Awakening Tips

The Eyes of Innocence

Dear Blessed One,

The only thing that keeps you trapped or frozen is a belief that something should be different than it is. Beliefs come from limited human perspective teachings, and wounds of the past. Knowing comes from innate wisdom. It’s soft, more like an offering than an insistence.

We’ve been programmed to go into fear, to think that something has gone wrong. Challenges are all part of the growth / awakening process.

Take full responsibility for every aspect of your life. Whenever you hear yourself saying, “I have to…”, notice that it is a choice. When you realize that there’s nothing on the outside forcing you to do anything, that it’s all your choosing, the pressure-valve of life opens and releases the tension of situations. When the pressure is gone (or lessened) you have more access to the Creative Impulse of Life to guide you in a way that feels more in alignment with your higher essence.

See if you can reframe your experience.
Take 2 or 3 deep conscious breaths and internally step back from the situation creating just a bit of space by observing as an outsider. Get curious about what’s before you. Notice all the labels you add to the experience and see if you can witness through the eyes of innocence, honoring it all.

Ask questions without looking for an answer…just send them out to the universe and then wait and see what comes (often not immediately). Don’t do this as a way of stepping out of your experience hoping to jump to some potential future outcome. Just allow what’s here to be here and get curious about it.

Ask things like, “I wonder what this difficulty is creating for me just out of my immediate awareness?” “Hey Life, how shall I respond to this?” “I wonder what Life is wanting me to know more deeply about me through this experience.” “I wonder if this is an opportunity for healing?” “What does this remind me of?”

When diving deep into the belly of your being, allow yourself to feel whatever you may be feeling.

You as a God-Being have called these things into your field for your higher good. Pain is a motivator, anger transformed is strength, tears are healing nectar…

As long as you are blaming someone/thing, you’re in the victim perspective and dancing in the world of separation. God recognition / freedom happens magically when we realize that we are the one creating this.

Die to who you think you are. Completely let go of all identification with the story of who you are and allow grace to take your hand and guide you gently into the sweet effortlessness of being.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee rae

“Live your daily life in a way that you never lose yourself. When you are carried away with worries, fears, cravings, anger and desire, you run away from yourself and lose yourself. The practice is always to go back to oneself.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Revel in Not-Knowing

Dear Blessed One,

Conditioned world, conditioned mind, culture, society…
Much of what we learn through external input
eclipses natural, organic experiencing.
Unravel from the mind, question beliefs,
(labels, judgments, shoulds),
drop into the belly of Being.
Access the innate wisdom and guidance that flows so sweetly ~ without thought or effort.
Revel in not-knowing!
This creates an opening for Wisdom to flow.
Your Higher Essence speaks
through the door of not-knowing.
What might your present experience be clearing and creating
for your next evolutionary leap?
Honor your process.
Life Knows.
Trust That.

“One day in late summer, an old farmer was working in his field with his old sick horse. The farmer felt compassion for the horse and desired to lift its burden. So he let his horse loose to go the mountains and live out the rest of its life.

Soon after, neighbors from the nearby village visited, offering their condolences and said, “What a shame. Now your only horse is gone. How unfortunate you are! You must be very sad. How will you live, work the land, and prosper?” The farmer replied, “Who knows? We shall see.”

Two days later the old horse came back now rejuvenated after meandering in the mountainsides while eating the wild grasses. He came back with twelve new younger and healthy horses which followed the old horse into the corral.

Word got out in the village of the old farmer’s good fortune and it wasn’t long before people stopped by to congratulate the farmer on his good luck. “How fortunate you are!” they exclaimed. You must be very happy!” Again, the farmer softly said, “Who knows? We shall see.”

At daybreak on the next morning, the farmer’s only son set off to attempt to train the new wild horses, but the farmer’s son was thrown to the ground and broke his leg. One by one villagers arrived during the day to bemoan the farmer’s latest misfortune. “Oh, what a tragedy! Your son won’t be able to help you farm with a broken leg. You’ll have to do all the work yourself. How will you survive? You must be very sad,” they said. Calmly going about his usual business the farmer answered, “Who knows? We shall see.”

