Awakening Tips

You Are A Gift

Dear Blessed One,

Shine, shine, shine
As bright as you can!
The time for holding back is past.
Drop in and see where you are clinging
To old ways, old wounds.
Feel into the remnants of pain, fear.
Give it a big, loving hug, and kiss it goodbye.
Life awaits you.
Freedom is here, now.

Can you see how lingering in the past is a trap? Continuing to keep the past alive in the present moment, and feeling dissatisfied with the way life is showing up, is like going to the shoe-store and being upset that they’re not serving pizza. As far as I know, shoe-stores will always serve shoes, never pizza.

If you are looking for something different, it’s important to go elsewhere. See if you can notice any repetition, or a trance-like state that is operating just below your awareness. That habit has you reacting in the same old way to the same old thing. Sigh! Shoes again?

This is not to discount the great relief that comes from feeling whatever it is that is coming into your awareness. You may find yourself becoming sad or quite angry with something someone is saying or doing; see if you can allow yourself to feeeeel that. Stuffing it will only crystallize it in your field and it will have to be dealt with later. Typically, the feeling that is arising in the moment is an opportunity to heal and integrate an old emotion or wound that was either completely swallowed or only partially digested.

The traumas, pain, suffering, and depression I’ve experienced in life are the gifts and great teachers of my present life. As Tagore so eloquently said, “When I stand before thee at the day’s end, thou shalt see my scars and know that I had my wounds and also my healing.”

Life brings us the most appropriate people and events to shake loose the frozen places in us that are in need of feeling and healing. As we are freed from the pains of the past, our scars become signs of experience, wisdom, gifts of hope and healing that can be shared with those around us, often without even saying a word. Your field will reflect more light and that will have an effect on the people around you.

You are a gift to the world, touching and serving life in more ways than you will ever know. Mmhmm! Thank you for being here, now.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish; Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal.”
~Thomas More

What Else is Possible?

Dear Blessed One,

Life is knocking at the door of your heart. All you need do is open it.

The possibilities in life are infinite when we open up to the idea that there is more available to us than meets the limited eye or mind.

Are you letting the past define your present moment? Is history repeating itself? Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.”

Rather than knowing or seeing from the old paradigm, you can break the mold and create something completely new.

I once heard someone tell a story of an Eastern village that was well known for its delicate and striking pottery. The huge urns were the most admired pieces and became famous all over the world. As the story goes, once the urn was finished, the final step was to break it. The artist would then put it back together with gold filigree, turning what looked like a disaster into something exquisite and priceless.

Take a look inside and ask yourself, “What else is possible?” See if you can live in the question. As soon as you know something, there is no room for anything new to be created. Living in the not knowing blows the doors of possibility wide open.

See if you can allow yourself to not know:

who you are
what you are
why you are here
the purpose of life

And while free-falling, feel all the edginess that comes with not-knowing. This is like throwing a wrench into the works. The old patterns begin to fall apart. Your neural network will not be able to fire in the same old way and transformation takes place, birthing a beautiful new you.

Life is infinite. You are life. What if it’s as simple as that? What if the conditioned ideas that you’ve bought into are the only things limiting you? What if you are an exquisite, priceless and unique gift that the world is just waiting for you to open? NO one can be a better you than YOU! Your particular you-ness is so needed in the world.

Thank you for shining your light so brightly.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it.”
~Vincent van Gogh

OMG and WTF!

Dear Blessed One,

This life journey can be so difficult at times. Our past traumas, conditionings, and the people around us can add to an already confusing situation. When in the midst of a whirlwind that seems to be stirring it all up for you, see if you can remember OMG and WTF…Only Me Growing, and Willingness, Truth, and Feelings.

A Willingness to stay with the experience rather than anesthetizing it with the distraction-of-choice can create an opening for something new to arise. There is growth that is wanting to happen – that is why the experience was called in. What is your inner guide, your gut or heart, wanting the mind to become conscious of? Be willing to explore the deepest meaning of these difficult events.

As you explore and examine all the facets of the experience, it’s important to tell the Truth. How has life shown this to you in the past? Is this a place where you undermine your own inner knowing? Listen deep to know your truth and see if you can stay with it while sharing it, even in the midst of a whirlwind. Buddha says there are three things that cannot be hidden for long, the sun, the moon, and the truth. Your truth is there just waiting to be noticed.

