Awakening Tips

I Surrender

Dear Blessed One,

Are you feeling like the figurine in the glass snowglobe that someone is continuously shaking? Barely feeling balanced as the ‘snow’ begins to settle and all of a sudden you’re in the middle of another big shake? Who’s doing that!? Well, hmm, sorry to report this but it’s you.

We’re going through a big purge right now and it’s been intense. This is an answering to a calling from the deepest part of our hearts; ‘release that which does not serve’, and that’s what we’re doing.

In the midst of the turmoil, see if you can remember surrender and breathe in your center.

Use “I surrender to this” as your mantra to remind you to let go of the idea that something needs to be different or controlled.

There is a difference between surrender and giving up. Surrender is empowering as you let go of ideas of control – – a true letting go, while giving up or resignation is a belief that you are powerless and can activate the victim.

Get curious about your experience. What is life asking of you in the moment? Are you being pressed to create healthy boundaries? Are you being shown some sort of move is next in your life (job, home, relationship, etc.)? Are you resisting what life is presenting in the moment?

Something to consider while sitting in the burn; the stronger the no, the greater the challenge. As the intensity of the no increases, so does the level of pain.

Allow this moment to BE as it is. There is freedom in non-resistance. There is also an opening to That which guides us in non-resistance.

There is nothing to do while facing a situation in the here and now. You don’t need new teachings, thoughts, or beliefs. As you relinquish concepts and ideas you can begin to discover what’s already here and then be guided to respond from the place of Stillness. This is very scary for the mind, which says many things to enforce the importance of thinking. Just watch and see as you let it go.

If you feel guided, meditation and breath practices can help to quiet the mind for body-centered focus and then see where that may take you. Many people are doing as a means to an end; make your doing the end with no hope or need for it to bring you anything or take you anywhere. Rather than doing and hoping for a particular outcome, just be with what’s arising.

Doing with hoping and wishing often results in suffering because rarely does the doing bring about the results in the way that the doer THINKS it should or will.

See if you can rest and not follow the mind. Is the mind continuously reviving an old story that keeps you suffering? Bring attention into the body. What keeps one trapped or frozen is a belief that what is here should not be here or should be different somehow. Fighting with life is a battle one never wins.

Take full responsibility for every aspect of your life. Whenever you hear yourself saying, “I have to…”, see that it’s 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 opens and releases the tension of situations, which creates space for the creative impulse of life to guide you in a way that feels more in alignment with your truest nature.

Just like the child’s momentary bliss with the snowglobe, Life is ecstatic with all the shifting and shaking that’s taking place.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“…transformation at the speed of light.”
http://www.leeharrisenergy.com/energy-forecast
~Lee Harris

Life is Doing You

Dear Blessed One,

You are an opening for this pinpoint of consciousness to come through and experience the bliss of form. Even though the human experience often does not feel it as bliss, spirit is saying, “Wahoo, form!”

“Yeah but I can’t find a reason to go on.”

The dark days, the difficult days, the challenges of being human; this is the friction, the contrast, the very burn that is needed to help us move into a higher state of consciousness. Typically the greater the challenge, the greater the growth. Life’s fires take us to the edge of who we think we are, and it’s at the edge that big magic happens.

The edge is the place where we get to bump up against fears, beliefs, ideas, conditioned mind. It’s also the place of great opportunity. This is the dumping ground where you can release all the miscellaneous junk you’ve collected. None of it is yours. This is the stripping away of self which is necessary to experience the great and free being that is already and always here, quietly waiting, and just under the weight of conditioned mind.

Feel the feelings, the freaking-out-fear, the deep sadness, the roaring anger, the emptiness; whatever is coming up is what’s meant to be coming up to be experienced by you and always in perfect timing. It is backed by a tremendous force, an energy that transmutes suffering into peace, stillness.

To see it is to free it and to feel it is to heal it.

While experiencing whatever you’re experiencing, hold both hands out open, and see if you can hold in one hand the challenge and in the other hand the possibility that this is grace coming through and touching you in a way that is perfect.