Several days later a war broke out. The Emperor’s men arrived in the village demanding that young men come with them to be conscripted into the Emperor’s army. As it happened the farmer’s son was deemed unfit because of his broken leg. “What very good fortune you have!” the villagers exclaimed as their own young sons were marched away. “You must be very happy.” “Who knows? We shall see!”, replied the old farmer as he headed off to work his field alone.

As time went on the broken leg healed but the son was left with a slight limp. Again the neighbors came to pay their condolences. “Oh what bad luck. Too bad for you!” But the old farmer simply replied, “Who knows? We shall see.”

As it turned the other young village boys died in the war and the old farmer and his son were the only able-bodied men capable of working the village lands. The old farmer became wealthy and was very generous to the villagers. They said, “Oh how fortunate we are, you must be very happy,” to which the old farmer replied, “Who knows? We shall see!””

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee rae

“Any anxious thought as to the means to be employed in the accomplishment of our purposes is quite unnecessary. If the end is already secured, then it follows that all the steps leading to it are secured also.”
~ Thomas Troward

High Def IMAX

Dear Blessed One,

Approximately 8 years ago I connected with Mother Earth in a most magnificent way! I had not previously experienced anything like it.

While snuggling with a partner, I was caressing him, hand slowly tracing his arm, shoulder, and waist. Eyes closed and gently moving my hand over his body, I was suddenly seeing the earth’s surface in my inner vision.

Slowly, I moved my touch along to cover more of the body and was seeing mountains, lakes, trees, valleys, ocean, cliffs, desert, and marshes…incredibly beautiful! It seemed as though I was caressing the earth and seeing through my hands and fingers. I thought, “My God, we are the earth!”

Afraid of the experience dissipating, I didn’t want to even breathe. It was the wildest thing I’d experienced in a very long time. My whole body was vibrating and every hair seemed to be on end with the frequency that was running through me.

The experience was like being in a high def IMAX theater. The colors were exquisite, the clarity of the landscapes was breathtaking, and the lense through which I was seeing was panoramic. It seemed consciousness had shifted from the personal “I” to the consciousness of Mother Earth.

Prior to this amazing event, I’d been barefoot hiking and jogging for over a year, and my inner mantra shifted back and forth from “Thank you” to “Love you” as each foot hit the ground.

Since then, I’ve spontaneously popped into this wild and wonderful experience many times in different surroundings. It always arises from a place of stillness and appreciation.

See if you can find something to be grateful for and let that be your practice. Gratitude is a wonderful portal to awareness of our infinite nature. Magic happens in the energy of thanks.

Sing with the birds in gratitude for the sun, dip your body in a stream and sing praises to water, drift into bliss while drinking in the scent of spring, say thank you to your body as you wash, feed, and nurture it.

There’s so much more than the limited human perspective; allow your heart to open wider to the limitlessness of You.

Thank you. Love you.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee rae

“You carry Mother Earth within you. She is not outside of you. Mother Earth is not just your environment. In that insight of inter-being, it is possible to have real communication with the Earth, which is the highest form of prayer.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Closer Than Breath

Dear Blessed One,

Perhaps I’ve already told you about an experience I had in my early Reiki days (18 years or so ago).

I got sober in 1997 and, no longer anesthetized by drugs or alcohol, began releasing a lot of buried pain. It seemed the tears were never-ending. At some point I felt guided to hold a picture of 9-year-old me and began sending Reiki to young Shellee, who had gone through hell. I was sending loving energy to the wounded little girl in hopes of helping the present challenging state.

As my mind softened and I drifted into a sense-feeling of my young self, I recalled having occasional waves of something holding me through the trauma of my life. Seeing from the adult perspective, it seemed to be the very thing that was giving young-me the strength to continue living.

