by KD Farris, PhD: MESHE (mee-shee) is your “you” and being in MESHE means coming from that place that is “you,” at all times.
It means waking up in the moment that you live and being present with yourself, others and the world around you.
One
If you think of our Personal Rituals as a daily practice, the outcome of which is to become proficient in something we choose to do, then daily spiritual practice makes as much sense as daily piano practice would if playing a concerto were your desire.
For me, awareness is my game. I want to be aware of myself and awake in my life. Have you ever thought back to a situation after someone has brought a new element to your attention, and heard yourself saying something to the effect of, “Oh, yes, actually, now that I look again, there was a big blue ball sitting in the middle of the room. I hadn’t even noticed, until you mentioned it.”
Our lives are like this and sometimes we are that big blue ball. We can be staring right in the mirror (usually in the form of another person we are either rejecting or yearning for), bumping into unconscious parts of ourselves all over the place, but until someone brings them to our attention, we’d have no idea that they hadn’t made a single impression on our conscious mind.
I like to make MESHE Charts before there is a detectable problem, because I want to be able to bring myself to my attention. I want to wake up before the wake up call has to come get me. If I can awaken before my alarm goes off, I have a far more comfortable day than when blaring beeps or bells start my day. In fact, usually, if the alarm wakes me up, I turn it off, roll over and go back to sleep again anyway!
MESHE Charting is the inner prodding that awakens us before the alarm has to. And the regular practice of monthly, weekly, or daily finger training we need to play the concerto of our awakened life.
MESHE Charts will prompt the conscious mind to deliver the unconscious mind’s knowledge up and out for view. And we need to be viewing this information as quickly and as clearly as we possibly can. Even Western medicine is telling us that if we want optimal health, we need to be happier, feel our feelings, and express our hurts and disappointments. Imagine a personal ritual that would invite, playfully and beautifully, this kind of release and gentle healing into body, mind and soul.
The practice of MESHE Charting will help you find the imbalances in your life before they become problems, and they help treat the the issues these problems can cause. Along with the gentle coaxing is a built-in reminder message board born of your awareness and not some conjured ideas.
Before you start your regular MESHE Charting process, you’ll need to make a quick trip to the store. Go to any drug or office supply store and pick up two large pieces of Poster Board, a roll of one-inch poster tape, two packages of scented magic markers, one thick and one fine tipped, a package of coloring pencils, and the largest sized unlined journal you can find there. If you have any misgivings about drawing, it might help to bring home a variety of stickers whose images have meaning for you. Stickers can spark creativity, help get your mind thinking, and get your playful artist-self creating.
The materials listed above comprise my ideal list. Feel free to make whatever adjustments are necessary to fit your time and financial needs. I’ll be describing elements based on this list, so just adapt my instructions to whatever tools you have at the time.
Two
MESHE Charts are a representation of your MESHE: a visual insight into your “you-hood.” On a MESHE Chart, your MESHE is represented by the symbol of an endlessley unfolding flower. I call it a MESHE Flower, and I break its inquiry into Five Main Aspects, so that you have a map by which to return “home.”
Most of us who are struggling in personal relationships are failing to maintain our MESHE in one or more MESHE areas. We give up or give in too much, on too many of the essential components of ourselves. Building our MESHE requires us to fine tune our Five Main Petals/Aspects rather than abandoning them.
The Five Main Petals are: Likes & Loves; Physical Body & Environment; Creativity & Expression; Intuition & Inner Landscape; and Authority & Personal Truthz (yes, the Z is on purpose and if you have my book, you’ll find the reason in Chapter 7—if you do not have the book, don’t worry as I promise to share it in Part II of this article upcoming over the next few of weeks).
With MESHE Charts, the process is simple: Ask question, draw answer. The question we ask is related to the issue we want knowledge of, and the answer we give decides what part of the Chart we will draw into. The part of the Chart we draw into determines the path we will take to resolve our conflict or deepen our understanding of ourselves. What I love about MESHE Charting is that the process, once the question is answered and the drawing begins, is simply about play. The goal is to get lost in the play and allow the magic of the process to replace old and unneeded patterns with newer more appropriate ones, a it is done with such smoothness and ease that we don’t rebel against the process.
Getting Started
The first principle of MESHE is to create for the sake of creating and not for outcome. So take your time. Let your feelings appear in your drawings and don’t think about them looking good, or whether anyone will see them, even. Enjoy the process of it. Be in MESHE when making your MESHE Chart!
Lay your two sheets of Poster Board horizontally on a table or suitable working surface. With a pencil, trace a circle around a tea cup into the center of the first sheet. Around this circle, draw five evenly sized Petals (large enough for you to put a drawing in) to make up the MESHE Flower. Next, draw a vertical row of circles (tea cup size) down the left hand side of the page. Then draw a horizontal row of Squares across the bottom, and a tea cup sized circle in the top right corner. See the insert for porportions.
