Subtle Activism Practices

As of June 2020, for now, I have decided to suspend the subtle activism live calls I have offered on the second Sunday evening of each month for several years now. Please know that there are many groups offering subtle activism activities for those who are interested in doing this kind of activity, and there are some resources listed at the bottom of this page.

In place of the live calls, here’s a recorded guided subtle activism meditation. Please feel free to pause the meditation as you go along, as I didn’t leave a lot of quiet time. Allow yourself to deepen and expand your experience in whatever ways are natural for you. (And, I apologize for the sniffling–it was one of those allergy times…) 

And, please note that there’s another subtle activism practice offered after the written version of the following meditation, as well as the resources listed at the end of this post.

Here’s another recorded subtle activism guided meditation on universal love:

If you prefer to work with a written version of the first meditation, here it is:

• Begin by becoming aware of the surface supporting you right now.
  • Notice your experience of that support and how your body receives the support that’s under you right now.
  • Support is a reciprocal process.  Notice that it is offered and it is received.

• Notice now your internal center of gravity, that place in your body that is your home base.
  • Follow your next outbreath down to the bottom of the breath and notice where you land.

• There is a place of core presence in each of us. Notice if that’s where you land. If not, find that place of ever-present steadiness within your core presence, a steadiness that is never disturbed.

• Also bring your awareness to your spine, noticing how it connects from the base of your skull all the way to your tailbone, supporting your body.
  • Notice, as well, your entire skeleton.
  • It not only gives shape to your body, but is also your internal infrastructure of support.

• Again notice the surface under your body now and expand your awareness to take in the environment around you.
  • Notice whatever quality of support you receive from the environment around you.

• Bring your awareness now to the area of your heart space—not your physical heart, but your energetic heart space, that space within which you feel heart-based experiences.
  • A sense of connection
  • A sense of being moved or inspired

• For this meditation, I invite you to engage your heart’s natural perception and intelligence, experiencing the meditation from this aspect of your awareness.

• I’d like to suggest now that there is a source of universal love that can pour through you and into the world.
  • Love is its own healing energy and frequency.

• Imagine that one kind of subtle activism is to move through the world radiating love.
  • This is more than personal love; it is its own deep force that carries a frequency of healing.

• Notice what it would be like if you were to allow love to move through you into the world.

• Because it is universal love, notice your experience when you hold the intention that this love moving through you touches everything,…nothing is left out.
  • This love can touch the heart of every human on the planet.

• As you do this subtle activism, you can hold the intention for the healed heart of humanity, that we as a human family can have our hearts opened and healed in a way that allows this loving presence to flow into and through our world.

• Notice what you experience in your body, what sensations, what emotions, and what state of mind accompanies your willingness to be an open channel or transmitter of love, universal love, moving through you into your world.
  • You might even notice what it would be like to imagine going through your daily activities radiating love.

• How might that change the quality of your experience and expression?

• As part of this particular guided meditation, I want to invite you to bring your awareness to a quantum perspective on reality.
  • We know from quantum research that reality is comprised of an infinite array of probabilities, that we will live in a participatory quantum universe.

• Because of this array of probabilities, there is the idea—which may reflect the reality—that there are alternate realities co-existing in our world.

• For the purposes of this meditation, I invite you to be curious about the possibility that somewhere in an alternate reality there is a humanity living more gently on the earth, a humanity whose heart is healthy and open, that recognizes our inherent kinship with all life on the planet, that we are interdependent and related to everything, that the earth is our source of life.

• For a few minutes now, I invite you to put out a call for that aspect of humanity to come into our reality, to awaken in us, to bring to us that lived experience of an open, healed heart that understands how to live gently on this planet in a recognition of our kinship with all other living beings.
  • Let go of any need to have specific images or rational understanding.

• Instead, take a moment to focus on your felt-sense experience of what happens in your heart space when you send out a call to a healed, healthy humanity to join us, to come into our lived experience and awaken in each of us that healthy capacity and expression.

• Notice what you become aware of as you do this, without any demand or expectation—just experience the invitation, the call, the invitation, the intention to be willing to receive this awareness in whatever way it may arise, whenever it may appear.
  • Leave the options totally open and stay out of the way.
  • Continue to be a transmitter of love into our world.

• As the meditation closes, in whatever way is natural for you notice the resonating tone of your experience, the frequency that you radiate out into the world, and imagine moving through your daily life filled with this frequency of universal love and with the invitation to a healed humanity, a healed heart, an inclination to live gently on the planet, experiencing kinship with all other life forms that are part of our earth family, regardless of their species.

• I invite you to do this meditation once a week at least, as part of your commitment to use subtle activism in addition to whatever you are doing as an activity out in the world.