As I was sending Reiki through the picture, suddenly I realized that it was me now holding young-me, that there was no separation between that time as a young girl and this time as an adult! It blew my mind and I dropped the picture in fear. That rabbit-hole was too deep to go down alone; I wasn’t sure I would find my way back. However, it didn’t take long before I realized we could drastically change our present-day life by healing our past.

Great and deep healing happened for me over the next six-months while working regularly on my younger self.

All aspects of self are here and now, vibrating at different frequencies…infinite parallel realities, and we have access to them. The more evolved aspects of self are having effects on the less evolved ones, moving them into a higher state, which of course also affects the more evolved aspects. All of this is moving evolution forward faster and faster. It’s infinite in both directions, so to speak, no beginning, no end.

Science has recently proven that the universe is expanding exponentially.

Whatever is showing up in life is the flowering of what was earlier seeded. Just because it’s taken root doesn’t mean it can’t be pruned, grafted, or even plucked from your garden.

Misidentification of “I” with the body and mind will not free you from the story of the past. Drop into stillness. Send love to the one who suffered/is suffering. Notice when the mind comes in to justify the pain or to judge the offender and calmly bring attention back to stillness in the heart while continuing to send love. This simple practice can completely transform your present reality.

Pay attention to where you are. Are you living in fear? Waiting for the other shoe to drop? Hoping for something else? Watch the patterns of the mind and all its antics. You will not find the truth of what you are in the mind. It’s not figureoutable.

The essence of Life itself is what you are. It’s not inside or outside of you. It is you and you are It. Presence. Be. Here. Now. Looking elsewhere would be like the ocean seeking water. Closer than the breath…

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee rae

“We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
~ T. S. Eliot

Bone Jarringly Deep

Dear Blessed One,

I was working in southern California in January and while out doing errands a woman ran a red light and “t-boned” me, driving directly into my door. Fortunately, the RAV4 I drive is a hefty vehicle, I’m still alive, and the injuries are healing.

From there I moved on to Mexico where I had dental surgery scheduled (the main purpose of my trip south). After seeing the results of the CT scans, we discovered the surgery was going to be more extensive than I had imagined. I was in surgery for seven hours.

And now home, healing…
I have a felt sense that something bone jarringly deep was dislodged from the experiences. I don’t have an idea of what, just bubbles of sadness being released. On numerous occasions tears spontaneously began streaming from an unknown source. Oh, this dance of life!

I’m certain that once the old frozen energetics are thoroughly cleansed from my field, I’ll have access to more light.

The last few months have not been easy for me. I’ve heard many are experiencing painful challenges. As difficult and frustrating as life can feel at times, while we allow and experience our feelings that are coming up, it’s important to hold in the other hand the perfection and beauty of life. You may still want to give life the finger, (that’s okay, don’t judge) however, remembering helps us get through the rough spots.

Unless we have the bird’s eye view, we don’t know what the seeming accident or extensive surgery is creating just out of our view. All for a reason. Truly.

Layers and layers of ego identification are dissolved through the challenges of life. As we surrender what we are not, we become more aware of what we are. We surrender when we can no longer hold on, and that’s when we pass through the proverbial eye of the needle. You are not your job title, you are not your thoughts (they’re not even yours), you are not what outside sources say that you are. You are so much greater than what the mind can conceive.

Go beyond the mind. Be so present in your body that the thought stream you used to listen to (and believe) is now uninteresting and so far away it’s almost undetectable.

Breathe deep often, be still and drop in, listen to the heart, follow what feels light. That’s life calling you.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee rae

“How could you have imagined obstacles into existence, if existence wasn’t already there for you to imagine the obstacles into?”
~ Bentinho Massaro

Play Within a Play

Dear Blessed One,

Ten years ago when I first moved to Ashland, Oregon, I was popping into expanded states of awareness pretty regularly as my body/mind/spirit were vibrationally adjusting and preparing to awaken.