As you surf the waves of difficulty, remember to drop into your body. Trying to figure things out in the mind is like attempting to solve something at the same level that it was created. Feel what is happening deep in the body. What is the gut saying? Does tension arise when movement away from inner-guidance happens? Do you feel lightness when moving towards or away from the situation that has your attention? Feeeeel what your body is telling you. It is so wise!

Some of these growth opportunities can be quite humbling. It’s not always easy to acknowledge what’s been lurking in our periphery that blinders have kept us from seeing. Consider honoring these bumps and bruises as part of your divine dance. We see when it’s time to see and not a moment sooner.

When moving through the tangles of life, make sure to notice the Wisdom that arises as Transformation takes place, and the Freedom that is your natural state!

Smile and remember OMG and WTF.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“It’s not hard to find the truth. What is hard is not to run away from it once you have found it.”
~Unknown

No, Not This!

Dear Blessed One,

Life has a way of occasionally bringing us things we’d prefer not to have. That’s just the way it is.
It helps to remember that Resistance = Suffering.

Yes, preferences are perfectly fine (and so is suffering for that matter – it can be a catalyst for greater awareness). My preference is to get through the difficult times with as much grace and ease as possible. When I resist what’s happening in life, internal pressure gets created by pushing against what’s present, which contributes to and feeds the discomfort.

As I’ve heard said many times, pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. Personal experience confirms this is true.

I went through a 5-month depression in the late 90’s when I got sober that I didn’t think I would survive. I kept thinking ‘if it lasts one more day I’m going on drugs.’ My friend kept saying to me, “You’ve been anesthetized with drugs and alcohol your whole life, of course it’s going to take some time to feel and heal all those emotions that didn’t get felt!”

She encouraged me to curl up in the fetal position with the covers over my head and cry if that’s what I felt like doing. It seemed crazy to me to give in to it. I kept thinking there must be something I could do to fix it, or that there was something very wrong with my brain.

Her advice helped when I could follow it. A good cry, or just laying down and feeling the void of life-force-energy, creativity, motivation, desire, or hope was the DOING that needed to be done. When I could allow myself to feel what “depression” felt like IN my body instead of following the many disastrous stories that I had about depression and what depression meant, it created movement in my system.

Even feeling what resistance to depression feels like in the body, rather than saying, ‘no, not this!’ is bringing awareness to one’s reality.

Funny how soon we forget though…
I guess as a happy, healthy vegan with the title of “Healer”, I thought I was smarter than the body. Five years later I went into another deeeeep depression that lasted for two and a half years. I went to every alternative healer, nutritional guide, energy-worker I could think of, spending thousands of dollars.

Walking home from a meeting one night I was complaining to a friend that I’d still not found the right magic to heal the depression and she whispered, “Have you considered just feeling it?” That was like a brick to the head. I did feel it and the depression dissolved very quickly. What a teacher it has been.

You may be asking what the heck this has to do with waking up, and the answer is everything. The missing key to awakening for me was being in my body, feeling how life moves in me – now, and now, and now…

Transcendence is the natural outcome of integration. Integration happens when we shine the light of awareness on our experience, share it with a trusted other when we can, and feel it, all the way in, in, in the body. I would guess the thud was audible when I landed.

What a gift to be here.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“The body is shaped, disciplined, honored, and in time, trusted.”
~Martha Graham

Shouldn’t I Be Thinking Something?

Dear Blessed One,

Where are you? Are you right here, right now? Are you so sharply focused that nothing is going unnoticed in your periphery?

I was out for a short ride with a friend not too long ago and during the pregnant pause in our conversation, I had a gentle smile on my face as I was now deeply feeling into all that we were driving by.

There was a couple walking hand-in-hand, a woman with her sweet little dog in its funny checkered sweater, I felt a sense of excitement as I noticed the fog lifting and sun streaking through, and then the sudden awareness that he was not slowing down for the person in the crosswalk, which I immediately pointed out. Right after that he crossed over the bike lane for a rolling stop at a stop-sign, and then almost missed our next turn. I could feel his deep entrenchment in the thought-realm.

