Jen: 0:02

My name is Jen Briggs and welcome to the whole shebang, where, on Mondays, you get what else but a mini bang. These short episodes are really meant to meet you where you're at, to help you set an intention or focus for the week, to consider a perspective that maybe you haven't before, and to answer the most common questions that not only propelled my personal and professional growth, but the best of the best I see around me. This is where we unbecome shedding the layers and the old ways that aren't serving us anymore, and where we continue becoming, stepping into and magnifying more of who you really are and who you're meant to be. So, buckle up buttercups we're diving in. Buckle up buttercups we're diving in.

Jen: 0:43

Today, I want to talk about the most transformative, powerful thing that we have access to, and that is love. No surprise, let's just start with what is love, because sometimes I think that we have a lot of confusion around what that means. Is this a feeling that I have for something or for somebody? Is it conditional on certain aspects of things people, timing, is it even conditional on there being something or somebody to love? And my answer to that question is no, it shouldn't be that. The kind of love that I'm talking about is really found within, and it is connected to everything. Without meaning, it is found inside of ourselves and it is connected to everything outside of ourselves, of ourselves and connected might not even be the right word In my experience. It is an essence of oneness, of union, of um. It's like the air that we breathe, that's around us, but that it is also oxygenating our blood. It is not just one thing separate from us, it is fully imbued, it is fully embodied, it is fully a part of the essence of who we are, and it's really hard to talk about this without it feeling so esoteric, except that I think it's important, or at least it feels important for me today, to attempt to help us to dive deeper into the true essence of what love is, because I believe that love is the power that will transform us and will transform this earth, transform us and will transform this earth, and we need love, true love, now more than we've ever needed it, and we, I believe, are in a transformative phase of evolution within this earth. We're entering a new era, we're entering a time of awakening for ourselves, and love is the most potent alchemical power that we have within us. It is already within us and I believe that it's like anything the more consciousness we put on that love, the more magnified it becomes, the more real it feels.

Jen: 3:28

So today I'm going to take more than five minutes I probably already have and I want to walk through a few aspects of this. How do we feel that love? What does that love actually feel like? And I'm going to use that word, feel kind of loosely. So how do we tap into that? What are sort of the benefits of that? And um, ooh, I'm also going to share a few thoughts with you that my ego didn't want to go to, but in my experience with these episodes, those these weeks, that I feel like I would get a little hit of something to talk about. It's probably the most important thing I can share. So I'm going to get to that in a little bit here, all right? So, first of all, how do we tap into that love?

Jen: 4:18

I want you to, if you can, for a minute, just set aside the word love. Set aside what you think love has meant to you, what you've experienced love as from others, what you know it to be. Set that word aside for a minute, and I want you to think of a time when you have felt in awe. Maybe the birth of a child. Maybe one night, in the quiet, you were looking up at the stars and the moon. Maybe you listened to a symphony and you felt awe in that moment. Maybe you saw an underdog win something and that was awe-inspiring. You think of those moments of awe and then you think of where you feel that in your body and for me, this is one of the greatest ways. Now your experience might be very different. I'm going to walk you through my experience out of the studying I've done and the embodiment exercises I've done that have helped me to tap into this love. So when you think of those moments of awe, or when you're out walking today or listening to music today, when you hear or see or experience a moment of awe, I want you to, in those moments or now as you're recalling one, to take a moment and, if you can close your eyes, take a deep breath in and focus your consciousness on that moment and where you feel it in your body, and now savor it. What is it like to savor a bite of food and notice the texture on the other side of your mouth and notice how it tastes? Yes, when we begin to bring consciousness to that experience of awe and that experience of love, and then savor it and focus on it, you will feel it start to bubble up in you.

Jen: 6:29

Now this is the point when many of us stop. We stop because we start to feel things right and we are often, I think, afraid of what we're going to feel or we're going to find that that love will uncover. And this is the point. This is precisely the reason, because love is a transformative power. Love is the source of all being. Love is source, power. Love is the source of all being. Love is source. Love is power. So I don't just mean an ooshy-gooshy feeling of like, oh, I love that person, although that is nice. I'm talking about the feeling that can come from the center of your being, from the like cosmos, imbibe in your body and can transform whatever else is in there. And so oftentimes, when we start to feel that love be magnified within us, you might feel tears come to your eyes, you might be flooded with a memory of a hurt that you had and how love can wash over. And my invitation to you in those moments is to allow love to get bigger, to allow love to wash over, to allow love to bubble up, to heal, to alchemize, to transform those parts of us that don't go touched often, or maybe ever.

