Reflections & Observations

This week included a beautifully “New York” experience.

With friends in town, we went to a truly New York Jazz club. Surround by dark walls adorned with black and white photographs of jazz legends near and far, this cozy space was packed to the edges with people huddled around tables sipping martinis and wine. It was as if we had been transported back to the 1950s. As the notes danced out from the saxophone, piano, double bass, and drums I half expected Mrs Maisel to step up to the mic at some point, she didn’t, however the music did carry me off into another era and gave me chance to bask in inspirations and thoughts as I listened and watched.

As I watched the saxophonist play I realized I could see his reflection clearly bouncing off one of the portrait photos on the wall. It was easier to watch him in the reflection as the angle was physically more comfortable to watch from, yet my eyes kept wanting to glance back to the real saxophonist, even though his reflection was crystal clear.

I wondered why my eyes kept being drawn back to watch him specifically instead of justing watching the reflection. The reflection was much easier to view. Then it hit me.

As humans we consciously and subconsciously seek out ways to feel directly connected to other humans.

My subconscious wanted me to watch the real saxophonist, it didn’t want me to watch the image of him, it wanted me to obtain all the inspiration, nuances, and ideas from the performance in the flesh. I began analyzing what I could see and noticed that the reflection really did have something missing. It just didn’t feel as good to watch the reflection. Was it the energy of this other human being that I wanted to witness, to see the passion pouring from his entire body as he blew notes into the air at such a rate I wondered how he hadn’t passed out?

Energy associated with humans is a term that has had a bit of a bad rap in the past, particularly in the corporate world, mention energy or vibe to people in a meeting and 90% of the time you’ll see people shuffle, crumple their nose, or they’ll say I don’t believe in that woo-woo stuff. The funny thing is human energy has so much scientific insight, backing and research behind it, it’s only social convention that has infiltrated our views and made us uncomfortable when we talk about it.

People have energy that can’t be seen but it emanates from them constantly. We all make sense of other people’s energy and we subconsciously (and sometimes consciously) decode it every time we come into contact with another human. When you sense someone is behind you, yet you’ve not seen or heard them, you can just feel they’re there and you turn around, that’s energy. Or when you meet someone for the first time and they’ve not even said anything and you take a dislike (-or a like) to them, that’s energy too. These are two basic examples of energy that you’re feeling.

Thanks to The Emotion Code, the book I read this week, it lifted the lid on many things, but one in particular of how quantum physics may just be applicable to my jazz experience. Quantum physics is the study of miniature energy (my words and probably not a technical term!). When you break anything down (such as a human, a chair, a window, a building, a dog) they are just a collection of atoms with electrons and energy. In super-simplified terms we’re all just floating blobs of energy, where our atoms, molecules, and cells are all connected to each other. Even when they are apparently physically separated they’re still connected. Not only has quantum physics found that atoms arrange themselves into a form that the observer expects to see them in, but quantum entanglement explains how when particles are removed from their original structure they still respond and react in the same way based on how the original structure is treated, even if they’re not physically attached. For example, this gives understanding to why one family member can be on one side of the world, and the other family member on the other side, and one of them can feel something about what is happening to the other family member at the same time - without having any knowledge of what’s happened to their relative across the globe. There’s more in the book that explains this, but this insight came to mind as I watched the jazz group.

as humans we have an absolute need and constant desire for human connection.

Apply my perspective of quantum physics to the jazz scenario, could it be the explanation as to why I felt more connection to the actual saxophonist and not his reflection? Accurately or inaccurately applied is not the discussion, it’s the fact that it triggered these thoughts to expand a new idea. The saxophonist playing in front of me is a large mass of atoms, his reflection is in the portrait on the wall - also a large mass of atoms, but different to the actual saxophonist. As a body of atoms myself I feel more connection to the saxophonist, and my desire on a subconscious level is to make sense of the atoms that are in front of me, not the once-removed set appearing as a reflection. The data that my conscious and subconscious can read is far greater seeing the actual person than seeing his reflection. As a result, the depth of my experience is richer, the inspirations and ideas I receive are more advanced and have more breath to them, compared to the information resonating from the reflection. My entire being knows this, and with all of its conscious and subconscious intelligence and awareness it’s going to naturally find ways to maximize the absorption of data and information to translate into an experience to create a connection and fuel knowledge and growth.

We all know the power of images and videos, they have their place, but in an ever growing digital and technologically advancing world it is becoming increasingly important for us as humans to continue to find, make time for, and seek out human connection and direct contact with each other. As a result, our own energy shifts and we benefit in richer ways.

When we spend time together (IRL) we:

1) Increase our feelings of belonging, value, and love for ourselves and for others.

2) Expand our horizons, inspire our minds, and create new ideas.

3) Consider and see different perspectives with reduced judgements or limitations.

4) Feel connection and we fuel our cells to form healthy strong structures within our bodies.

5) Create bonds that radiate positivity and magnetize new experiences into our existence.

6) Generate flow and expansion in both living, thinking, feeling and believing.

7) Create motivation and find news ways of tapping into passion, determination, persistence and desires.

8) Find ways to rise above and overcome challenges.

9) Learn about ourselves and consciously experience that we are continually evolving and changing.

10) Experience connection in deep and gratifying ways.

We communicate through so much more than just our words, body movements, photos or our videos, our entire being radiates information every minute of every day, the energy that shines from you is speaking just as much, if not more, than what you are do or say. Creating connections is more than just action and words, time focused on understanding your own energy and recognizing what emanates from you is time well spent, since it’s scientifically demonstrated that you’ll effect your interactions, experiences, and successes across your personal and professional life.