What is your essence? Do you know?
by Scott and Shannon Peck
We can know someone’s essence by describing their core values. For example, someone may exude joy, generosity, creativity or love.
You can also learn someone’s essence by describing their energy. For example, what are the top words you’d use to describe your core essence and energy? Some people’s energy is calm or peaceful. Others exude the energy of compassion or giving. Here are words describing people’s primary energy that a group came up with at a recent workshop: big and beautiful, sweet and praising, pure, enthusiastic, authentic, feminine, highly aware, unifier, innocent, beautiful, poised, loving and principled. There are a million words to describe people’s energies.
Have you come up with your five yet? Please do, because the first step of radiating your essence is knowing your essence!
Our unique essence often remains hidden because we don’t identify it or celebrate it. How would you like to live in a world where everyone celebrated your essence? They would be acknowledging, celebrating and honoring the primary qualities that best describe you. By doing so, it would continually remind you of who you really are, how valuable you are and how you are being perceived by others in successful ways. How wonderful would that be? And how wonderful would it be for you to be the one doing that for others.
One way to get started on celebrating your essence is through observing your inner talk. Rather than judging or condemning yourself with inner statements such as, “I’m not pretty or handsome. I’m not important. No one cares. I’m not loveable or capable,” you’d practice inner love talk that celebrates your true self – based on how you have identified your core self. For example, you’d remind yourself, “I have inner beauty. I am good. I am valuable and loveable. I am a treasure. What I carry in my heart is beautiful. I am love. I am worthy of expressing my radiance.
The reason we are so confident that you can easily celebrate your essence once you identify it is that everyone’s true self is basically composed of goodness. It’s time to go back to the roots of our original goodness and call it forward to shine.
No doubt, as you contemplate radiating your essence, the first thing that comes up is the negative response from those you anticipate won’t appreciate your lovely efforts of sharing with them your radiance. In fact, the mere thought of these people may even make you cringe in anticipation of their inevitable criticism.
So how do you get past that one? Here’s one way:
Rely on your inner radar to tell you when it’s safe for your essence to shine. It may be with only a few people that you feel emotionally safe enough to share your unguarded inner self. Those, then will be the ones you will begin with radiating your essence. When you are around these people, dare to summon the courage to somehow shine forth.
For instance, if you identify yourself primarily as a nurturer, a healer or a clown (those three words are a good description of Shannon’s essence), be sure to express that deliberately and even exaggerate these qualities when you are with one of those people with whom you feel emotionally safe. Notice how far you can go without drawing back. And notice the response you get. Since these are persons who accept you as you are, ask them for feedback on what they most enjoyed in your essence sharing. As you do this, you’ll gain more confidence in being the real you.
Scott shares his primary core self by his energies of warmth, embracing others with his strength of empowering them to go higher and his desire to unify and bring people together. When he’s doing this, he feels he’s living at one with his true self. When he doesn’t radiate this essence, he (as all of us do) feels lost, uninspired and doubtful about his value. What if we or you, fail to radiate our essence? This would be a terrible loss – to the universe. On some days we forget who we are. We all do this. But our desire and commitment to remember to practice who we are at a nine or ten will bring all of us to a higher vibration of love.
It’s better to give yourself lots of room to make mistakes and goof up than to continue the pattern of holding back. It would be a great loss if everyone on the planet shared their radiance at a six rather than at a ten. Practice being a ten yourself and sharing with others what you yourself would love to receive of their radiance. It will begin a new wave of love on earth! Welcome to the heart of love.
