A woman sits peacefully in the meadow watching storms start to form in the North.  She knows that what Earth is showing her is a reflection of her own storms forming deep within.  She has felt them coming for some time now.  And she is ready.

Her heart picks up a rhythm which begins asking her to move, to breathe, to remember.  And she does.  She knows it is her time.  She has seen this day many times before in her visions when she is alone and still and silent.  She recognizes the tightness in her belly which helps her summon the courage she knows will be required of her now.

She closes her eyes and lets her mind take her back to the time of First Knowing.  She was so young, then.  And she was free.  Her days were spent laughing, playing, and creating from deep inside herself, worlds that were magical and loving and so beautiful.  The Earth knew her well and Loved her deeply.  They played together endlessly in the wind and the rain and the sun and the snow.  Often this young being would lie flat on her Earth Mother, feeling the breath she shared with her beloved planet.  And they would breathe together for hours.

When the Changing Times came, she was unsure at first what was happening.  What she knew to be true in her beautiful world, all the wonder she carried within her, slowly began to shift.  It shifted into something unrecognizable to her small being.  She was forgetting.  She was becoming anxious and more reserved.  She began to be afraid - to speak, to laugh, to spin wildly around and around as she so loved to do.  The looks and stares of the Others suddenly felt threatening.  And she began to hide.  She hid so well that she could no longer remember the feeling of being free.  And the forgetting lasted until today, the day of the storms forming in the North, and on the inside of the now-grown woman.

Her life up to this point had revealed a series of periodic glimpses of that other world, her world, which she loved so much.  These glimpses alternately thrilled and terrified her.  She let them pass as swiftly as they came and worked hard at whatever tasks were at hand.  She married, had children, and tried to be happy.  But the questions never ceased in her mind.  The anxious feeling that she was missing something would linger on and on.  She studied and asked questions of others and found that they too knew that something was amiss, and yet they also had found no answers.  And then something happened, something wonderful…

Going about her routine one cloudy, fall day, she overheard part of a conversation.  It went something like this:  ”You are a spark of Divine Consciousness.  You are not separate from anyone or anything here on Earth.  It is all You.  Your connection to the Divine is assured; it can never ever be broken.  And you are so deeply Loved.  You came here to experience, to play, to feel.  You no longer need to control any aspect of your Life.  Simply allow it to unfold before you.  Feel your way now.  Let your mind rest as you will need very little thinking where you are going.  Be present to What Is - and you will find freedom.”  And there it was.  The thing she had forgotten.  Freedom.  As she listened to the words, her body was flooded with Knowing.  She was remembering that which she had put away so very long ago.  She remembered her deep Love - of herself, of Life, of Earth.  She remembered what mattered most to her - the open, expanded sense of her own Heart.  And she remembered who and what she was - a beautiful, limitless Being playing in a beautiful world of form.

In a flash, the conversation was over and she felt herself hurtling back to her current reality.  She held herself very still, and let herself feel her feet on the Earth.  Her Earth.  She could find only wisps of that feeling, that feeling of her True self, that feeling which to her meant freedom.  She knew now more than ever what it was that was missing.  And she knew that she would find it again, and this time, for good. 

And now here today, as she watched the storms gathering in the sky, she knew that it was time for her to reclaim her Life. It was time to take back that which she had given away, and reunite with all the parts of herself she had denied and hidden all these years.  The storms inside were insistent now and urging her onward, onward toward Wholeness, toward peace, toward joy, and most of all, toward freedom.  As the wind began to blow with more and more strength, she could feel the Earth supporting her in what she must do.  She stood up and turned toward the place she had mistakenly called home for so long.  It was time to truly come Home.  It was time for her own Awakening.  And she was ready…

“Wake up, Neo…”  From the movie, The Matrix

But…why?  Why wake up?  All this talk about enlightenment, about awakening, about expanding your reality.  Why go there at all?  Is it really necessary? 

