CHAPTER 1

Centers, Textures, and Lenses

The Dimensions of Living Vividly

We are a small group of women sitting together in a sacred circle.We've gathered items that represent the four elements: earth, water,air, and fire, for a central altar that holds the space of the sacredcenter of our circle, the place where all our respective stories becomeone. We've joined together for the weekend, to share and explore oursoulful, woman-ful connection to life and deepen the meaning of ourexistence.

Many of the women who sit in this circle, are here for the very firsttime. They feel nervous, hesitant; some even feel scared or terrified."Why did I come here" you can almost hear their thoughts in thesilence. "There are so many other things I could be doing this weekend.What's the point of a woman's circle anyway?"

Their nervousness is practically palpable. Many of these women havedone lots of risky things in their life. They've traveled, raised families,held powerful positions in business and policy making organizations,and sought ways to grow and expand, so it's not as if they're strangersto living outside the box. But sitting in a sacred circle with a bunch ofwomen, most of them strangers, is still foreign and threatening. Maybeit's because of the many years we've mistrusted other women, maybeit's because intimacy and vulnerability are scary, maybe it's becausethey can sense something big is about to shift in them. Whatever thereasons for their fears and concerns, they are clearly ready to movebeyond them, because they are here.

Firsthand experience is the best way to learn. It gets woven into yourcellular being and takes you through the resistance and fabricatedexcuses of the mind. Weekends like these are designed primarily to getbeneath the rational mind's understanding into the depth and mysterythat lies behind and beyond the stories we weave as interpretations.

In order to make sense of the why and place the wisdom and insightsin context so that they can be more effectively applied to your life, amethodology works wonders. For a group who are landing in strangeterritory like a sacred woman's circle for the first time, a travel guidethat describes and charts out the journey can be invaluable in helpingus to navigate the process that lies ahead.

The Vividly Woman System of Somatic Awakening, the nuts and boltsof the Vividly Woman Embodied Leader Training, has three maindimensions. These three dimensions: centers, textures, and lenses, arethe tools that we use to orient ourselves, to resource our own deeperwisdom, and to organize our inquiries and investment of life energy.Each of these dimensions stands on its own and simultaneouslyinterweaves with the others creating what we call on a schematic level,the Vividly Woman Solar System (VWSS). The diagram on the nextpage maps it out visually for you.

This system is a way of making it easier for you to explore thewilderness of your soul-body, so that you can learn from its wildmysteries. The VWSS supports you to embrace your body as a canvasfor creative change, so that how you are in your body can help yougrow and change in ways that will bring you greater peace andfulfillment in all aspects of your life.

Power Centers

At the heart of the Vividly Woman Solar System are the three femininepower centers. They sit at the center of the system, like the sun sits atthe center of our earth's solar system, a fiery hot globe around whichthe planets (Vividly Woman textures) constellate.

We sometimes refer to the three feminine power centers as the threeinner fountains of feminine wisdom. This alternative name is less staticand captures the sensual abundance that's an important aspect of them.The centers or fountains are the Sensual, Emotional, and Intuitive.They correspond to the pelvis, the chest, and head respectively. Thismeans that each center's wisdom is primarily embodied in that areaof the body, but is not limited to just that area. That's why the linesbetween the respective centers in the diagram of the Vividly WomanSolar System are broken instead of solid, so that the wisdom andenergy can flow between them.

Our body is an interactive, integrated whole made up of manyparts and systems that function because of their interrelatedness.It's important to remember that each center's wisdom is primarilyembodied in that area of the body, but not exclusively. For instance,Emotional Power is mainly accessed and stored in the area of the heartwhich sits in the chest, however,...