Take the second piece of Poster Board and cut it into four squares. Fill the quarter pages with rows of the same tea cup size Circles, cut them out and set them aside. We won’t be using them until the end.
In the Journal, take the first several pages and trace the rim of a drinking glass to create rows of smaller Circles here. You won’t be drawing inside these, so they can be smaller in size. That’s it! That’s the basic outline for a MESHE Chart.
The Process—Ask Question, Draw Answer
Grab your coloring pencils and magic markers and let’s run through the Five Main Petals of MESHE. Your job is to think honestly about each category or prompt and to come up with as many detailed answers as you can — the magic is in the details. Put each category through a simple inquiry, and the answer will determine where it goes on your Chart. Before we get started, let me say one quick word — you can spend a day or a year on a single category. This is an ongoing process. You are not going to get to the end because you yourself are endlessly unfolding! So, please take your time and enjoy.
The question is: Am I in MESHE with this? Being in MESHE means coming from the place within that is you. If the answer is Yes, starting from the center and working your way out, you will draw a picture to represent the answer into one of the Petals on the MESHE Flower. If the answer is, No, then you’ll go to your Journal and write it in the Circles you drew there. Later, you’ll select a few of your Journal Circles to draw onto your Chart.
For example: Take the computer you are reading this article from right now. Are you in MESHE with this computer? Is the screen a comfortable distance from your eyes? Is the keyboard ergonomically placed? Does the disk fan run loudly and for too long? Is there harmony between yourself and this computer? If the answer is Yes, you can draw a picture of it and place it onto your MESHE Flower, if the answer is No, you’ll write into one of the Journal Circles the aspect of the computer that is dissatisfying to you. For every aspect you use a new Circle. The magic is in the details!
To get warmed up, draw a face into the center of your MESHE Flower to represent you on this MESHE Chart. Take your time, get into the details, and play, play, play….
Now it’s time to go through the Five Main Petals. Remember, for each inquiry where you discover you are in MESHE, you will create a MESHE Petal (by drawing with as much detail, color, shape and form as you can to represent it). For areas where you detect that you are not in MESHE, you will write it out in its own Journal Circle. You can’t make a mistake. so play, have fun, and watch yourself as your awareness rises…. Here goes!
Likes & Loves
The first of the Five Main Petals is an easy one. It’s what you like and love. You might think that everyone is in MESHE with what they like and love, but not everyone is, and not all the time.
A few years ago, I became disconnected from one of my Loves, tropical islands. In just a few years of a too-busy life, I had forgotten my passion for the balmy blue waters and deliciously warm evenings. I had gotten so far away from the memories and connection that I had forgotten the love I once had for them, and in small subtle ways, my MESHE suffered as a result.
Take your time, and think about your Likes & Loves. Make one Petal for each item you come up with, and draw into each Flower Petal with as much thought and detail as you can muster up. If you find some that you are not in MESHE with, write them into your Journal Circles.
When you are finished with each Petal, outline it with a thicker pen (this distinguishes it from the other Petals, Circles or Squares), then go on to the next. Do not work more than one Petal at a time. This is a process of clarity, not a quantity gathering exercise. Don’t be in a hurry!
Physical Body & Environment
Physical Body & Environment covers everything about our physical body and surroundings. Included, is our relationship with diet, sleep, and exercise. Our home – the entire thing, every detail of it. Each room, the furniture, the bathroom, the utensil stand in the kitchen, the floors, the carpet, the lights, the bedding, the beds themselves. Our car, our work space, our hair, our clothing, our teeth.
Go through each element and ask the question, “Am I in MESHE with this?” Because there is so much material here for exploration, if the answer is a BIG Yes, put it on your MESHE Flower, and if the answer is a BIG No, put it into the Circles in your Journal. Once you’ve gone through the BIG responses to your physical world, you can make your way into the medium and smaller ones.
For those of us who are comfortable with this physical life, this is a luscious area to explore. For those of us less interested in the physical world, this method of exploring physical space can create balance and depth in our lives by bringing our attention to, and making room for, that which we might otherwise have simply ignored.
Creativity & Expression
Creativity deals with what we create, while Expression deals with how we reveal ourselves in the world through that creation.
The two extremes I most often see in this area are those of us who create all the time, but are not revealing ourselves; that is to say we are doing, but not drawing from the place within that will challenge and develop our soul and spirit. At the other end, there are those of us who think we have no creativity, or that we have no time for creativity, and thus do not use the channel much at all. Most of us lie somewhere in the middle.
We can affect our karmic path by reaching into the creative powers of our magical spirits and bringing our vision, truth and imagination to bear on the world that we live in. There is little that is more rewarding than knowing that we have personally brought something unique to the planet and tended to it with love and soulful care.
