing up, and instead breathe deeply and release the tension, perhaps by being aware and breathing into it, you are giving that gift of relaxation and space to the other person.

It’s therefore important to use your body to show that you are really there, really present. If you’re not sure how to do that, try turning your body towards her, squaring your shoulders so that she lines up with the middle of your chest, and turning your head to face her fully. Watch her eyes. This may seem obvious or insignificant, but it is profoundly meaningful, and often we change our body language without realizing it, accidentally sending cues to our partner that we don’t want to send. Being aware of your body language is powerful. Practice being aware and trying to open.

Being aware of your body language is powerful.

Holding Space Means Support in Healing.

Everyone has trauma.

The only way through trauma is to feel it. If a person doesn’t feel their pain, their anger, their fear—if they instead repress it—it grows and festers, like a sliver that doesn’t get pulled out. But feelings like pain, anger and fear are, well, painful! And scary! And upsetting! Feeling them isn’t fun. It takes a great amount of courage and strength to do so.

Holding space means lending your courage, your strength. It means creating a safe environment for someone you care about to exorcise the hurt within them.

Holding space means lending your courage, your strength. It means creating a safe environment for someone you care for to exorcise the hurt within them. Allowing that person to cry, to scream, to shudder; witnessing their authentic experience and reacting with love and acceptance to the extent that you are able, is a powerful way of supporting them in this most important spiritual and emotional work.

Don’t worry—it isn’t always going to be tears and screaming! In fact, the more you practice holding space, the more you integrate it into your daily life, the more relaxation and fun and silliness will follow you, from everyone around you. As you learn to do this with women, the results will be especially profound and lovely.

It means creating a safe environment for someone you care about.

When a man is holding space for me, I light up. I let down my guard. I feel more energetic, more free, less worried.

When a man turns the power of his attention to a woman, and holds space in this way, magic happens. When you truly see her, hear her, know her, you can become aware of her beauty and power. Because of your awareness, she’s able to relax into the moment, be more feminine, be more herself.

Love is a verb, like eat, or sleep. You don’t just do it once. Being present with a woman is itself an act of profound love. So practice it, and watch as magic happens around you!

Sex: Surrendering into Pleasure

Sex: Surrendering into Pleasure

Sex is a hot topic for most of us as it has been for me. I am a very passionate person. I love sex. I love making love even more. I love feeling close, skin on skin, and intimate with someone I am attracted to, where we can share pleasure and be sensual together. I felt ashamed for having such intense feelings of sexual desire. I began to deny myself of my own pleasure as a woman for fear of losing control and being too much, too wild. I thought if I was too much, I may not get the love and attention I so longed for. I didn’t know how to talk about sex and was embarrassed to share my fantasies. 

I was scared of the power my sexuality seemed to have over me. It seemed like a power, bigger than me would just take over. I didn’t know how to manage my sexual energy. I so longed to feel pleasure with my partner and be penetrated and taken by him. Yet, I didn’t really know how to let go of being in charge, so I could give him the opportunity to penetrate and take me.

It scared me to relinquish control. I didn’t think my partner would be able to hold a strong enough space for me. I had fears of him judging me and abandoning me for being too wild.

How did I go from relinquishing control to surrendering into pleasure you might be asking?

I found a man who was willing to play with me and be present with me, someone who I had really great sexual chemistry with. We were totally honest about our fantasies, our needs and our desires. We made time to touch each other and look into each other’s eyes with undivided attention. 

The most important part of surrendering into pleasure for me was creating a solid place of trust. Setting mutual agreements that felt honoring for both of us was key to creating trust. The more quality time I spent with my partner, the more I felt safe to surrender into pleasure. 

As I surrendered into pleasure little by little, I deepened my trust with my partner. The more I felt safe to relax, the more pleasure I was able to feel. We synchronized our energies with cuddling and slow erotic massages. Sometimes fears would come up. I mentioned to my partner that anytime I needed to have an emotional release, all he needed to do was BE with me in the feeling. There was no need for words, just for him to hold a solid, loving space for me to move through my tears. The more I gave myself permission to feel my feelings, the more space there was for me to give and receive pleasure. The more I gave pleasure the more I was able to receive pleasure. We fed on each other’s pleasure, pleasuring each other for hours.