Well…

Waking Up Means You Just Might:

Finally discover what matters most to your heart

Free your mind from its endlessly self-deprecating, demeaning, diminishing, derogatory thoughts

Open to and radically accept every bit of who and what you truly are…right now

Stop feeling that constant, low-level anxiety that starts the minute you wake up

Find yourself actually falling in love with yourself

Leave behind most, if not all, of your daily prescription medications

Know yourself as the powerful creator you really are

Engage freely and skillfully within all levels of your feelings and emotions

Live actual experiences instead of stories which only happen in your head

Experience real intimacy, not to mention real love

Take back your power, your wisdom, your knowing, your authority, and your truth

Live the life of your dreams…and beyond

Laugh more

Cry more

Hear more deeply

Learn to play in mystery and not-knowing

See with new eyes

Take charge of your thoughts

Heal your addictions

Remember your wildness

Let go of control and the need to survive

Be the change, and thus change the world

Find relief in the present as you let go of the illusion of the past and the future

Rediscover and live your passions

Learn to joyfully take responsibility for every nuance of every experience

Create everything you need exactly when you need it

 

However, Waking Up Doesn’t Necessarily Mean You Will:

Become someone completely different

Develop super-powers  (though the ability to think and feel and choose freely could, at this point on the planet, be considered a super power!)

Become lighter than air and float off the planet, while knowingly gazing down upon the rest of us

Never again be angry or frightened or sad or confused

Be bigger, faster, better, or jump higher than everyone else

Never be triggered, bothered or impacted by anything or anyone ever again

Become your mind’s personal version of perfect

Live life in one constant, never-ending, blissed-out state

Be nice all the time - while thinking only nice thoughts

Decide you’re going to give away all your stuff and hightail it to Nepal

Become vegetarian, wear only organic cotton, ride your bike to work, and start hugging trees

Volunteer twenty hours per week crocheting leashes for guide dogs

Join the Peace Corps

Become a spiritual guru with hundreds of followers who worship and adore you

Stop eating Cheetos

__________________________________

What it’s all about…

Engaging your own awakening process is about becoming more and more YOU - the real you who is free from what your mother, your teacher, your fashion magazine, and your boss say you should be.  The you who knows yourself best - better than anyone else actually - and who, if given free reign, would create the most kick-ass, joyful, abundant life ever!  And that’s what this whole awakening thing is about - giving yourself free reign to be, do, and live exactly as you wish most deeply to be, do, and live!

It is not about becoming a different you, a new and improved you or a you who is more acceptable to anyone else.  That’s the old stuff which waking up helps you drop like a hot potato. 

Waking up is about recognizing and freeing yourself from whom and what has been influencing your thoughts, your feelings, your choices, and your actions - without you even knowing it’s happening. 

From the moment you were pushed out of the womb, you’ve been told who you are, what you are, how you should act, what you should and shouldn’t do, what to think, and how to feel, dress, talk and walk.  You’ve been told what’s good about you and what’s bad.  And you’ve been told what you should be when you grow up, how you should smell, what you should drive, and how many hot dogs it’s polite to eat in one sitting. 

I mean, really…how many of those “free choices” you’re making, are actually about pleasing, avoiding, or placating someone or something else?

And then there’s this one…  How many of those “free choices” you’re making these days are actually about staying away from yourself?  You know, the parts of you that are wild, or scary, or messy, or angry, or afraid, or not politically correct?  The parts that your father always frowned upon and that you’ve been told were a problem since kindergarten?  How many of your choices are designed to keep you away from yourself and your feelings because going there would just be too hard and painful and frightening?  If you’re like most human beings, the answer is: PLENTY!

OK.  With all of this said, the good news is you now get to make a choice.  Wake up…or not.  And here’s the kicker.  No matter what you choose, it’s perfect.  Because Divine Consciousness (or God Mind, or Universal Mind, or The Goddess, or Essence or anything else you want to call It) loves all choices.  You are not a better person if you choose to awaken.  And you are not a worse person if you choose to stay right where you are for the next one hundred lifetimes.  It’s all optional, and the options are all good ones as far as Consciousness is concerned.  The only thing that matters is that whatever you choose, it’s what works best for you - and you alone. 