While this may not be the depth of your mind’s entrapment, it is a good example of lack of awareness and the power of the pull of thinking. Just like an alcoholic’s just-one-drink always leads to one more, a think-aholic’s I’m-just-going-to-bring-this-thought-to-resolution leads to one more, and one more, and one more, until something from the outside interrupts the pattern. Unfortunately the thinking mind is very good at bookmarking where it left off so it can continue later.

Years ago, when I began to notice the incessant chatter in my head, I started practicing very strict awareness on what was right in front of me in that very moment. While I was washing dishes, I brought my attention to the texture of the dish in my hand, the smell of the dish soap, the temperature of the water, and then gratitude in my heart for all of it.

I realized I could manage the constant babbling committee in my head by having conscious dialogue about my every movement, “I am hanging up my coat,” “I am putting my keys in the drawer,” “I am feeling the coolness of the earth on my bare feet,” etc. I would even place little post-it-notes in places where it was really easy for me to drift onto autopilot, like a note on the mirror in the bathroom stating, “I am brushing my teeth,” or one on the steering wheel, “I am driving.”

This may sound extreme and perhaps it is but I’m sharing it because it worked. It created a habit of conscious contact with the present moment, the very thing that life is offering me to notice, nothing more important than THIS. Eventually, the mind became very still. Soon after noticing stillness, I recall having a thought as the mind had a moment of panic, “I’m not thinking anything! Shouldn’t I be thinking something?” and then an exhalation and stillness again.

The wonderful outcome of this practice was discovering that everything still got done, the laundry, trips planned, time with friends, dishes, and a sweet byproduct – a sense of openness and freedom from stress and worry.

Beyond all the practical benefits of practicing presence is awakening. With the mind (or ego) now relegated to the passenger’s seat and no longer the driving force, you can call upon it when it is needed. What a priceless gift; waking up to the divine nature of life moving through form, mine, yours, the connectedness of all life, and to our infinite nature!

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“The present moment holds the key to liberation. But you cannot find the present moment as long as you are your mind.”
~Eckhart Tolle

Your Wish Is My Command

Dear Blessed One,

There are no two words more powerful than “I am”.

Life flows, expresses, and expands through the precious and unique form of you. While doing so, the part of you that many are not aware of is the infinite You; the You that responds to your constant calls. The infinite You is the place of all-thingness and no-thingness, and is completely neutral to how Earth-life unfolds. It holds us all without judgment and continues Its divine dance through us, ecstatic each moment It becomes conscious of Itself in form; sinner or saint, It has no preference. Nor does It care if we call it God, Source, Love, Brahma, Allah, or It.

During our divine dance, as we are conditioned by society, parents, culture, religion, etc, we tend to lose our conscious connection with the life-force that flows through us. Wielding our words like a drunken sorcerer’s wand, we dam up the flow of goodness to us by unconsciously calling in situations we do not want.

When we think something, emotionally charge it, and then say that something out loud, we are calling to our Godself to create. The infinite, as I’ve said, is neutral and answers with, “Your wish is my command.”

Words like “I want” are words that actually focus on the energy of lack and call in more of that. Using words in the present tense, “I am receiving…”, is an effective way of producing the results that you are really looking for.

Saying “I Am” is incredibly powerful. How many times a day do you say “I am”? What follows those two words? In 1997 when I got sober, I was shocked to become aware of all the negative “I am’s” I was using. Slowly and with great effort, as I was quite trapped in my world of negative thinking, I began to replace those tapes with new recordings – words of self-love and gratitude.

This is not about icing over the negative thoughts, emotions, and words with positive ones. It’s about awareness. It’s important to be with what’s arising, allowing it to be just as it is. Feeling into it gives it the space it needs to lessen and eventually dissolve (sometimes immediately), and compassion for the wounded one will typically surface.

Once the process of allowing feels complete, this is a good place to begin reprogramming. And you can always stop in the middle of a negative affirmation, question what you’ve just said and choose other words.

Another way to reprogram is by using affirming words to occupy the mind during times that you are feeling happy, at peace, loving. The subconscious is like a tape recorder, so plugging in words when the mind is relaxed, happy, etc is when we’re more likely to be in the theta or alpha state which is the state we need for giving new data to the subconscious mind. The old negative stuff was placed in us usually through repetition and over time, it can be replaced in the same way.