I love being a woman now. I embrace my sexuality and my femininity and love getting all juiced up for my partner. I feel so grateful that I had and continue to have the courage and willingness to feel my feelings; I feel I have a deeper and more loving relationship now than ever before, not just with my partner, but most importantly with myself. I am my own lover and a best friend and have found a partner to share this with, where we pleasure each other beyond just intercourse. We pleasure each other with a glance or a touch. I wish this quality of connection and intimacy for everyone. It is truly divine to share pleasure in this way. 

Attachment vs Non-attachment – what to do when triggered or upset.

“Be the Change you want to see in the world.’ Gandhi

Attachment vs Non-attachment – what to do when triggered or upset.

Posted on November 22, 2014

ATTACHMENT is when we are attached to a certain outcome. It may show up in the form of an expectation or an assumption of how things “should” look or “ought” to be. The main thing that comes up here is that having expectations or assumptions will often create a dynamic of blame, and make wrong.

Our attachments often create much disappointment and then in turn lead to resistance of what is, creating pain and suffering and disconnect. People who are most attached are usually people pleasers. Those of us who really feel valued when others need us and notice what we do and say tend to be people who are attached to what others think. They may feel insecure and not know who they really are. The downfall of being attached to a certain outcome is that we attach value on ourselves only when we are noticed and if we are not noticed the way we want, then we don’t feel appreciated and valued, making the other person/people wrong for not responding how we think they should leaving us with feelings of unappreciated and insignificant.. like we don’t matter. This reaction on other peoples non-response will tend to create isolation and may lead us into depression and disconnection from meaningful relationships.

NON-ATTACHMENT, on the other hand, is when we let go of any specific outcome and just allow things to flow… often being more spontaneous and accepting of what is. Allowing what is and just BEING IN THE MOMENT creates more space to explore and have fun. In this state of being, there are no expectations or assumptions. The gift of non-attachment is that there is no agenda and there seems to be more freedom just to BE in the moment and enjoy things as they are. There will often be more acceptance as a result, giving us more space to breath and be ourselves in a more relaxed, authentic atmosphere. The most important thing to remember here when we are in a state of non-attachment is we need to ALWAYS ask for what we need. Making requests is super important and letting others know what we need is VITAL rather then expecting them to know and read our minds. Awwww this is a recipe for disaster – thinking that the others know what we are thinking.

Example of a request – “I know you are busy and you may not have notice that I cleaned the whole house while you were gone… I would love it if took a moment and just appreciated all the hard work I put into making the house look nice, thank you.. this would mean a lot to me… can I show you?”

Now making a request that is inviting like this… creates deeper connection with others rather than disconnect and blame.

Where there is disconnect and blame this is also known as a trigger. A Trigger is when we are not in our hearts and we are defending our position or attacking the other person in defending our position of needing to be heard and understood.

I recommend when you trigger yourself follow the following steps.

GUIDELINES TO RESTORE HARMONY WITHIN YOURSELF.

1. Take a moment and breath and just notice you are triggered.

2. See if you can identify what you are triggered about.

3. Once you identify the trigger, be with it and really feel the pain and discomfort in your body. Feel your feelings fully.

4. Once you have felt your feelings fully, allow yourself to create distance and see your situation from a birds eye view. See if you can see how things may have been for anyone else in your presence.

5. Verbalize your experience from your heart which someone who can be present with you and really   listen from their heart. You may ask them for feedback to get another angle on the issue at hand, shedding light to any blind spots that could help you deepen your understanding of how you can handle it with more grace and ease and love next time.