Life is doing you, relax, let go, you are not in charge. Allow yourself to be as you are. You are this magnificent expression of life (beyond the conditioned mind’s judgment) and the mind is pushing against it saying, “It must be something else!” There is nothing else but “this”.

Rest in the place of not-knowing what any particular moment or situation is for. See if you can let go of the attachment to need-to-know. We’ve been programmed to believe that knowing is “safe”, which implies that we might have some control over the outcome of life.

Breathe, feel, see where life is guiding you. Not feeling guided? What if that is guidance? It might just mean wait, or burn with not-knowing while the dross is being cooked out.

In the moment when you have awareness, when you can see that you’re saying no to life, that is the door, the opportunity. Exhale can happen here… “Ahh, just experiencing, no need for this to be any different. How might I respond to what life is presenting me?”

It’s so simple that it gets missed by many. Adjust your focus. See it all through the eyes of Love. Love is what’s moving here.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.”
~Nikos Kazantzakis

Aperture for God

Dear Blessed One,

I was talking with someone the other day and all of a sudden she could see the trap of the mind, and the ease of just BEing here. From the heart of innocence she said, “Oh my God, it’s a no-brainer!” The words struck both of us deeply and we had a good laugh.

YES! It’s a no-brainer.

The tree does not think about how to grow, how to be, how to age, or how to soften and return to the earth. It just does it. I know, I know, I’ve been told that trees don’t have the capacity to think. We could learn a lot from a tree.

What I’m pointing to is the natural flow of Life. You are an aperture for God to experience itself. You are the sense-organ for spirit.

How would you live if you knew that you were not in charge of any of it? How would you respond to your experience if you knew it is not possible to control life, nor is it possible to make a mistake?

Nothing has gone wrong here. Life is a self-correcting system. Going way LEFT can cause the opposite move of way RIGHT, and as the pendulum continues its swing, we eventually find center. It may not happen in the way a limited-mind-view might expect, however, it does self-correct always. The lefts and rights are useful to find center, and it all has purpose.

Life challenges, victories, losses, pain, and bliss…it’s all part of the process of waking up from the dream of separation.

The evolution/expansion of Consciousness is what’s going on here and you have a big part in it.

Nothing to fix, nothing to find, nothing to fight, only to follow the Divine Inspiration that flows naturally and organically through you. Exhale. Empty. What’s here holding it all? What’s here without belief? What’s here without thought? Who are you without learned, programmed, conditioned reactions?

What would you be doing if you knew that none of this is ultimately real? And by the way, all of it is real. It’s been designed to feeeeeel reeeeeal…otherwise it would be like trying to convince oneself that the awkward, not well-rehearsed play on stage that one is acting in is real. Everyone would be looking at each other saying, “You do not really believe this do you?!”

Have you ever had a lucid dream? Becoming lucid in this dream changes everything. Nothing on the outside changes, though the way we see, feel, respond to life, the whole experience of life, is forever changed.

Stop.
Stop listening to or believing the mind and all its stories. Take one conscious breath and see what’s moving IN you. Every time you notice the mind winding up (in all its subtle ways), in that moment you can make the choice to stop listening and bring awareness to the body.

Drop.
Drop into your heart, your body, something that you can bring awareness to in the physical (or emotional) body. Notice whenever the mind comes in with a story about what you’re doing. Thank it for its programmed opinion and drop back IN.

Pop.
If you do stop and drop enough, pop will happen on its own. Popping free from the mind-identified self creates a sense of greater freedom, relaxation, ease, lucidity…the effortlessness of BEing.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“You must unlearn what you have learned.”
~Yoda

No Means Yes

Dear Blessed One,

In 2003, through many unmistakable synchronicities in my life on Boston’s North Shore, I was led to Ashland, Oregon for a Psychic Children’s Conference. I’d never heard of Ashland and couldn’t imagine such a small community hosting an event that would draw more than just a few people, though I was clearly meant to attend.

The event drew at least 600 people (maybe more) and I was blown away by the many brilliant children (and adults) presenting over the 5 days.

One boy, perhaps 5 or 6 years old wrapped up his talk with, “It’s all yes! Yes means yes, maybe means yes, and no means yes. Life is a yes!” Those may not be his exact words but pretty darn close. I recall thinking, what the heck is he talking about?

When I went into town for a meal, I then had a head-to-toe vibrational experience that whispered, welcome home. Tears flowed and in that moment I knew I would move here – soon (it took 3 years).

Fast forward…
In my awakening in 2008, I had that experience of YES. I was overwhelmed with the joy of life and of everything being a yes! I remembered the little boy at the conference and thought, Dear God, he’s right, life is a yes!

There’s nothing here that is happening by accident…I speak a bit more about this in the Awakening Tips: A Divine Mosaic.

Here’s something to consider when fighting, resisting, judging, or saying NO to life situations, emotions, events, and people…

Life has already said YES to it or it wouldn’t be here. We are not separate from Life, we are the vessel for Life to experience form and movement. Life is always saying, “Thank you ~ another way for me to express,” and it’s quite presumptuous to think we might know what’s better for life than life itself.

Say yes, learn from it, relax into it. See what life is asking from you in the moment, and then move with the Creative Impulse that guides and flows through you, rather than from some conditioned idea about how things should be. Guidance is soft. It’s subtle. It can seem too gentle or easy.

See if you can unravel yourself from all the beliefs you’ve bought into about what is good and what is bad. Truth comes from within you and it evolves as you awaken. It does not come from a teaching. It’s an unlearning, a removal of that which stands in the way of you receiving clear guidance.

You are a sovereign, divine, infinite and holy expression of the One, and so is everyone else. Re-Member. Listen deep.

Before re-acting, take one conscious breath and ask yourself, “How is life asking me to respond in this moment?”

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“With awareness there comes choice. And so you are able to say: “I allow this moment to be as it is”. And then, suddenly, where before there was irritation, there is now a sense of aliveness and peace. And out of that comes right action..”
~Eckhart Tolle

The Harbinger Fear

Dear Blessed One,

I’ve been watching online a live-feed of two eaglets, from eggs, to hatchlings, to fledglings.

I enjoy watching how ma and pa eagle take such good care of them, from sitting on the nest neck-deep in snow while the other delivers food, to grooming, setting clear boundaries (no wandering out of the nest!), and guiding them as their innate instincts awaken.

Recently they’ve been doing a lot of things the parents do, cleaning and rearranging the nest, sitting on the very edge of the nest with their eagle-eye on, occasionally knocking each other over as the flap their growing wings in rather tight space.

They’ve grown so big now they look like adult birds; fish and other assorted animals are dropped into the nest and they can feed themselves.

At times it’s obvious they hear something (there’s no audio), I’m guessing it’s ma or pa eagle calling to them. I laugh as they jump up, spread their massive wings and fly-hop from one side of the nest to the other, and then settle back in to the comforts of the nest as if the fear of flight is just too much.

The next stage was branching, where one would fly to a branch adjacent to the nest or just above it. The wind would begin blowing at times and he (I’m guessing) would flap his mighty wings until he tired and would fly-drop back into the nest. The other fledgling would peck as he came thundering back home, which often would send him back out on a limb as if to say, this nest is no longer big enough for the two of us!

I’m sure mother-nature and her eagles are taking things at a pace that’s just perfect for them, following the natural flow of life.

I’m sure you are too. However, is it time to leave your comfort zone? Are you still fly-hopping? Ready for some branching? What are the stories the mind tells you as you feel into exploring something new?

See if you can reframe fear. The harbinger fear is a door, an opening, an opportunity to explore! This is the edge of the nest, the place where you can create a whole new way of moving in the world.

Take one conscious breath, drop awareness into the body (a feeling, or something physical) and ask yourself, “What else is possible?” Do this without looking for an answer. Just sit in the not-knowing and wait to see if something else comes through you (rather than from you). When the mind kicks in to answer the question, sprinkle doubt, or yeah-but you, say thank you to it and let it know you’re going to try something else in the moment. Take awareness back into the body.

Also take time to notice the ways of the mind and how it may be keeping you from spreading your glorious wings. What is the belief you are believing, the thought you are thinking, the projection you are projecting that is triggering fear? What if it’s not true? Can you let go of knowing and create an opening for other possibilities?

Life knows what’s best for life; see if you can tune into the natural free-flowing being that you are. The mental-construct is the only thing that stands in the way of branching or actually flying from the nest and discovering the next highest version of your magnificent, infinite, magical self.

Are you so afraid of dying that you’re not willing to fully live?

There is so much more beyond the comfort-zone. Spread your beautiful wings and ~ fly ~ !

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.”
~Thich Nhat Hanh

Parallel Realities

Dear Blessed One,

Life is vibration, and it is infinite. Everything is vibration humming at different frequencies. If you consciously knew how to shift your frequency, you could do the seeming impossible.

Your frequency is constantly in flux as you move through infinite realities. All potential exists here and now.

The conditioned mind has been trained to see the infinite parallel realities that we are constantly moving in as limited, which serves the purpose of flow and congruency. For most of us, each reality we move into is so similar to the one we experienced in the previous moment that it seems like time is needed to accomplish things, and that it is impossible to reach that which is “gone”.

Time is an illusion for the mind to play this game of here, there, and then. It’s all HERE and NOW. All potential (and “past”) exists in infinite parallel realities.

A fun example…

I’ve just returned from a one-month excursion on the east coast visiting family, and working. I brought my two favorite pairs of earrings, one on my ears and the other wrapped in a tissue in my wallet. I came down with a Big Cold the day before I left (you may see where this is going). At one of the airports on my way to FL, I threw out handfuls of tissues I had stashed everywhere, including in my wallet. It was two days later when the fog lifted from my head that I realized I’d thrown out my earrings.

I had an ache in my heart, as they were a sweet gift from a dear woman, and that’s where my energy was focused.

A week later while driving with my mother, my water container leaked and saturated her purse and my wallet. We took everything out so things could dry. A couple of days later my wallet was back in order.

I was in the zipper pocket of my wallet MANY times since the tissue-toss in NY on April 14…my license, a credit card, a couple of buss cards, a safety pin, and no earrings.

About a week ago as I was working with a client, reminding him of our infinite nature and the infinite parallel realities that are simultaneously existing here and now, it dawned on me that my energy was focused on the loss of my earrings and not on the possible magic of finding them.

Knowing that all potential exists here and now, I then put my awareness (and deep gratitude) to the realm where my earrings were still in my possession, and opened to the possibility of shifting to that parallel reality. I just kept seeing them in my wallet, not needing to know how they got there.

A few days ago while reaching into my wallet at a restaurant, there they were in that zipper pocket, just lying there out in the open.

For the skeptic, these are almost two-inch-long crystal and silver earrings, not to be missed in a wallet pocket with no flaps or folds.

Philip Pullman in The Golden Compass got it when he said, “If a coin comes down heads, that means that the possibility of its coming down tails has collapsed. Until that moment the two possibilities were equal. But on another world, it does come down tails. And when that happens, the two worlds split apart.”

This is happening at immeasurable rate with all of reality. Although the “heads” possibility is what’s being seen in this world, a frequency shift can show the “tails” world.

Many of us are like the drunken wizard, unconsciously wielding the wand of creation. You are a Creator of incalculable realities. Where is your focus?

Where attention goes is where energy flows, and where energy flows is how life grows.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god.”
~Alan Watts

Just a Guide

Dear Blessed One,

Are you in alignment with the natural flow of Life?

What are you feeling? Whatever you’re feeling is a signpost to how close or how far your ideas are from alignment with the natural flow of life.

An example:

I’m on day-one of a family visit, and vacation in Florida. From here I fly to Boston to visit with more family, and work. Monday morning I awoke with a cold. Yesterday I flew three airplanes to arrive in FL. I’m uncomfortable, sneezing, facial flooding, ears rattling, feverish, and one ear hurting.

I was told that because I used Miles to book my flight that it couldn’t be changed. Okay. I could have gone into anger, victim, resisting, sympathy-seeking, and complaining about the way things are; that would have been resisting the nature of things. I have a cold. Flow is to just move with it. Stay present. Feel the effect of humidity and heat on restricted breath. Be with every tissue, every ache.

Let out a howl and let some energy move (not on an airplane though). No story needed about how bad the timing is, how it sucks, or how it’s ruining my vacation. That would be misalignment with life. That would be resisting the natural flow of life. This is how my vacation is meant to be right now; I only know that because this is how it is.

So, how one is reacting to whatever is present in life is just a guide, or a barometer for how far you’ve gone into the mental realm believing that it shouldn’t be this way.

Pain is pain, just feeling it is how the energy can move. Stories about the pain takes one into suffering, and exaggerates the experience. It’s fighting with life.

Be still. Go into the body. Take one conscious breath (through the mouth if necessary), and ask life what is needed in the moment, how to respond to whatever the situation is, and then listen.

It may just be saying rest dear one.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“Acceptance looks like a passive state, but in reality it brings something entirely new into this world. That peace, a subtle energy vibration, is consciousness.”
~Eckhart Tolle

One Day at a Time

Dear Blessed One,

Who do you think you are? Whoever that one is, is not who you are. As soon as you have an idea of who you are, you’ve already limited It.

If I’m not all that, what am I?!

Don’t look for an answer. It’s the sound of one hand clapping. You can’t get your mind around it.

Just sit in the space between the thoughts…the stillness. A sense of the truth of your being rises up from the open space of not-knowing.

There is nothing outside of you or inside of you for you to find. You’re looking for what you already are.

What’s holding it all, even the question? Get under the clutter of mind-activity and touch into the sweet, vastness of nothingness. Be courageous enough to wander in the place of no-control, where the trained mind melts and the heart leads.

Renounce the illusion that the mind can find the truth if only you let it search just a bit longer, just a bit more diligently. That is the habit that needs kicking. Stop going there. When you see that you’ve picked it up again, just gently surrender the story, without judgment, and move awareness back to the heart, where guidance can show the way.

When I was attempting to get sober, I was told by many that there was a much better chance of me not drinking if I stopped going to drinking establishments. At the time I had no idea what else I might do with myself, drinking was so much a part of my life, and what made life doable (I thought).

Suspended in a life I didn’t know how to do, the urge and the cravings to drink were so intense; I didn’t think it possible to not drink. I told myself (over and over), if it’s this bad tomorrow I will drink. Somehow, one day at a time (over and over), I was able to get sober in 1997.

The habitual pattern of following thoughts, making up stories, seeking answers to questions that the mind itself has created, is all just static in the field which gets in the way of realizing the sweet stillness that is watching…at peace…lovingly holding everything.

Stop going to the thinking realm, there is another way that is not of the mind. It may seem scary if identification to thinking is strong. Tell your mind you’ll come back to it if dis-identification to it doesn’t work for you. Then, one day at a time, just for today, don’t follow the mind.

Nothing else is needed to complete you, to make you more worthy, or more spiritual. Nothing else can be more complete, worthy, or spiritual than you. You’re It.

The miracle is right where you are.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.”
~Albert Einstein

Birthing a New You

Dear Blessed One,

There is a dimension within you that is far deeper than the movement of thought. A depth of stillness and a felt sense of connection that is there always. However, if there is a lot of mental noise, you probably won’t notice it very often.

Identification with the mind-created sense of self stands in the way of realizing and experiencing the magnificent depths, expansiveness, and freedom of being.

You are more than just a personal history. You are more than the pseudo sense of self. The challenge in discarding the pseudo-self is that those identified with it believe it’s who they are.

Thought is like a little cling-on and it wants more awareness…so it can grow, so it can feed the mind-created sense of self. Eventually the noise is so pervasive that it drowns out the voice of stillness that naturally comes through you, and is then misidentified as the one in charge. It’s possible to allow thoughts to arise without following them or believing them.

Break the cycle.

In the moment you recognize that you have been caught in the magnetism of thought, pause for one conscious breath. Remind yourself, “I am here.” Feel your feet on the floor, your bottom on the chair, the cool air on your face, your heart, anything in the realm of feeling to cause pause in the thought-cycle.