Are you looking for a deeper connection with Source? Try affirming things like, “I am beautiful, I am blessed, I am loving, I am wise, I am the light of God, wholly personified.” Is it abundance that you seek? “I am healthy, I am wealthy, I am always supplied, I am the light of God, wholly personified.” Awakening? “I am aware, I am awake, I am conscious of my light, I am manifesting God in this human rite.” Combine affirmations of the heart to invoke more than one of your great aspects by saying things like, “I am grace, I am joy, I am full, I am bliss, I am the living light of one Consciousness.”

Make up your own little mantras or at least begin shining the light of awareness on your speech so that you are more consciously calling in the life that you desire.

Remember, “I AM THAT I AM”. What are you I am-ing?

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“Our word has power because our word is the action of God… Let us seek to use the power of our word more generously, with a greater idea of its beneficence, its abundance, and its availability.”
~Ernest Holmes

Say Yes To Life

Dear Blessed One,

What’s here right now? Are you reaching outside of that? Are you looking for something else? Notice. That’s all. See if you’re on autopilot and if so, take yourself off autopilot. Shake yourself out of the trance of familiarity by just noticing what’s present in your awareness right now.

This moment is more precious than gold. This moment is not a means to an end. This moment is IT, the breadth and depth of Life itself, waiting for your attention, waiting patiently for your presence. Many push Life’s expression away saying, “No, not this, there must be something else!”

See if you can allow whatever is present to be just that, present. There is sweet peace to be discovered when resting in the moment. Say yes to Life, yes to even this, and this too, yes. Feel the bumps of life, then discover their gifts.

Life knows where She is going. Life knows how to express, expand, and evolve. Every situation is a coal in the fire of transformation. When it’s time to expand the heart and move into higher awareness, Life turns up the heat to burn off the old stuff that no longer serves us, creating an opening to higher consciousness.

Each moment in our lives, every person, each situation, these things are showing up to serve us in some way. The person in front of you is an expression of God offering you a gift. Energetically we call in what is the most perfect thing for us in the most perfect moment to assist us in our awakening. It may be time to release the outdated model and upgrade to a higher operating system. Allow that.

When we allow life to be as it is in whatever way it is expressing, without resistance (judgment, pushing away, labeling it, fixing, etc), we are able to experience the ever present wellspring of peace that is holding us, all ways, no matter how big, difficult, or ugly the situation seems to be to the mind.

Peace can be noticed as a silent and always present condition when resistance to what’s arising in the moment rests.

When we can stop & drop (stop taking the bait the mind throws us so we’re not flung about like a fish on a line, and drop into the body to feel what’s wanting our attention), we can become aware of the peace that holds us, and perhaps even the Life that molds us.

Rarely does Life express or answer in the way we think it should, though it does respond in harmony with our highest good.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“All we are saying is give peace a chance.”
~John Lennon

Nothing to Forgive

Dear Blessed One,

At some point in the early years of getting sober, I had a realization that given the same circumstances, conditioning, etc., I would be capable of doing any of the heinous acts that others had committed (whether against me personally or otherwise), and I so harshly judged. When this dawned on me, I had a flash sense of being capable of forgiving the world. At the time, that was a bit too vast for me and it took some years for the integration of my realization to produce the perceived outcome. It did begin the process of forgiveness with family, friends, and myself.

As I contemplated the idea of allowing everyone to be as they were with nothing about them that I needed to change, I began to see Life itself as the teacher. I could see life experiences carrying us all to the very next perfect place that we needed to be, even if it didn’t make immediate sense to me. It became so clear to me that Life knows where She wants to go, all I need do is let go and follow.

I considered my judgment of others and the great desire for them to change, might be akin to judging an infant for wetting its diaper. The baby learns as it grows through its wet experiences that dry feels better and that there’s another way. Just because one person’s way of operating may not be my preference, does not mean that they’re not in the perfect place at the perfect moment in life, which will bring them into their next perfect expression. At this point I recognized that there was really nothing to forgive.