GUIDELINES TO FOLLOW TO RESTORE HARMONY WITH ANOTHER PERSON

1. Take a breath to receive the other person and presence them.

2. Stop talking and listen where they are at, while putting your feelings and needs temporarily aside

3. Feel into what the other person might be feeling at this present moment

4. When there is a gap in their sharing, practice empathy and compassionate communication (compassionate communication is communication that connects.. e.g. – I hear that is painful for you .. or Wow, that sounds hard… or  I really appreciate your vulnerability or I understand that this is a challenging time for you… is there anything I can support you with?)

5. Ask what they are feeling – show authentic interest

6. Use reflective /active listening – using their words and phrases – reflective listening is not interpreting what you heard them say, it is saying what you heard the other person say without your filter. What I heard you say is…..… is this right? that makes sense……is there more?

7. Share something I appreciate about them

8. Acknowledge them for something relevant –  e.g. – I acknowledge you for your willingness to stick with the process… I understand it is hard. Thank you for your courage.

9. Ask what they need – eg. support, listening, appreciation, encouragement, validation, being held, a hug…etc.

10. Acknowledge them for sharing their truth and what is real for them especially their vulnerability and honesty.

I am so committed to sharing my truth even if it painful for others to hear. The funny thing about truth it will bring us closer, even if it hurts at first. Thank you for showing up to be your best self.

Notice when you are in a state of Attachment and when you are in a state of Non-Attachment and just notice what happens.. How are others responding to you? How are you responding to you? Just notice without putting meaning to it or making anyone wrong including yourself  Just Notice.

As always, I encourage you to write down your noticing as you will start to become more aware of the different responses when you put more attention into what you noticed.

I hope this information is useful to you.

In Loving Service,

Lucia Nicola

From Turmoil to Peace

From Turmoil to Peace

Posted on May 26, 2015 

My whole life I have tried to make sense of this human experience. What it is that I need to learn as I evolve and get older. I have come to realize that it is very simple, and yet not so easy to do all the time.

For the past week, as I am an empath, I have been feeling the collective field very deeply. I have been feeling deep deep pain. Our world no doubt is in extreme turmoil. There is a lot of devastation going on right now that is challenging for us. How are economy is, to our environment, to how we treat each other.

I often ask myself what can I do to help this world? I don’t feel like I am doing enough.

I woke up today again asking, what is it that I need to be focusing on to help our world, our people, our environment? What is really important right now?

Then it dawned on me. The best thing I can do to help is to BE at PEACE within myself in this very moment and allow my inner knowing, my inner guidance, grace –  to show me from moment to moment where I need to go with this feeling of peace. To have a loving conscious relationship with myself. This requires me to slow down and really listen. That is another blog I will write soon. How to really LISTEN.

It is so easy to worry – worrying about how to make money, worrying about the world and about our future. Worrying about our future does not bring peace. Being in the present moment brings peace. And this moment is so so so precious. I have the power to bring my attention back to this moment and each moment with a simple breath to restore peace once again.

The great news is, by coming back to peace, I am creating a new experience for myself in the field of turmoil and  gloom and doom.

I am creating an experience for the possibility where I can NOW create space to create something NEW. You may be asking, how do I do that?

Well, it is very simple. Bring your focus back to the breath and realize that each moment is just as it needs to be in order for the next moment to unfold. Accept things as they are in each moment.. and notice what you are feeling. Are you really allowing yourself to feel the feelings or are you resisting them? To feel the feelings – allow yourself time and space – slow down and make time to have important quality conversations. Get support from friends that you trust. To dissolve the resistance, lean into it. Find out what the resistance needs. What are you resisting? Can you define it? Where are you feeling the resistance in your body? Notice how you are breathing. This is the discovery work that I do with clients – exploring what is in the way of feeling and being at PEACE.

Feeling the feelings restores peace. Having truthful loving conversations with others to share what is real for you restores peace. Avoiding and resisting what is creates more turmoil. This  turmoil with eventually show up in your body as tension or some sort of dis-ease. The only thing that is really trust worthy is to come from my inner knowings and becoming aware of what it is saying to me.  I don’t need to know about the next moment. If I can live my life in the flow of each moment, then I am living in alignment with Peace.