Oh the pull, the alluring scent of a thought, as one tantalizing morsel leads to another…

“I think I’ll go check the mail…I wonder if that check has come in from the insurance company…it’s way overdue…I’m going to call those s.o.b.’s when I get back in and give them a piece of my mind…oh I haven’t returned Tom’s call yet…better call him first…he’s probably mad at me by now…his patience is pretty thin…which reminds me, I need to get back on my diet…I think I’ll start that on Mon because I’ve got that potluck this weekend…darn those vegans…what will I bring?”

Utter clutter, distractions to keep you from being Here. Just here, now. None of it needs thought, consideration, or attention. Presence is all that is ever needed to manage the details of life.

Where is life guiding you right now? One does not need a narration about checking the mail to check the mail. The energy expended in mental dialogue is far more than what would be used in just responding to life’s subtle leading.

Oftentimes during the awakening process, the mind becomes even more activated. This may be because it recognizes its demise, it may also be that the intense chatter is part of the process to help short-circuit the mind. At this point in one’s evolution, many think they must be going crazy. I was convinced that I was losing my mind – and am forever grateful that I finally did!

Hang in there. Drop into body-awareness. Ground. Unplug and be in nature as much as you can. Breathe deeply. Get support from someone who can hold loving space for you, and remind you that you’re okay. See if you can be in your process without turning it into a drama, which is just more mental activity.

Dislodging oneself from conditioned, dysfunctional, and addictive thinking can feel painful and scary. Just like childbirth though, the outcome is beautiful.

Let yourself die to the one you think you are. You are birthing a new you…the one who is innately free.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“You can be without your psychological mind but your psychological mind cannot be without you. Judge which is the greater and be one with that. Your mind wants a Hollywood freedom, it wants to be a star, but your self is the Universe, stay there.”
~Mooji

The Chicken Came First

Dear Blessed One,

Are you trying to be someone that you are not? You are beautiful just as you are.

Don’t let the conditioned world be the benchmark for how you’re doing here. It’s not yours. Bust out. Follow the prompts of life, it knows the way and your heart understands the language of life. Tune in. Listen. Stop arguing.

The pulse of life is spontaneously arising within you. It no more needs your assistance or direction than the blood in your veins…it’s organic, a most natural and perfect process.

There is not something else outside of you that is required for you to be more you. Stop creating more ‘yous’…just be the you that you are. You are perfect, and what creates the most change in oneself is relaxing into the one that you presently are.

Life automatically clears out that which isn’t true! It’ll bring in people and situations to trigger wounds, bring awareness to blind-spots, and it will challenge you in ways you could not image in order to expand awareness and accelerate awakening.

Check in and see if you are allowing yourself to be manipulated by the conditioned world or the programmed mind.

Are you seeking someone else’s approval? Are you letting someone’s judgment limit the way you move in the world? Relax into yourself, take one deep conscious breath, let go of what you think you know, and allow life to show up as it is organically presenting itself.

Don’t look to keep a low-profile, nor a high one. Don’t strive for normal. Normal is someone else’s idea of how you ought to be. It’s not real. Crazy is also someone else’s parameters. Just be yourself! You are like the snowflake, free-falling, unique, and beautiful. How is the wind blowing you? Where is life calling you?

Is there a “yes” in your heart in response to what’s before you? If the yes isn’t there, then wait for the impulse of life to move you. There is nothing to figure out.

You are the egg and the chicken, however, the chicken came first. You are the physical expression of Consciousness, the infinite source of all life. Your truest nature is undepletable, unrechargable, and unmanageable. You cannot control that which is animating you.

It is done, and I am simply the expression of That.

What a relief.

Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee

“Instead of constantly thinking, we become still and quiet, and we become conscious of being conscious. This is the realization of I AM, the realization of Being, our essence identity. When we are rooted in that, thinking becomes the servant of awareness, rather than a self- (ego) serving activity. It becomes creative, empowered.”
~Eckhart Tolle