Sitting in the Power: The Sacred Practice of Spiritual Unfoldment

'You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.' ~ Swami Vivekananda

We have taken a journey together up until this point, from sharing with you my own experiences from childhood, my views and beliefs around traditional Spiritualism, and stepped forward into potential signposts around your sensitivity. So the next question has to be: what comes next?

This was in fact a weight I carried for a significant amount of time, and what might surprise you is that I was already part of a development circle.

I was doing what everyone else was doing, sitting weekly, taking part in meditation, beginning to experience and discover many facets of the psychic and spiritual world. And I loved it. It was intriguing. I was excited for what was to come next.

Yet there was no depth on my part, no true understanding through my own haphazard experiences, only through the experiences of others. Because I had no internal reference points, I struggled with trust and belief that I wasn't making things up. I loved listening to other people's truth, but I really wanted to find my own.

What I didn't understand then, what nobody had explained to me, was the difference between meditation and sitting in the power. And that difference changed everything.

Meditation vs. Sitting in the Power

Meditation is a beautiful tool for life, and guided meditation has taken things to a new level. It's used to calm and balance emotions, to slow down, become present, and to step back to reclaim your breath. I am a fan in the context of utilizing it as a tool for relaxation.

Guided meditation is also a useful tool to guide you to an experience or emotion, a powerful narrative of suggestion and a great way to facilitate visualization.

When I joined circle, we did a lot of guided meditation, and it was the perfect introduction to quieting the mind. It showed me two very powerful truths.

The first was that I was not a visual person, or what you might regard as clairvoyant in the traditional sense.

The second truth was that my mind was like a racing car in full throttle. If thoughts were a sandwich, I would have been a triple stack BLT and rising.

This is when I began to understand: guided meditation wasn't going to give me what I needed. I needed something different. I needed to sit in my own power.

Sitting in the power, or sitting in stillness, is a process of creating space through the breath, becoming familiar with your own energy and energy expansion. It's a place of surrender, not control. It's a passive and reflective space. There is no destination nor expectation. It's the waiting room of your spiritual experiences.

It's not guided meditation, because you need the space of liberation to have your own unique experience, not something curated by suggestion.

Sitting in the power is a sacred union. It is recognizing our soul, the very essence of who we are.

What Is Sitting in the Power?

Peace. In my experience, sitting in the power is the ability to sit in peace. It's not a place where no thought exists, for that to happen, you would not need to strive to connect to the spirit world, you would be IN the spirit world!

It's a common misconception that there should be no thoughts, when in fact it is an impossibility to have no conscious thoughts. So the aim is to have an awareness of thoughts, but for them to quieten so they are not intrusive, on the periphery.

It is a state of peace, an awareness of self and energy, of how you actually feel. Awareness of breath. The rise and fall of the chest. Of stillness.

It is also commonly thought that sitting in the power is to create a connection to the spirit world, but it is far more expansive than that. To understand spirit, you need to understand yourself first. This is the very foundation of your spiritual ascension.

Here's the truth: if you don't know what your own energy feels like, how will you recognize when spirit energy enters the space? If you can't identify your own emotions, how will you know when you're sensing someone else's? This is why sitting in the power begins with YOU, not with reaching outward.

You don't need to arrive anywhere, feel a certain way, or have a particular experience. You just have to be. Create the environment, and everything else will come in time.

The practice of stillness has quite literally changed my life. It reconnected me to myself when I felt isolated and alone. It has allowed me to realize that I am never alone, I am supported and loved as I am part of the whole. It is oneness.

Your Physical Surroundings

Now, let's talk about where you practice this.

Is it important where you sit to connect to your power?

I am a believer in consistency and repetition. I also believe in building a reservoir of energy that facilitates connection. Have you been into a building, a church and felt the energy around you, the feeling of peace and safety? Residual energy is very real.

When you sit in the same place, you do build up a reservoir of energy. Not only that, you build powerful resonance with the spirit world.

You don't need a special room or to sit in a crystal circle or follow any other ritualistic practice. You just need a space that you use to sit.