I realized the last week I have been putting a lot of PRESSURE on myself to create some sort of plan in order for others to understand more about what I am doing in my work. I realized that the information will come as soon as I release the pressure. For the pressure is just creating more turmoil inside about what I think I should be doing. And this does not feel at all peaceful. This feels judgmental.

Being peaceful inside has so many benefits. I get to have more fun because I am more relaxed. I get to notice more. We live in such a beautiful world. Yes, there are some really depressing things, no doubt about it. I just watch a movie called “Tomorrow Land” . It shows a more positive future for us. It is worth seeing.

What are you choosing to put your attention on? The hopelessness and despair of the world or the beauty of knowing that you can be at peace within and come from a place of love for yourself, for our world and for each other.

What will you do for peace? What are you willing to take a stand for? What is your heart longing for? Are you willing to die for it? Who will you ask to be on your team?

We have an opportunity here right now in our world. We have an opportunity to remember that peace within, get connected, align ourselves with our values and live this with each moment of each day.

I take a stand for SUSTAINABLE GLOBAL CHANGE through loving each moment as it arises from a loving, centered, grounded and connected place.

I take a stand for PEACE, by returning to my breath when I am upset and putting pressure on myself.

I take a stand for LOVE, and asking for support when I need it.

I take a stand for COMMUNITY, for receiving SUPPORT when it is too much for me to handle by myself.

I take a stand for being AVAILABLE to those in need that are willing to take responsibility for their part. I am here for you.

I take a stand for BEING PRESENT to each moment where I have the opportunity to come back to my Heart, to my Being, to PEACE so I can create a foundation to PLAY from.

I have found a formula that works really well for me to sustain peace. I hope it helps you in your life.

GRACE is my guide. Grace is generated by POWER. Power is sparked by my INTENTION. And my Intention is fed by LOVE.

Blessings and Peace to you all.

In loving Service to you.  Lucia Nicola

The Difference Between Divine Love and Programmed Love

The Difference Between Divine Love and Programmed Love

Posted on June 29, 2015 

Hi There Beloveds,

I just went through some intense feelings of severe confusion to discover this clarity. I am inspired to write it now because it in still very fresh for me. I know many of you will resonate with what I am saying.

So I was getting super confused about what Being In Love really meant. Someone shared with me yesterday how being in love to him meant loosing his sense of self in another person. I find this fascinating because Being in love for me is gaining my self of self with another. To me, all there is that I know from my being, is Love. Love is our natural state of being and therefore has no association with human meaning as a concept or programming. Yet, many associate Being In Love with romantic or programmed actions or feelings and an identification what we think it is from previous expectations or assumptions. So being in love is not something you can understand or figure out from our programmed beliefs and constructs, from our mind. Being in love, is eternal, forever  – if it is coming from Divine Intelligence… something greater than our programmed beliefs and constructs.

Being in  Divine Love is not conditional… meaning it doesn’t change depending on external circumstances – it is constant and it cannot be threatened. If someone is having a bad day.. I don’t love them any less for them having a bad day or if they lash out at me. I send compassion and love their way.

It is our purpose to evolve into this Divine Love….We grow and deepen and eventually come to realize that all there is to come back to is love. Divine love never goes away. This is how to really experience total acceptance where there is no pain and suffering… just a state of BEING IN LOVE.

Programmed Love on the other hand comes and goes.. and pain is then felt from the identification of this impermanence of such love. Feeling the separation of the lack of love is not fun. This causes us excruciating pain and suffering in our hearts and beings – we feel things like.. not feeling wanted, needed, safe… feelings of rejection surface since we put so much meaning to it these things. Then we shut down because it feels threatening to keep our hearts open due to the constant changeability of programmed love.

Divine Love just is. It is not associated with anything other than Being itself. Being is constant… it is not changeable.

When we take time to BE…what is the overall feeling? relaxed right? So when we are relaxed, we are aligned with Divine Love. When we are upset and triggered we are coming from programmed love… we go into expectation and assumptions and disappointments and wounding etc.