You see, you are already an aspect of Divine Consciousness.  Thus, your Divinity is done.  You cannot become more Divine!  You can become more conscious, more aware, and more awake - which in turn will influence your choices, which in turn will influence the quality of the experiences you give yourself.  And that’s it.  That’s all it is.  A choice made and then experiences which go along with that choice.

It is also helpful to be aware that whenever you make a choice, you have set an intention.  And when you set an intention, everything in the Universe (and beyond!) lines up to support the direction in which you have chosen to travel.  No questions asked, the whole Cosmos turns with you to cheer you on through the next leg of your journey.  Now, how cool is that? 

So, now that you understand that you cannot lose no matter what you choose, perhaps it’s time to take Step One in your awakening process.  It goes something like this:  Take a breath, let go, choose freely, and set that intention.  Then away you go, into the wild, blue yonder where the Great Mystery, the Limitless Cloud of the Unknown, ceaselessly and joyfully awaits your arrival…

Dig this…your body (yes, yours) plays a major and pivotal role in your awakening process.  It is the vehicle you chose within which to navigate this awesome, quirky planet.  It is a vessel, a container for your Soul, a pliable, unique mass of cosmically earthy tissue put together with the most incredible precision, complexity, and perfection.  Every experience you give yourself must come through your body in order for you to experience it!  Every single one.  No body…no earthly experiences.   Period.

Now, that’s a great story, but chances are good that somewhere along the line, you learned to dislike, be uncomfortable with, or even downright despise your body.  Someone - perhaps your mother, or the mean girl in your first grade class, or that group of boys you had to walk past every day on your way home - made a completely inappropriate, derogatory comment about your body which efficiently and permanently stuck in your young, innocent mind as: The Truth.  This experience has undoubtedly since then been validated over and over again in the messages you’ve received from other people, television, movies, fashion magazines, and advertisements. 

The bottom line of all these messages?  Your body, as it is, is just not going to cut it.  And in this torqued out story, if your body isn’t “up to snuff” according to the latest rules of the culture at large, then YOU aren’t up to snuff either.  And that’s just bad news for the mind which wants to belong, and be accepted, and not wind up alone forever on the couch watching Desperate Housewives reruns with a 10lb. bag of potato chips and a six-pack of Diet Coke. 

This, coupled with any trauma you may have experienced in your life (abuse of any kind, a serious accident, severe illness, or anything else which caused you some major pain on any level) has probably made it very difficult for you to stay in your body and actually experience what is going on within and around you. 

What I’m talking about here when I say “out of your body” is a potent little psychological tool you were born with which is called dissociation.  When we dissociate, we go straight out of the body and usually straight into a tiny, tiny portion of the mind which is reserved for just “hanging out” in while the “bad” stuff happens.  The mind believes that if we mentally, psychologically, and emotionally jettison ourselves out of a potentially dangerous situation, we’ll be OK.  Most human beings at this time on earth have become almost professional at dissociating on and off throughout each day.  This natural mechanism which was meant to be hugely helpful and protective in dealing with seriously traumatic situations has now become an ongoing, daily habit for many people as they attempt to navigate lives which are just too full, too stressful, and way too overwhelming.  In other words, we have adapted to lives which are dangerously out of whack by continually utilizing one of our main survival tools - which was designed for rare and occasional use only! 

For instance, if you pull into the parking lot at work first thing in the morning, and wonder how the heck you got there?  You were dissociated during your drive.  When you’re in a meeting and someone asks you a question and you realize you have no idea what anyone is talking about?  Dissociation.  When you buy a half-gallon of Jamoca Almond Fudge Brownie Chunk Caramel Dream and look down to see most of it gone - with barely any memory of eating it?  You guessed it…dissociation.