Each person’s life is a power of example. As I express my way of being, everyone around me is affected in some way (and vice versa), and we’re all working together like cogs in a wheel, or a finely-tuned engine. Shining the light of awareness into all corners of my perceived reality truly was the key to this insight.

We change when it’s time to change and not a moment sooner. Life carries us to our next realization through life situations. Life brings us to heal old wounds, and to reprogram ourselves right down to a cellular level. Every day 50 to 70 billion cells die due to apoptosis, which means every day 50 to 70 billion new cells are produced thru cell division. At the end of a year, that’s the equivalent of our entire body weight. What a magical way Life has of bringing in new energy and a whole new you to dance with…wow!

We’re changing whether we like it or not. As you express this daily new-you, see if you can hold yourself with love – the tender love you would give an innocent baby. We are all infants and Infinites here doing exactly what we came to do, no mistake. What a way to free the world, and yourself.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is ‘Who in the world am I?’ Ah, that’s the great puzzle!”
~Caterpillar (Alice in Wonderland)

Suffering is a Mind-Made Entity

Dear Blessed One,

Fourteen years ago when I was first getting sober, I heard it said in the 12-step meetings that I was attending, “Pain is inevitable but suffering is optional.” It used to really annoy me to hear someone say that. I was so identified with my past that my mind would say, ‘they have no idea how incredibly painful and difficult my life has been!’ It didn’t take too long for this annoying little saying to begin seeping into my consciousness.

I began seeing that yes, painful situations arise in life, it’s inevitable. However, the suffering I was experiencing was the effect of the thoughts I was having about the painful situations. My mind was having a party with all the painful events and I was the guest of honor.

I didn’t know at the time that I didn’t have to believe the thoughts or that I could let them just drift on by without following them or creating a story in my head. One drama would be fed by more thoughts and it would expand into a great disaster causing me anxiety, fear, and many emotions!

Over a period of time, I finally realized that if I could let life be as it is and not fight against what’s here, screaming that it has to be different for me to be happy, the lack of resistance itself opened a door to peace. Just allowing and being with whatever life expresses in the moment, even the difficult situations, stirred me out of the hypnotic trance of all the thoughts and stories about how it “should” be. The ever present peace and stillness could now be noticed as I moved out of the past (or future) and dropped into the present moment.

All it takes is awareness to begin cracking the illusion of suffering. Suffering is a mind-made entity. Examining it reveals its true nature. When the mind rests, (allows thoughts to come and go without going along for the ride), we can touch into our true nature, the place that knows no suffering and has no resistance to pain. It’s all part of this glorious human experience

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“True freedom and the end of suffering is living in such a way as if you had completely chosen whatever you feel or experience at this moment. This inner alignment with Now is the end of suffering… Suffering cracks open the shell of ego, and then comes a point when it has served its purpose. Suffering is necessary until you realize it is unnecessary.”
~Eckhart Tolle

Smoke and Mirrors

Dear Blessed One,

How lost we can feel at times in life’s drama. It’s common to become so completely identified with the present scene that we forget Who we are. That’s part of the dance too. The lostness or identification with the drama helps to build confidence in Being, while bringing us closer and closer to the truth of who we are.

Often it doesn’t feel that way and it can seem that the opposite is actually happening. It can be confounding! See if you can rest with that.

This getting lost, coming home, getting lost is like exercising at the gym; we become stronger as we continue, the workouts get easier (and faster), our bodies less painful, and eventually we can even look forward to the workout.

Years ago, science discovered that the body is already responding about a half a second before the brain registers it and seems to ‘make the decision’. It’s all smoke and mirrors! We truly never know how Life is going to respond to Itself.

We’re already in motion and we are guided from a much deeper place than the brain. That may create a reaction of ‘what’s the point?’, or one may think it would elicit nihilism. Conversely, when we can see that we’re not the doer here, and that this form is just following the impulse of life, there is deep relaxation that happens at the very core of self.

Because judgment and resistance to ‘what is’ relaxes, there’s now room for joy, and peace to show up, even in the midst of pain. Causeless joy, causeless love, this is our most natural state. It can arise when we allow life to be as it is.

Tears of sadness and a heart bursting with love? Oh yes, it’s possible.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters to what lies within us.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson