If you are thinking of a fun uplifting movie to watch this holiday season with the family; I would recommend watching (or rewatching if you have seen it) The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. I thought about this movie one afternoon at a doggy Birthday party – hanging out with the girls and a glass of wine talking about our favourite inspirational songs. I knew mine straight away – the closing song of this movie!
Beautiful Things don’t Ask for Attention
Sean O’Connell: Sometimes I don’t. If I like a moment, for me, personally, I don’t like to have the distraction of the camera. I just want to stay in it.
Walter Mitty: Stay in it?
Sean O’Connell: Yeah. Right there. Right here.
As I always believe – nothing is coincidence. I hardly watch movies so me watching this two times in a row I knew there was a message here that I needed to see.
I was contemplating a research topic for my upcoming workshop – and when I watched this movie I found my inspiration – The Quintessence of Life. To explain the plot of the movie without giving it away, it is basically about a ‘Negative Asset Manager’ named Walter Mitty. He receives some photo negatives to process but negative #25 dubbed to be the “quintessence of life” is missing. Scheduled to be used on the final cover issue of LIFE magazine, Walter Mitty takes it upon himself to uncover the mystery of the missing negative #25 before it’s print deadline and to prevent loosing his job. Performed brilliantly by Ben Stiller and Sean Penn this is going to be added to my list of favourite movies of all time.
Quintessence – Uncovering The Meaning
I did a bit of research uncovering the origination of the word “Quintessence”. It’s origination was from the latin word: quinta essentia ‘fifth essence’. First four essence/elements being: Air, Earth, Fire and Water. The fifth being Ether.
What really got my attention was reading about the symbolism of this element Ether, written here:
“Ether moves to become air, air causes friction to become fire, fire becomes water as it becomes denser, water becomes earth as it coagulates. And all five elements are contained in the Earth.” Consciousness is Ether because they both have the qualities which are clear, subtle, light, expansive, and omnipresent.
The Quintessence of Life is Our Connection to Consciousness
It could mean different things to different people. But for me, the element Ether is the essence of consciousness. That is our Quintessence of Life. The the movie, the quintessence of life are the ones that do not seek attention.
Workshop Collective
Our workshop started off with the introduction to my chancing upon today’s topic and our intention for our practice. Sometimes inspiration gives a good opportunity to channel our focus within our practice of movement.
Understanding yogic philosophy need not be complicated. Which is why I have simplified my practices to three simple applications.
FEEL
Most of the time, the practice of feeling is easier said then done. Understanding it in text is easy but applying it in your personal practice can be challenging especially when the feelings are not positive ones. Emotions like pain, heartache, loneness are tough emotions to sit with and we spend most of our energy to avoid feeling it. But what if these emotions are the key to our evolution? By practicing breathing into these emotions and feeling it in our bodies – we take the ‘daring bravely’ approach to face our emotions with love rather then act out on them with fear. The practice of acceptance.
MOVE
Bringing our emotions to the forefront of our mind brings the opportunity to harness the release of that mental state. By raising the energy of the body through moment we find that we are equipped, just like an alchemist changing the chemical state in our body and opening our heart and minds to a greater source of empowerment. Connection with energy.
Observe
Our final application is to observe. Being still with this quintessence of life To connect and to feel. Just being and letting our bodies be transformed and regenerated in this field of loving energy. The quintessence of life.
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found this article while exploring synonyms for emotional body. I really enjoyed reading this especially discovering the feel move observe part. fire me they is such a clear and potent set of keywords for remembering what the action step for tying the physical to the spiritual really is without mixing in any of the language of a personal opinion about this practice it liberates the seeker to apply their own impression to the action that produces that stronger connectivity of their being with their living. thank you so much I will be happy to keep a look out for more guidance on these things from your platform here. thank you!