In saying that, if you cannot sit in the same place all of the time, it doesn't really matter. Because when you realize that you ARE the power, once established, you can do this anywhere and at any time.

I do feel that initially, to establish a practice that works, a specific seating area works well. The more we do things consistently, the more disciplined we are. With firm intention, we begin to build a powerful, robust practice that works.

The internal space

Breath is the bridge between you and an altered state of consciousness, and if you really think about it, we never truly think about the breath singularly. We may say we are out of breath, or we may hold our breath, but in essence it is something that we do, breathe. It is automatic and seamless without thought.

So how can we utilize breath in the context of sitting in the power?

To allow us to move into an altered state of consciousness, all we need to do is focus, take our mind to something. When we focus on the breath entirely, we begin to allow ourselves to notice the things that take place without our awareness: how the breath enters the body, through the mouth or nose, how our chest inflates and rises, and then how the breath leaves our body, deflating the chest and lungs.

This simple awareness also allows you to follow the path of the breath, from the mouth, down into your lungs. You can imagine your breath as a white or yellow light and allow that light to flow through your entire body.

Finding your natural rhythm in the breath and noticing how your body feels when it becomes relaxed is the very first step in the process.

You can also count your breath in, to whatever feels comfortable to you, pause for a count that feels comfortable, and exhale for the same count as your inhale. The focus is to find your most natural rhythm and stay there.

Once you have an awareness of your breath and body, just allow yourself to be there, without expectation. Just be in that space of you, understanding what you actually feel like when your breath is settled and your body relaxed. Allow yourself to just experience the moment.

Once your awareness is balanced, you may notice subtle changes, nothing bold or loud, but soft and gentle awareness of vibration, movement, or physical sensations.

You may begin to feel this in your chest. I used to feel what seemed like an anxious feeling until I realized that it was spirit energy gathering in my chest area. Or you may feel change in your stomach, or perhaps a tingling sensation on either side of your body. It can come in any form I've described through my own experience, or it may take a different form entirely in yours.

Because energy moves, I find my body moves. My body can sway, or as I work today, my hands are moved to areas where my awareness needs to be. Try to embrace this and not be fearful, it is a beautiful state of expression.

Other subtle signs include warmth, especially around the lower legs and a feeling of coldness, which can be anywhere in your body. A tingling, which I like to refer to as 'fizzy pop,' and a lighter feel, which is a higher vibrational frequency.

When you quieten the mind, you begin to experience the whole, the parts of you that have always been there but have not been recognized amongst the noise of the human experience.

So the focus on the breath comes first. The use of imagination or visualization of the breath carrying a white or yellow light, allowing the light to flow into other areas of the body and holding your awareness there without expectation or a destination to reach, these are the first stages of the power. You will naturally notice subtle changes in your awareness in time, something you can explore and build on in a spiritual circle.

You can of course play with your own energy. You can create a ball of energy by cupping your hands together and moving your hands like a pulse. When your hands come together, you will sense or feel a place of resistance, that is where you can feel your energy. You can create a bigger ball, even big enough to surround your physical body. The more you do this, the stronger your energy awareness will become.

Why Does This Matter?

Why does learning to work with your own energy matter so much? Because when you eventually work as a medium, you need to be able to hold your own energy while allowing spirit to blend with you. If you can't identify where YOU end and Spirit begins, the information becomes confused. Your emotions mix with theirs. Your thoughts interfere with their messages.

But when you've spent months, years, sitting in your own power, recognizing your own energy signature, you can hold your space confidently. You can say, "This is me. This is my energy. And this... this is something else. This is Spirit." That discernment only comes through practice.

Let me share what happened for me when I stayed consistent with this practice.

When I started to sit in the power on my own at home, after I managed to conquer the breath and awareness of how I felt, I began to notice a change. It's not something I can easily explain, but I just knew that I felt something that was different to before, a quicker vibration than my own. After weeks of sitting in my own energy, it was unmistakable.