One evening I was out with my (then) partner attending a Shakespeare play. The characters were in their roles, moving about and speaking their lines. All of a sudden I could see that we were all doing the same thing, just playing our parts in a bigger play.

It felt very strange to look around and see that no one else was noticing that the play before us was a play within a play. I was fascinated by the level of belief and the depth of commitment we were all giving our personas. People in the audience were reacting (clearly acting) to the people on stage who were pretending to be someone other than themselves. They were actually pretending to pretend they were someone else… the movie Inception comes to mind.

It felt pretty trippy and I felt a bit wobbly from the experience. I kept looking at my partner wondering if he was seeing what I was seeing. He wasn’t. Scanning the theater I could see that everyone was playing their part perfectly.

I’ve had so many people ask me how, how, how did I get to where I am. By playing my part. Yes, there were many things I was doing but the things I was doing is not necessarily the formula for awakening.

For those who still want to know, here’s the list:
– I was sungazing daily (still do) ~ there is a safe way
– Giving and receiving Reiki weekly (still do)
– Giving and receiving deeksha
– Vibration practice
– Pranayama
– Meditating
– Vegan diet
– Eye gazing

You’re playing your part perfectly. Listen to your heart. Where is it guiding you? Trust the wisdom that comes through you. You are a magnificent manifestation of the Divine. Own it.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee rae

“Alice: I’m afraid I can’t explain myself, you see, because I’m not myself, you know.
Caterpillar: I do not know.
Alice: I can’t put it any more clearly, sir, because it isn’t clear to me.”
~ Alice in Wonderland

Q & A ~ Disease, I Am, and Akashic Records

Dear Blessed One,

The questions below are from email dialogues I’ve had with people after skype sessions.

NA in Canada: So if God is all knowing… that means God has planned both the disease and its cure, correct? It’s the same for any type of “discovery”… Because how can you discover something that was never there to be discovered to begin with? Because discovery implies mystery, right? But if you are awake, you can have access to this information, so what’s there to discover but capital S Self? …Sort of like, when you are awake, you already know how you created this disease therefore you know the answer… Like when you are awake you are able to tap into the blueprint of your Self and therefore when you know more about yourself, then you can know the “cures” to the diseases that Self created?

SR ~ When you wake up, you don’t all of a sudden know all the answers/solutions to life’s predicaments. The questioner dies. There is peace, a resting with the Realization of the perfection of the drama before you. If you are meant to attain the “cure”, you will be given access to it without strain. Guidance comes through you. Your purpose in the moment may be to console, hold the hand of someone, realize the difficulty of their predicament, the pain of disconnection, and support them in their drama ~ not fix it ~ unless of course you are guided to do so.

I’m always happy to work with people (like you) who are moving into (or already in) allopathic medicine. That system could use more Light.

CM in India: …what you mentioned as to be aware of I am doing this, I am driving, I am walking, I am… etc is similar to being in sense of “I am”? What actually does it mean to be in the sense of “I am”?

SR ~ I am walking, I am driving, etc is a way of quieting the monkey-mind that is constantly chattering, projecting, labeling, residing in the past/projected future. “I am here” practice will land you square in the body. Here, in the body, is where you have access to Source and Guidance.

Once you are fully present and in touch with higher awareness, you can recognize “I am that”. No separation. Even though there is still a sense of personal self, there is a knowingness of the play of form (and no-form) as “Me” too.

NA in CA: Just out of curiosity, but do you work with clients and Akashic records by any chance?

SR ~ No, not defined as such. Sometimes I see parallel lives that bleed into the one I’m working with and if it’s helpful in understanding their challenge, we talk about it. This is not something I do consciously, it comes as needed (I suppose).

Since my experience of life is there are no past lives, only parallel realities all here now and no-thing is happening/moving, I would not call the Akashic records a log of past lives. It’s the One-Pool of all existence in form always and only now, and we can tap into it to access other vibrational aspects of Self in order to assist this one.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee rae

Q & A

Dear Blessed One,

The questions below are from email dialogues I’ve had with people after skype sessions.

SS in NV: I have this terror coming up that I am losing my mind. I try my best to drop out of the story and let go, but I feel like my mind is pulling out all the stops to get my attention. I feel like I am unraveling. I just don’t know what to believe anymore…

SR ~ Don’t believe anything. Let experience be your teacher. Losing my mind was my greatest fear too. I could see after I lost my mind that it was actually the mind that was crazy and the best thing that ever happened to me was to lose it. It was something I had to experience though.

Whoever you ‘think’ you are, is not you. Surrender to the great wisdom of Life…it’s got you.

JG in UK: …I am studying with Andrew Harvey at the same time. I find you both absolutely great teachers who both move my heart, so I am torn & confused a little.

Andrew Harvey, who I adore, says we need sacred activism to help change the world for the better, yet you say everything is as it should be & it’s all unfolding in a preconceived way destined by the Goddess. I really need help in understanding this because I feel torn. I appreciate doing good is always good for its own sake, however I would really just love to know your views…

SR ~ All is well; the confusion you’re experiencing is serving a purpose. It’ll burn itself out and from the ashes will rise clarity. If you’re drawn to sacred activism, if that’s what makes your heart sing, do that. No thing to know, only to follow the creative impulse of life that flows through you naturally in every moment.

Life is a self-correcting system. It’s like over-steering when you’re learning to drive; you veer left and then swing right until you find the sweet spot in steering. See if you can relax into confusion…let it be. Recognize that it’s just the mind again thinking it has to know! Knowing comes from a much deeper place. It comes through you, not from the mind. The mind is constantly broadcasting old news. Stop paying attention to it. Put your attention elsewhere.

JB in AZ: I viewed a video which I resonated with. It pointed to how people said they wanted freedom and yes even experienced it, ‘but’, and there’s the word, but… So in a way people don’t value freedom, i.e., not as much as their conditioning; ‘but I need to attend to this first, but…’ And it may cost them 10 years before they say please take me, buts amid all, and, for God’s sake, rest in the freedom. What I sense is you had that one, pure intention, desire — me, not so sure.

SR ~ Yes, I had one burning desire: to wake up no matter what it took. Underlying that intention was fear of what it might take. It took a number of painful dramas to distract me from desperate seeking and the great desire to awaken for Self-realization to occur.

In regard to the ‘but… list,’ I ask the person I’m working with to explore what they’re committed to. Committed to validating their story? Gathering witnesses? Committed to suffering? Pain? Anger? Limitedness? Fear? How attached to the conditioned, restricting mind that says, ‘not yet,’ is the one who wants freedom? Examine that one. Look for the one who sees all the reasons why ‘this is not the time for me.’ When you find the one with the ‘but… list,’ hold that aspect of self. Console and nurture like you would a young child. It’s only fear. As you love and respect all aspects of self, integration happens naturally and that particular persona no longer screams to be seen, creating space for new commitments.

AC in NY: I recently talked with a gentleman… kundalini… spirituality… but something seemed off… Then I figured it out — he is an atheist, an intellectual scientist that had different explanations for every part of his process… it has left me feeling a bit off and confused about the whole God question and is there really a supreme being?

When they say in spirituality that the spiritual is the last to go, is that what’s possibly happening to me?

SR ~ The only supreme being is You. There is nothing outside of you. You’re playing a game of hide-and-seek with yourself. Feel into that. Don’t buy into anyone else’s reality.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“To put it still more plainly: the desire for security and the feeling of insecurity are the same thing. To hold your breath is to lose your breath. A society based on the quest for security is nothing but a breath-retention contest in which everyone is as taut as a drum and as purple as a beet..” ~ Alan Watts

Emptiness

Dear Blessed One,

In my early years of sobriety (late 90’s), I had many expanded states of consciousness experiences. Whenever I popped into that higher frequency, (often it felt like an electrical charge running through my veins as I witnessed different things), I wanted to contact my family and friends and shout, “Follow me, I know The Way!”

Actually, oftentimes I did shout it, wanting to share my newfound connection to Source with loved ones. What happened over the years was The Way kept changing (teachers, gurus, practices), my shout was softening due to uncertainty, and enthusiasm waned.

In hindsight, I discovered all of The Ways I traveled were meant as stepping stones to the next Way, and that there is nothing to land on as solid ground or ultimate truth. After the 2008 awakening, I began to adjust to the sense of free-falling, nothing to hang my hat on.

As I matured in the awakening, I realized there is nothing to attach to in the infinite expression of ever-expanding Consciousness.

It is the journey (each precious moment) that is to be loved, allowed, surrendered to – and not some imagined destination.

While allowing whatever is arising in the moment (no resistance), guidance can come through and lead the way. That guidance is your innate wisdom which points to other possibilities – prospects that cannot be received when in a contracted state (spinning in the conditioned mind).

I was speaking with some friends a couple of months ago attempting to describe a new expression I seem to have landed in. How to explain Emptiness? It is just that, empty. Even to say blank page or clean slate is something. This expression needs nothing. The sense of self that was always present, even in stillness, seems to have dissolved.

It’s been odd walking about in daily life with no sense of me-ness. It’s as if everything flows through me completely unimpeded.

This new state of consciousness would have been extreme to step into without all of the preparatory phases of awakening over the years.

Life’s bumps and bruises and ups and downs are not random. It all has purpose. Every step along The Way is holy. Honor your path. All is needed. All is precious. All is perfect.

You are That which experiences experiencing. Life knows The Way. Follow that.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.” ~ Joseph Campbell

You Are Me

Dear Blessed One,

Put your hands over your ears, clear your throat a few times, now speak a couple of sentences. This is the best way I can describe what it sounds like when awareness expands to include the other in your consciousness. It has a bit of an echo-like sound, as if reverberating in a great and still chamber that is me.

The first time it happened to me was about 16 years ago. My sister and I were giving Reiki to someone and she did a triple clearing of her throat. I could not for the life of me figure out what had just happened! I knew it was her that had cleared her throat; however, I heard it in my head as if it were me.

The next time it happened was 7 years later when I was sitting with a client. She was speaking about the difficult issues in her life and all of a sudden her voice was echoing inside of me as if there were no boundary between the two of us ~ merged. I could clearly see her sitting there moving her lips, seemingly separate from me, and her voice was ringing inside of me as if it were me speaking. Some months later, it happened again with another person as we were out walking together.

It took some time for me to understand what had happened. Shortly after the latter event, I had my first kundalini awakening and not long after that, a sense of knowingness seeped into my awareness about the merge-experiences.

Identification with the personal-self had softened just enough for me to experience the reality of oneness. Imagine what the world would be like if everyone realized this? No one ‘out there’, just the One consciousness experiencing itself in (seemingly) many forms and expressions.

While visiting family on the east coast, I was having dinner with my older brother who lives in a VA home. He has had some remarkable, unexplainable experiences and this one that he shared with me struck deep.

During his van ride to the hospital with the guys, he was watching a moth flitting about and then it landed on the shoulder of someone near the front. He wondered what it would be like to experience the perspective of the moth on this man’s shoulder…whooosh! There he was, on the man’s shoulder looking around. He said it was so quiet (other than the “humm…”), no thought about flight, just off they went to the next landing. When I told him my stories, he said, “Yes, of course! It’s so easy, you just let go of who you think you are and mind can go anywhere.” Brilliant.

Enjoy the play of consciousness. You are me. I am you. We is One. Literally. Really.

How would you respond to the people in your life if you carried this awareness in your heart? What is the emanation from the One source displaying for you in the seeming separate other before you?

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

Check out this sweet story: The Egg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1VN5zICGeU ~ By Andy Weir