Jen: 8:07

I have in front of me Megan Watterson's book, mary Magdalene Revealed, and a lot of this is talking about that inner knowing, or the nous, which is seeing through the eyes of the heart. It is understanding that the true gift of love, or the true practice of love, is to bring love in places that it's never been before. And so this, always as always, always, always, I believe, starts with us. Where in ourselves have we not brought love? Where within have we not allowed a love to touch or be seen? What corners have we felt are unlovable, unworthy, are too shameful? And can we surrender to love touching those parts of us and receive that? Can we offer our self-compassion in those parts? This is how we bring healing and wholeness to self is to surrender to the power of love. That's thing number one. So how do we do this? We focus, like I said, on those moments of awe.

Jen: 9:25

Here's another practice that Megan, in her book, talks about. It's from a mystical tradition, meditation, slash prayer from the early ancient Eastern Orthodox church, and it's a form of meditation where, uh, I'm going to totally butcher the name of these peoples. Let's find it here Hesychast. These are the things I should Google before I do this. Uh, it's spelled H, e, s, y, c, h, a, s, t S.

Jen: 10:00

These are the groups of peoples that would, people that would essentially meditate and pray, going inward to see through the eyes of their heart, and what they did was they would put their body into a posture that their back was kind of hurled over or curled over on their heart, so their head could be facing down and essentially see into their heart. Not physically, but that was the posture of their body. Megan, so lovely. She said these men didn't have breasts, and if you have big ones and they're heavy, it can be really comfortable to sit that way. So if that's, you just assume that posture in your mind.

Jen: 10:44

So in her book they explained that what happens by focusing all our consciousness into the heart area is a process that breaks down at walls and leaves it stripped, bared and exposed. So the intention here is to drop further into the heart, to remember that the body can be a medium to access the soul rather than an obstacle. So we go in, we take a deep breath, so this practice is to assume that posture, close your eyes and then you take a breath in understanding that we are in this body and that it is only because we have a body that we're even able to experience this experience. Then we take a second breath and we descend into the heart. And then we take a third breath connecting to the soul, or the nous, n-o-u-s that's Greek and it actually means the heart and to see through the eyes of the heart. And then another breath knowing that we are led by love and in that space, in that sort of cathedral of your heart. That is where you can ask questions and the trickiest part here is believing the answers that surface. It's starting to trust and believe yourself, knowing your higher self source, your connection to your oneness with soul is speaking to you, that you don't need outside sources, you don't need to outsource your power in order to get the answers that you're looking for. You can spend all the time you want within that place in your heart. So that's a second way to tap into this power of love. Now the third just going to surrender to this myself right now.

Jen: 12:48

I was listening to things. I'm always listening to things and sometimes I forget where they come from. This one is coming from a spiritual teacher and channel. Her name is Dolores Cannon. Whatever you think about her, or channels, or spiritual gurus, or whatever, it doesn't, I'm kind of indifferent towards that. That's not the point of this. The point of it is that what she said had resonated with me, and the next morning I woke up with this thought running through my being. That was like rut row.

Jen: 13:21

So what she said, that is that as we're entering into a new era, we're awakening on this new earth, that in order for us to move into that, we need to release old karma. And the way that we release old karma is through forgiveness. And to me, forgiveness is interconnected to this power of love. And so I was thinking about that, like what do I have to forgive? What have? Who do I have to forgive? What am I holding on to? That maybe I haven't let go of, or that I'm still internally wishing, you know, not pain upon somebody, but kind of right.

Jen: 14:02

What is a lack of forgiveness? It's holding on to this idea, this right to be right. I have a right to be right, to have righteous anger. And all of that is true, and I want to be clear that if you've been hurt, if you've been wronged, if you've been the victim on something, forgiveness and love is not without boundary. It does not mean that we excuse behavior, and sometimes I think that we can conflate this idea with unconditional love, with boundaryless love, and that is not the same thing. But that transformative power of love, when you let that come over you, in my experience it is almost impossible to hold on to hatred, anger, a lack of forgiveness. It's not impossible, but it is transformative. So here comes the thought. That was a hard one to wrestle with, that I'm still wrestling with.

Jen: 15:01

So I've been studying the divine feminine and the history of the sacredness that was stripped from us as individuals, from us as women, the religious structures that were put in place and the patriarchy I've been sharing with men and women in my life lately, that the last thing that I want to communicate is this vibe that is like F the patriarchy, f men, because that's not where I'm at and there is a reality that there was a group of men historically that came in and did create a societal structure that gave them more power than others, than women, than minorities, than whatever it might be, even though at the time they were likely the minority, and so that structure was put in place. And simultaneously, as I'm sort of processing these things, processing, how do I communicate that the antidote to the patriarchy is not a matriarchy? How do I communicate that I am for women's empowered embodiment, like goddess love, but that it's not at the cost of men? How do I communicate that? So I get a reel from one of my male friends and it's of this woman and I'm not going to name her I actually don't even know her name and I almost cried when I was watching the reel. She was talking about how we need to, um, decentralize ourselves from men, so we need to like oh, she said, de-center men and her belief is that women will get all their power back when they stop centering themselves around men in relationship, in work, whatever. And she kind of went on a little bit of a rant and I thought, wow, this is so sad. And then these little pieces started to come together. Have we forgiven the quote-unquote patriarchy? Wow.

