“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

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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…