When you dissociate, you are energetically, psychologically, mentally and emotionally not available to the current situation and again, your mind believes that because you’re not sticking around for the potential pain (the pain of going to a job you can’t stand, the pain of sitting through hours of people droning on and on about stuff that means absolutely nothing to you, the pain that all that ice cream was supposed to ease and comfort), you’re safe.  But get this…you are immeasurably less safe when you are out of your body.  If no one is home to feel and recognize what is going on inside, you cannot possibly make healthy, wise, or empowered choices around what you need or want in any given moment.  This leaves you more vulnerable - not less, which can then lead, at best, to mindlessly going along on autopilot with what everyone else is doing and, at worst, making choices which are diminishing, dangerous, or even more traumatic for yourself.

So why would you choose such a radical strategy for your day-to-day living?  Well, that’s easy.  If you didn’t, you might actually feel what was going on inside of you (you know, like all that existential angst, and anxiety, and hopelessness…not to mention the deep longing for something - your relationship, your job, your ability to speak Martian - anything to be different or better in your life) and that might mean you end up choosing to make some really, really big and mind-blowing changes in and around your personal corner of the Universe.  And everyone knows how the mind feels about change.  Not its favorite subject.

But if you’re one of the one’s (and there are LOTS of you now) who knows it is time for those really, really big changes to begin, then you need to remember this: No Body, No Change.  Period.  The good news?  You can learn to get back into that body of yours - and stay there.  And once you’re back in the driver’s seat of your very  own superbly tricked-out vehicle, you are one giant step closer to knowing and experiencing yourself as a magnificent living being instead of a fearful surviving automaton.   And that’s a big difference.  Because here’s the thing…if you aren’t in the driver’s seat of your own body, then someone or something else is.  And that’s just plain weird.  Who wants someone or something else taking charge of and wreaking havoc on all that beautiful fleshly perfection?

So basically, it is important for you to know that choosing to wrap your Sparky Divine Self within the luscious folds of your unique body was not a big, terrible mistake.  It was part of what you really wanted to experience!  It is a very powerful way for Consciousness (You) to experience Itself (Yourself) in form.  And thus, it turns out that your awakening process involves moving ever more fully into your body so that you can experience every single magical nuance of what it means to be human.  And who would want to miss out on that?

Listen.  When I invite people into a conversation about their body, what I mostly get in return is either a completely blank stare or a nice, big recoil.  Basically, we’ve all been trained to see our bodies as separate, as incredibly negative things or objects which need to be controlled, managed, manipulated, stretched, tucked, reduced, enlarged, and basically molded into whatever fad of the moment will make us appear to be acceptable and worthy human beings.  In other words, what we now believe matters more than anything about the body, is how it looks.

An immeasurably ginormous amount of personal and collective energy is right now, this very moment, outpouring into the vast wasteland of “how do I look?”  The most insignificant part of your body - the outside - is where most of you and everyone else around you have learned to focus your undying attention, all the time, almost every minute of every day.

But the outside of your body is only a tiny fraction of the whole of what it really is.  If you were to dig even just a little bit beneath that surface you are constantly trying so hard to whip into shape, you might surprise yourself with what you find. 

Let’s try this.  Take a look at your body from the inside out…  

As it turns out, your body is one of the most miraculous creations ever.  It is rich with the density of muscle tissue which propels you through all the aspects of your life.  Those muscles overlay bones which give you shape and structure and support.  Joints are layered with connective tissue that responds every time you take a step or bend over or breathe.  Your heart beats ceaselessly, reminding you of the rhythm of the cosmos with which you are deeply and forever connected, while at the same time, sending vital life force to every magnificent bit of you.  Your lungs take in and expel life-giving air, allowing you to actually experience yourself here on earth. Through the perfect complexity of your digestive system, you have the ability to efficiently take in nourishment and expel toxins.  And you are, at the foundation, made up of literally billions of cells - each of which has its own, unique and particular purpose which, in the end, is all about keeping everything working as properly and as gracefully as possible.

So, when you are contemplating the invitation to get back into your body, you are contemplating nothing less than re-inhabiting the miraculous wisdom and sacred majesty of an organism unlike any other, anywhere else in the whole of the Universe.  And who wouldn’t want that on their Cosmic resume? 