Jen: 17:34

So when you think of the patriarchy, who do you have in your mind's eye? Is it people? Is it a person? Is it a group of people today? Is it a group of historical people? And this is especially tough to talk about today, on the heels of our former president getting shot at and people being so polarized around so many topics, and I can understand the polarization and there is real fear on the quote-unquote sides of things. I didn't want to talk about this today, but we know what unforgiveness does to us right?

Jen: 18:18

So if you have a relationship from your past or whether it's a parent or a lover or a sibling or a friend, and you've been hurt, and let's just say that that person purposely hurt you, we're going to go to the further degree and so you carry that lack of forgiveness around with you and you go to try to start a new relationship or put yourself on the other end of it. Someone on the other side that wants to get into relationship with you but they're harboring unforgiveness. You can feel that in them and they bring that to you other person is holding onto bitterness and poison that is poisoning them, that is keeping them from being able to come to you as a whole healthy person. So it got me thinking.

Jen: 19:21

If we haven't forgiven the patriarchy, how is that showing up in us as individuals, male and female? Is this? Fuck the patriarchy also fuck men, fuck the system. And if we're holding that in our bodies and our minds and our hearts, what is it doing? I'm not even. I don't. I don't even know how to begin to answer that question, to be honest with you, because I haven't fleshed it out, but the question is sitting with me and my directive is to bring the question to you.

Jen: 20:05

If you haven't forgiven it, how is it impacting how you show up? And let's just like lay out a hypothetical scenario. Let's say that I do feel like this woman that was in this reel or somebody, and it's like you know what. We need to decenter ourselves from men and from all of the systems in the place. It's fuck the patriarchy, fuck men. How many men in our world are hearing that message right now? And what does hearing that message? Whether it's directed at them or not, what is that doing for the men in our world that are birthed here, that incarnated here for a purpose Like whoa?

Jen: 20:52

Is it possible that we are holding back the evolution of the new era that we're walking into because we're harboring unforgiveness towards the patriarchy? And what would it look like if we brought the transformative love, the transformative power of love, wherever we went? What if, like me, we don't know what to do with that or where to start or where to go. So we commit to doing the best that we can, to going inward, to tapping into, seeing through the eyes of our heart, so that we can walk through this world as love. And when we do that, what is the possibility? True love is not just a choice. Love is like air, love is like blood. Love is endless, its capacity is endless, its power is without limit.

Jen: 22:45

Now, each of you listening today are not listening by chance, and I know that words and energy and specifically the frequency of love, is a lot like art. We can all look at one piece or hear a song or look at the sky, and it will hit us all differently. And so whatever is stirring up in you if anything, maybe nothing, whatever is coming to your mind, your heart, the eyes of your heart, your nous, your knowing, then, if there's any place that you're holding on to unforgiveness, it does not mean to forgive, does not mean that we have to condone anything. To forgive means that we let the transformative power of love wash over and that we let go of the desire to bring hurt or harm and that we trust the power of God, of the universe to move in ways that only source can. And I believe with every fiber of my being that on the other side of forgiveness and in the midst of love, that is where true freedom lies, your freedom, the freedom that you think you've been fighting for or you have been fighting for there are times to fight, I get it. Nothing can give us true freedom than letting go of the things that we're holding on to. Nothing can give us the freedom like that. If we're holding onto a lack of forgiveness or holding onto anger or a grudge or a hurt or a pain, that is keeping you locked up and collectively, that is keeping you locked up and collectively, collectively, that's keeping us locked up.

Jen: 24:56

When we don't forgive, we drag the past into the present. When we keep looking backwards going. What if we drag the past into the present and we keep repeating the cycles over and over and over? What would it look like if we stopped dragging the past into the present? What could the present be? What could the future become? This doesn't mean we don't learn from history. This doesn't mean we're okay with all the things. I can just like hear. I can just hear the inner chatter that's like yeah, but Jet, yeah, but I know, I know I'm angry too. I'm here with you, which is why I didn't even want to talk about it, but we have to talk about it because this is part of our path forward. Okay, so this week, where can you allow love to go that it hasn't gone before? Where has love not gone and how can you bring it there? I think that's it, I think that's all. Have a banging day, loves.