As a Fully Expressed Human Being, What Does Love Want?
In this video from the September 2019 Embodied Women’s Weekend Intensive in New York, John describes three stages of feminine self-expression:
First Stage: Self-Expression
How can I be fully self-expressed as a human being?
This stage is all about “self” - what you want to say, what you’re feeling, what’s important for you, etc. When fully owned, this expression of your deep desires and emotions, such as anger, grief, and yearning, can be very healthy. Ultimately, you can’t be in a healthy relationship, either with yourself, the world, or another human being without owning these things.
A few examples of places that inspire and encourage fully-owned, healthy self-expression are S Factor and Burning Man. “I’m going to ride around naked through the desert on a pony because that’s what my heart wants me to do.”
Second Stage: Expression Modulated for the Other
How do I bring the truth of my heart, body and soul into a moment in a way that considers, and even nourishes, others around me?
Most of us can’t bring our “Burning Man Selves” to the home or workplace, so we have to modulate our self-expression in ways in which we won’t injure or overwhelm others. Oftentimes, the feminine doesn’t want to modulate - because it’s your heart! But doing so draws others to you and opens pathways for connection.
Third Stage: What Love Wants to Move Through You
What does the moment want? What does God/Goddess want? What does love want?
Self-expression in this stage comes from an unfettered, unrestrained expression of love, beyond what you want or what another wants. It’s a rare place of expression where most of us don’t live very often. For example, you may be walking down Madison Avenue and you see your partner coming toward you, which fills your heart with love. “Fully-Expressed Self” might run, screaming into their arms, and taking them by surprise. But maybe your partner is texting with work and that expression isn’t appropriate, so “Modulated Self” might skip up to them with a light bounce in your heart.
Love may want something totally different! Love may want you to run up to them, drop to your knees, and exclaim, “I love this person!” Or sing them a love ballad. Or any myriad of things that you’ve never thought to do before!
For that to happen, for us to move from one stage to another, we have to clear a lot of channels, free the body, and open the heart.
This clip is from “What Love Wants”- a compilation of teaching sessions from the September 2019 Embodied Women's Weekend Intensive in New York, John asks, "What does love want from you, aside from what you want, or the other wants?" He encourages you to not give love when you're not inspired, but do the things you need to do to become inspired, and then calls you to practice remembering the love that you are, wait until the divine inspires you to give love, and then let love move through you.