Another subtle activism practice:

Because we exist within fields of collective consciousness, and because any- and everything that we think, feel, and experience goes directly into these collective fields, one of the practices we can do each day is to return to an internal state of steadiness. This underlying steadiness is often found in our “internal home base”, in the place where we experience our “core presence.”

Whatever practice you currently use to bring yourself into an internal state of peace, steadiness, or settled ease, think of it now as also being a subtle activism practice. Whenever you settle into these states, you automatically resonate with the frequencies that embody them. When that happens, your resonance becomes part of our collective field of consciousness, and you also contribute those qualities and frequencies to the collective field generated by Gaia, our beautiful planet. Within this collective field, every living thing is touched by the frequencies of peace, steadiness, and/or settled ease. It’s a powerful gift, especially during these challenging and troubled times.

And, please remember, whenever you engage subtle activism processes, be sure to include the inherent quality of your heart’s intelligence and perception–love. Adding the frequency of love to whatever you do is a powerful gift and all it takes is a moment to remember that your heart resonates with love as its natural home base.

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Here’s some additional information and resources about the process of subtle activism and I hope you will continue to engage in this activity in whatever ways work best for you.

Some comments about Subtle Activism from people actively engaged in these practices:

From David Nicol: “Subtle activism can be understood as a set of practices that allow us to connect, in the depths of our being, with our love for the world and our longing for it to reflect the highest potentials of human nature…[It] represents the intention to cultivate this force as a transformative presence in the world…underlying and informing all [our] actions is a shift in consciousness involving a deeper awareness of our essential interconnectedness.”

From Sandra Ingerman: “…once we set our intention to create a good outcome, the spiritual forces from within and without take over to manifest what is for the best of all concerned. We just need to always open our hearts in love for all of life when we do our dreaming. Then the work becomes to surrender the ego to the outcome of our dreams, having intended to create the most positive ones imaginable.”

From Arjun Walia: “I want to make it clear that my intention of presenting this information is to demonstrate that thoughts, intentions, prayer and other units of consciousness can directly influence our physical a world. Consciousness can be a big factor in creating change on the planet. Sending thoughts of love, healing intent, prayer, good intention, and more can have a powerful influence on what you are directing those feelings towards.”

Also, Claude Poncelet, in his shamanically-based work with multidimensional realms, invites all concerned to work toward the most harmonious outcomes for everyone involved.

David Spangler talks about subtle activism as a means by which we can be “…a generative source of blessing in the world. In the midst of all the distressing and hurtful happenings in the world—not to mention the scale of some of the problems that confront us, such as climate change—it’s easy to feel disempowered.”

Some further thoughts on subtle activism from Devadana Sanctuary:

Subtle Activism is a name given to working in collaboration with the subtle realms to support outcomes in the material world. It can involve orienting to human collective consciousness. It can involve invisible dimensions as well as our three-dimensional reality. It can involve life forms other than human—some from the invisible realms and some from our everyday world. Within a context of oneness, the fundamental reality is that we are all connected within the same ground of being. What any one of us does affects everything else and what everything else does affects every one of us.

We recognize that not all of us are able to engage in external activism, even though that is a valid path for many. We also recognize that “what we fight, we feed” and, in a similar way, what we support, we can nurture into being.

One of the important aspects of working with subtle activism is to attend to frequencies. There are countless qualities of consciousness and being from which we may choose the focus of our intention and activities. In this work, we pay a great deal of attention to the frequencies with which we resonate, as these frequencies define and co-create what emerges as a result of our subtle activism.

There are different forms of subtle activism. Group prayer, focused on healing outcomes, is one way to engage this process. Collective meditations that take place around the world, with groups and individuals in many and varied locales focused on the same intentions and outcomes, are another powerful way to engage in subtle activism. A Buddhist practice called tonglen is yet another dynamic way to do this. There are two versions of tonglen practice found on my website, www.nancynapier.com. There are also youtube videos made by various Buddhist teachers that describe the process.

Here are some links to websites and groups that have subtle activism activities, some on a global scale. There are more, as well, so please explore what the Internet has to offer along these lines…

“What is subtle activism?”, Gaifield Project: https://gaiafield.net/what-is-subtle-activism/

“Subtle Activism Movement”, Gaifield Project: https://gaiafield.net/subtle-activism-movement/

Kosmos Journal: Subtle Activism: A Way Forward Through Chaotic Times, David Nicol: https://www.kosmosjournal.org/article/subtle-activism-a-way-forward-through-chaotic-times/

Global Conherence Initiative, HeartMath Institute: https://www.heartmath.org/gci/

There are many more resources you can find if you google “subtle activism groups”.

Also, Amazon has a number of books that might be of interest: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=subtle+activism&i=digital-text&ref=nb_sb_noss_1