Creativity & Expression also includes: how we move in the world; how we use our imagination; finding new ways to solve old problems; bringing into physical form our ideas; being physically active; dance; art; music; photography; sewing; sports; building; the use of our voice, through singing and speaking our truth; and the rainbow of feelings we all experience, including joy, sadness, and anger, to name but a few. Issues of sexuality and finances are also found with this area. Action is creativity!
Intuition & Inner Landscape
Intuition is our innate guidepost for what is correct or amiss at any given time. In hindsight, we are always able to detect an inner knowing that was alerting us to what eventually came to full awareness. To be in MESHE with our Intuition & Inner Landscape is to raise the volume on the power and potential that this inner knowing can have in our lives.
When we commit to our intuition, we may misjudge, and we may risk mistaking an inner nudge for a thought or wish we might have had, but we gain the ability to learn its language, and to take its communication to the level of mastery necessary for us to truly trust and abandon ourselves to an inner path. So commit and welcome the mistakes! I believe learning is winning, for learning is awarness, and we do not get an awakened life without learning.
One trait of intuition is its slow and steady process. Inner nudges are simple, clear messages that repeat themselves. Over time, they may get louder, but their message is consistent – stop, Stop, STOP! An untrained mind can intensify feeling with wordy escalation. It switches back and forth between pros and cons. Fear drives an untrained mind. So look for the steady signals from your belly when you’re looking to awaken the Intuition and discover your Inner Landscape.
When creating MESHE Petals for Intuition, choose events when your inner knowing spoke to you, then represent them on your MESHE Flower. In this area, especially, it is important to be specific. If you think of a time when you heard the Inner Landscape but ignored it, record onto your MESHE Flower the fact that you did hear. Then, separately, record into a Circle your inability to act on it.
This area of inquiry includes memorable moments of intuition, synchronicity, psychic impressions, and unexplained knowings.
Authority & Personal Truthz
This is probably my most favored area, for it is in knowledge that we have of our world (Authority) and knowledge that we have of ourselves (Personal Truthz) that our personal power is most active.
If there is a single place I had to name where we most easily fall out of MESHE, it is in the area of Authority & Personal Truthz. We women, especially, are tempted to quiet down what we know to be true, and we feel either guilty or like we will over power another when we stand in the clarity of our own Personal Truthz. If you have this experience, put those feelings you are afraid of into a Circle.
Authority includes areas in which we are skilled, our knowledge, developed talents, spiritual gifts, and training and education of all kinds. Personal Truthz includes the list of information we have been collecting about ourselves over the years but do not always want to admit to, or perhaps do not always remember. What we know about ourselves may not necessarily be a limitation if it is not owned, but it could become a powerful hindrance with a mind of its own if we cannot admit it.
I had to accept that I was a perfectionist in order to learn to live healthily with it. If we know something is true about ourselves, and we embrace it – transformation may be the next hug around the Personal Truthz corner!
Circles
You have been filling in your MESHE Chart with MESHE Petals, while filling up your Journal with MESHE Circles. Now, it is time to focus on a few of those Circles and commit to getting into MESHE with them.
The column of Circles on the MESHE Chart is the built-in reminder message board you need to help you develop your MESHE. Read through the Circles you have made in your Journal and look for the ones you’d find the easiest to change. Pick out three of them and create Circles for each on your Poster Board quarter. Just as you have with your MESHE Petals, beautify them with colors, symbols and imagery that will help spur you on in this quest. Then, cut them out and stick them onto your MESHE Chart with poster tape, which makes them easily removable.
Next, look through them and ask yourself which are the most difficult, or which would affect the most change in your life. Sometimes they are the same. Choose the one that would affect the most change and put it up onto your Chart, just as you have the first three.
That should be plenty of MESHE reminders for the next week or so. As the Circles become conscious parts of your life, you can move them onto your MESHE Flower, draw Petals around them, and then fill in the extra space with shape and color. Then, choose another Circle from your Journal and create a tea cup size drawing to replace it, and so on, and so on.
In Part II, I will discuss Squares, which is the part of the Chart that holds your overall vision, and MISON, which is the Circle with straight lines at the top right corner of the Chart.
Final Thoughts
When you are in MESHE, your likes and dislikes, your physical body and surroundings, and your creative activity and expressive nature, all reflect the integrity of your own being. Your response to inner knowing and inner nudges is a BIG Yes. Inner voices are welcomed, for you know they come from the center of your “you.” You stand in your knowledge and grab hold of your courage, embracing your power, your skills, and your experience. With this confidence, you allow yourself to really relax and play in your life – you are exploring your “you.” You are living with love and attention – for what is in front of you is of you.
When you have a strong MESHE, your “you” is your life path, and the map of your “you” is found in the regular making of MESHE Charts.
©Karen Deborah Farris 2003-2021. All rights reserved
Making Our Dreams Come True Is Living A Truthful Life