Because Divine love just is….. there is nowhere it isn’t. It is in this sense without meaning. So there way out of pain and suffering is to let go into the flow and be in the issues of being… a state that is too vast to be understood by the human mind… it is only understood by our experience of this now moment. A total full experience of what is right now, where there is no thought, no judgement, no emotional suffering – just being.

What will you do…there are two options.

Accept what is OR Resist what is. What are you choosing? Today I rode he wave of accepting my confusion.. it was initially painful and uncomfortable.. then the skies cleared and I found a deeper understanding. I am so grateful for this discovery.

An Action Step you can do – Something that will help you be in Divine Love more… is taking consistent time to go inward and relax into the moment..into just being – come back to your senses.. how are you feeling.. what are you feeling in your body? does your body have something to tell you? what are you hearing? Can you feel the rhythm of your breath? You can go to the beach and use the rhythm of the waves to bring you into a state of relaxation or put on some relaxing words that doesn't have words – take 20 to 30 mins of quiet time to JUST BE daily – see what you discover. What is the essence of you? can you feel it? I would love to hear your discoveries.

Feel free to email me at relationshipnavigator@gmail.com

Being In love and Service with you.

Lucia Nicola

Sex: Surrendering Into Pleasure

Sex: Surrendering Into Pleasure

Posted on February 14, 2016 by luciaevans

Sex is a hot topic for most of us, it is for me. I am a very passionate person. I love sex. I love making love even more. I love feeling close, skin on skin, and being intimate with someone I am attracted to, where we can share pleasure and be sensual together. Not too long ago, I felt ashamed for having such intense feelings of sexual desire. I denied myself my own pleasure as a woman for fear of losing control and being too much, too wild. I thought if I was too much, I may not get the love and attention I so longed for. I didn’t know how to talk about sex and was embarrassed to share my fantasies.

I didn’t really know how to let go of being in charge…

I was scared of the power my sexuality seemed to have over me. It seemed like a power, bigger than me would just take over. I didn’t know how to manage my sexual energy. I so longed to feel pleasure with my partner and be “taken” by him. Yet, I didn’t really know how to let go of being in charge, so I could give him the opportunity to truly make love to me.

It scared me to relinquish control. I didn’t think my partner would be able to hold a strong enough space for me. I had fears of him judging me and abandoning me for being too wild.

How did I go from relinquishing control to surrendering into pleasure you might be asking?

I found a man who was willing to play with me and be present with me, someone who I had really great sexual chemistry with. We were totally honest about our fantasies, our needs and our desires. We made time to touch each other and look into each other’s eyes with undivided attention.

The most important part of surrendering into pleasure for me was creating a solid place of trust. Setting mutual agreements that felt honoring for both of us was key to creating trust. The more quality time I spent with my partner, the more I felt safe to surrender into pleasure.

The more I felt safe to relax, the more pleasure I was able to feel.

As I surrendered into pleasure little by little, I deepened my trust with my partner. The more I felt safe to relax, the more pleasure I was able to feel. We synchronized our energies with cuddling and slow erotic massages. Sometimes fears would come up, I mentioned to my partner that anytime I needed to have an emotional release, all he needed to do was BE with me in the feeling. There was no need for words, just for him to hold a solid, loving space for me to move through my tears.The more I gave myself permission to feel my feelings, the more space there was for me to give and receive pleasure. We fed on each others pleasure, pleasuring each other for hours.

Now, I feel I have a deeper and more loving relationship, not just with my partner, but most importantly, with myself.

I love being a woman now. I embrace my sexuality and my femininity and love getting all juiced up for my partner. I feel so grateful that I had and continue to have the courage and willingness to feel my feelings. Now, I feel I have a deeper and more loving relationship, not just with my partner, but most importantly, with myself. I am my own lover and best friend and have found a partner to share this with, where we pleasure each other beyond just intercourse. We pleasure each other with a glance or a touch. I wish this quality of connection and intimacy for everyone. It is truly divine to share pleasure in this way.