Now, this does not mean that you need to ignore the outside of your body.  It’s just that, if you are ever going to truly make friends with what your body looks like on the outside (which is definitely an aspect of waking up), you get to make friends with what your body really and truly IS on the inside.  In fact, that’s actually how most things will work best for you here - inside out.  Get it on the inside, and the outside automatically reflects the pattern back to you in form.  And that is true whether you are talking about your body, or relationships, or how much money you have in your checking account.  More on that later, though.  For now, since you really get how important your body is to your journey of awakening, let’s look at how you might joyfully go about getting back in there!

As a beginning, here’s a practice I like to call:  “I Want, I Want!  I Need, I Need!”  

Every day, a hundred times per day, your body is sending you messages.  It tells you when you’re thirsty and when you’ve properly topped-off your internal tank.  It tells you when your bladder is full, when your stomach is empty, and when you need to rest, breathe more deeply, or put down that last piece of chocolate.  It tells you when you’re too cold and when you’re in danger of burning up.  And it tells you when you need to pick yourself up off the couch, get outside, and weed that garden!   All day long, your body is talking.  The question is; are you listening?     

If you’re like most people today, you’ve probably learned to ignore most of your body’s messages - and you don’t even know you’re doing it.  After all, when was the last time you heard your boss or your teacher or your partner remind you to listen to and honor all of your body’s messages immediately - no matter what else is going on?

So…here’s your assignment:  Quite simply, you are invited to take care of what your body needs as close to the moment you notice that it needs something.  That’s it.  Simple, right?  This means that when you notice you’re cold, you get a sweater.  If you’re thirsty, you get a drink.  If you’re hungry, eat.  And if you’ve gotta pee, do it.  Now.  Not ten minutes from now.  Not right after you finish that document your boss is in his office waiting for.  And not after one more game of Spider Solitaire.  Right.  Now.

Because here’s the thing.  Every time you ignore one of your body’s messages, your psyche registers a version of one or more of the following: “I do not matter.”  “Everything and everyone else is way more important than me.”  “Life here is hard and painful and challenging.”  “No one cares about me.”  “I can’t keep up.”  Chances are, after receiving perhaps a hundred or so of these messages every day, your unconscious view of yourself is pretty much in the toilet.  And that means you are probably intensely looking for validation, support, approval and acceptance from outside of yourself.  And, have you noticed?  That simply never works.  Ever. 

It is your job to validate and accept yourself, as you are, right now.  No one will ever be able to convince you that you are OK, except you.  And getting back into your body with the intention of respecting and honoring its needs, is taking one huge step in doing just that.  Once you have committed to caring for your body, and I mean really caring for it on the deepest levels - which are way beyond deciding that this year for sure you are going to lose that ten pounds you’ve been talking about losing forever - you will actually inhabit your body which will, quite simply and completely, change everything.

For, if you are in your body, listening and responding to what you hear, you are taking charge of yourself again.  You are no longer allowing anything or anyone else to come before or between or underneath your own self and that self’s needs.  You are saying that you do indeed matter, that you are, without a doubt, a vital and important Divine aspect of Consciousness, and you fully intend to treat yourself as such, thank you very much! 

Also, it just so happens that if you’re back in your body, you regain access to feeling (remember feeling?).  And if you are feeling, it is then - and only then - possible for you to identify your own experiences of “resonance” and “alignment” (or dissonance and non-alignment), both of which are THE guiding principals in taking back your own power to choose that which is truly right for you. 

So, it might be helpful to experiment with seeing yourself as the airline steward here to serve on your very own personal jetliner (this would be your body).  You get to saunter down the isle asking yourself if there is anything you need…  More pillows for your nap?  A sexy bubble bath?  A steaming hot beverage?  Your favorite decadent, yummy snack?  The idea is to deeply and fully start giving your body the attention it needs and craves, right when it needs and craves it.  I mean, after all, this is the only body you get this lifetime.  The only one.  And you’ve been ignoring it (not that you really meant to, of course) long enough.  Don’t ya think?

Now, start listening to what your body has to say, and get back in charge of yourself!  I mean it!  Right.  Now.  

Oh, and by the way…  Take up this practice, and I guarantee you will change your life…and isn’t that really what you’re all about?