I not only noticed a different energy, but this energy moved. My awareness was drawn to my energy centers, my chakras and it was at that point I started to experience color and a deep sense of knowing.

I knew I was receiving healing. This wasn't something I was doing to myself, this was Spirit working with me, through me, for me.

This brought me to a new chapter in my work: knowing and understanding my spirit guides. It was through sitting in the power that I grew to know and understand my life guide, One Feather. None of this would have been possible without first learning to recognize my own energy.

Energy is not static, it moves. And spirit energy vibrates at a higher frequency than our own. This is why we can feel and identify spirit energy more easily when we are sitting in the power.

What You Might Experience

I have mentioned before that you are completely unique in your potential, and as a teacher I cannot tell you what you will experience with any real sense of certainty. But I can show and share what I have experienced, which in turn shows you what's possible.

When I first started to sit at home, it was short and frustrating. My mind was cluttered. I was concerned if I was doing it right. I couldn't sit for long periods of time. But through consistency, that all started to change.

I started to understand what I felt like when my breath was steady and my mind stilled. I saw a lot of color that moved. I felt physical sensations in my body, like subtle pins and needles. I felt my energy move my body. And above anything else, I began to love what I was experiencing, and I felt safe.

That progression, from frustration to safety, took time. Weeks. Months. But it came.

After many years of sitting in the power, it is my go-to state of peace and the catalyst for my work, including self-reflection and awareness.

I experience spirit in the power, my guides, the elders, and angels. I experience healing, support, and the love of my family that have passed. It is the most precious gift I have ever experienced.

But here's what I need you to understand: not every sitting will be profound. Not every session will bring visions or voices or overwhelming love. Some days you sit, and it feels like nothing at all.

Often my students will say, "I sat in my power and nothing happened," or "I fell asleep." I have grown over the years enough to know that nothing is never something. We are prepared. We receive healing. We are comforted and supported. And sometimes those things are experienced outside of our conscious mind. When you can get to a state of nothingness, the truth is that is exactly the right place to be.

This practice is not about performance or proof. It's about consistency, patience, and trust.

Why This Matters

Can something so simple actually be the foundation of your mediumship? I have to say a deep and resounding YES. It absolutely is the foundation, because without it there are only pieces that hold no clarity or continuity. The power is the thread that holds it all together.

Remember how I started this post? I was sitting in circle, having experiences, excited about what was coming next, but I had no depth. No internal reference points. I was experiencing things, but I couldn't trust them because I didn't understand what was MINE and what was SPIRIT.

This is what happens when you skip sitting in the power.

You might have psychic flashes, mediumistic experiences, moments of knowing—but they're scattered. Disconnected. You can't replicate them. You can't trust them. And crucially, you can't tell the difference between your own thoughts, your own emotions, your own energy, and what's coming from outside of you.

Without this foundation, everything becomes confused. Is this feeling mine or theirs? Is this thought coming from me or from spirit? Am I reading energy or projecting my own anxiety? You second-guess everything because you have nothing solid to stand on.

To work within both psychic and mediumship, you need energy. Every time you level up, you need more. The place your energy manifests is within you, and your self-awareness facilitates the growth and expansion you need.

But here's the truth: you cannot give what you do not have. You cannot identify spirit energy if you don't know your own. You cannot hold space for another soul, living or passed, if you cannot hold space for yourself.

This is why traditional Spiritualism has always begun development with sitting in the power. Not because it's mystical or ritualistic, but because it's practical. It works. It builds the foundation upon which everything else rests.

When you sit in the power consistently, you learn:

• What YOUR energy feels like

• What YOUR emotions feel like

• What YOUR thoughts sound like

• What YOUR body feels like when it's calm and centered

  
  

And then, when something DIFFERENT enters, a different vibration, a different emotion, a different knowing you recognize it immediately. Not because you're guessing or hoping, but because you KNOW yourself well enough to identify what is NOT you.

That is the gift of sitting in the power. That is why it matters.

Alone vs. Circle

Can you do this effectively alone? Yes and no.

Yes, because you can achieve this state without others or special equipment. You can sit in your own home, in your own space, and build your practice consistently.

But when experienced with others in circle, you have the ability to lean into other people's experiences. You can share and feel supported. You realize you're not alone in the struggle, the questions, the breakthroughs.

By sitting in circle, the energy reserve will be deep and easily accessible, and you will of course contribute to this in a mutual reciprocal exchange. One week you might struggle, but the circle holds you. Another week, your energy might be what lifts someone else. This is the beauty of community.

In the sense of traditional Spiritualism, the home circle has always been the place of birthing new mediums, and the practice of sitting in the power has always been the cornerstone of nurturing spiritual abilities—something that I personally feel has been lost over time.

If you feel called to experience this practice in circle, guided by someone who understands the traditional approach, I invite you to explore my Spiritual Circle Membership. We sit in the power together every week, building that reservoir of energy, supporting each other's unfoldment.

Common Misconceptions

Before we move to practical guidance, let me address some common misconceptions about sitting in the power.

It's not just relaxation meditation. While it may feel peaceful, you're not simply calming your nervous system or de-stressing. You're building energetic capacity and awareness.

It's not about visualization alone. You might use visualization as a tool (like imagining the breath as light), but sitting in the power is about the combined senses working together—feeling, sensing, knowing—not just seeing images in your mind's eye.

It's not about connecting to your guides immediately. That may come in time, as it did for me with One Feather, but the purpose is first to know YOURSELF. Guides come later, once your foundation is solid.

It's not something you "master" and move on from. After ten years of practice, I still sit in the power regularly. It's not a beginner's exercise—it's a lifelong practice that deepens and evolves.

And it's not about one single experience or breakthrough. It's about the natural, divine timeline of your unfoldment. Some sessions will feel profound. Others will feel like nothing. Both are valuable.

Practical Guidance

I am often asked, "How long should I sit for?" It's not an easy question to answer. When I first started, I could only manage five minutes. Now, over ten years later, I can sit for an hour or more. But this of course depends on many factors. Don't box yourself into an ideal sitting time. Let yourself unfold as you should. (I'm not a fan of the comparison game.)

Ideally this should be every day, or at least five days a week. I used to sit every day during the week and not at weekends. When I was fully immersed and having profound experiences, I did sit at weekends too. But this again is on your timeline. At first, try not to put unattainable blocks in place before you have even started.

You may very well get distracted. No judgement here, I've been there too. It's just a part of the process. It's not insurmountable.

So just allow things to happen and unfold as they should. It's not a competition, and it's another good reason why you would benefit from sitting in circle.

Here is the impossible question: "How do I know if I'm doing it right?" As a unique and completely individual person, your experience will be 100% right for you. You will know because you will start to experience something beautiful, not my beautiful, but yours.

No timelines, no "this way or that way." Just allow yourself to establish trust in the process. The rest will take care of itself.

Where This Journey Begins

Sitting in the power changed everything for me. It gave me the internal reference points I was missing in those early circle days. It gave me the foundation I needed. It gave me peace, clarity, and eventually, connection to Spirit and my guide, One Feather.

It will do the same for you, in your own way, in your own time.

This practice is not complicated, but it is profound. It requires nothing except your willingness to show up, to breathe, to be still, and to trust the process of your own unfoldment.

You can begin this practice today, right now, in your own home. Five minutes is enough to start. Just you, your breath, and the courage to meet yourself in the stillness.

But if you feel called to experience this practice in circle, with guidance and the profound gift of collective energy, I invite you to join my Spiritual Circle Membership. We sit in the power together every week, building that reservoir of energy, supporting each other's unfoldment, honoring the traditional Spiritualist path.

Foundation Circle is a monthly membership for spiritual development and opens January 12th, 2026.

Please go to Join The Natural Unfoldment Circle - Dawn Smith Psychic Medium

This is where your journey truly begins. Not with dramatic visions or instant abilities, but with sacred stillness, patient practice, and the willingness to know yourself first.

The power is already within you. The question is: are you ready to sit in it?