After waking up, my existence was set in a whole new world. I felt like Aladdin peaking at what life inside the kingdom had to offer.
The difference was that I was now living in a kingdom of my own creation.
After I realized I was not actually dreaming or flying on a magic carpet, I started to research and explore precisely what was happening to me and why.
I found many different books, articles and, posts about the 7, 10, or 12 steps of a spiritual awakening.
The most fascinating aspect of these symptomatic steps was that most of them happened to me. What I once would have dismissed as Woo-woo or Pollyanna was no longer just someone else's theory or idea.
It was based on my personal experience, which I would like to share with you over a series of steps that can each stand alone or be taken as one aggregate article.
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Step 1 – You begin to see clearly-leaves and flowers become brighter and more profound
A beautiful yet challenging discovery. Beautiful in that the flowers, trees and leaves all began to radiate and shine brighter. My focus appeared more precise and sharper. The challenging part was not understanding what was happening and wondering if I was seeing things.
Was I the only one noticing these things? Were they always like that? Regardless of the answer to those questions, the brightness and connectedness felt while seeing this aspect of nature laid the groundwork for all the amazing things that followed. It was a sure sign that a higher power made these beautiful flowers for us to look at and enjoy.
Stopping to smell the flowers is an integral part of daily life, and I believe that everyone should try this and do this regularly.
The smell of pink peonies in June now grips my soul and intertwines inside my lungs to become a part of me.
With this newfound understanding and a longing for a life surrounded by nature instead of the smoggy smokestacks of the city, it was time.
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Time to move further away from everything I had ever known to cash in on this lost secret called nature and reconnect to the Earth both as a planet and form of soil. The soil that we use to grow all the food we need to strive and survive. The Earth as a planet that offers us life.
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Step 2- You feel more connected to nature and infinite intelligence
After noticing the radiating beauty and brightness of the trees and flowers that were always there yet hidden through the dormant filter of my previous life gone by it was time. Time to broaden this tasteful new perspective of the world around me.
I began to notice that everything in nature was designed perfectly and that God and the Universe had indeed created a masterpiece of epic proportions. I saw things like cornfields in their abundance and started to question the nature of their existence. How could it be that the smallest of seeds has the DNA information already inside, without human involvement or interference?
A blueprint to grow perfectly into a specific fruit or vegetable is available inside a tiny little seed. All the seed needs are a triad of elements found in nature.
The combination consists of light from the sun, soil under the earth and water falling from the sky, to grow into giant trees and bushes, offering a vast array of nurturing food for the body.
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As noted in the preceding statement, another magical creation is that water falls from the sky. Have you ever stopped to think about that?
On a planet spinning through space and time, which is mainly covered by oceans that gravity has pulled forth to the center of the earth, water most naturally falls out of the sky.
These are only a couple of the secret designs that nature waves in front of us in a hypnotizing trance and beautiful dance that illustrates the true wonders of the world. Unfortunately, most of us are too busy to see and appreciate the complexity of these simple systems. All this, a tiny sample of what is available in nature if we just pay attention and take a close look.
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Step 3- A strong connection to stars and space As the day turned to night on the eleventh of August, just like every other year, the presides meteor shower was at its most visible far overhead. This is a phenomenon that billions of people never even notice, let alone stand in awe of.
Conversely, as night was about to turn into day, I glimpsed Venus in her beauty, staring back at me through my bedroom window.
The planet was so radiant in its brightness that it somehow made the billions of other stars seem small and insignificant. However, that’s an inaccurate depiction of all the other stars not named Venus.
When our focus is clear and distractions are limited, we notice more. We notice more things that were always there, but our lens to was blocked to see.
These events also serve to keep us grounded and make us realize how small and insignificant we are. When we look closely at the night sky, we notice that there are billions of stars and planets. We as humans are spinning around on a giant rock called Earth which is hurtling through space and time. Only then can we begin to fathom the enormous nature of our existence.
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Step 4- You take responsibility for your life In short, it means that everything is your fault. You are responsible for your life and your reaction to the circumstances that appear in your life.
This is one of the most significant differences between being a victim and a creator. The victim blames everyone and everything for the way their life is.
It’s not even their fault that they are this way. The victim is only a victim because of a belief system that was handed down to them by the archetypes in their world at the time. Archetypes, who in turn got it from their archetypes and so on.
While all this happens in a seemingly repeated cyclical motion, the truth is that everyone is just doing the best they can with what they have learned.
The victim is forever stuck suffering the past or worrying about the future, not knowing that they can change all of it in a single moment by deciding to accept responsibility for their situation.
Two things must be done to change this mindset. The first is letting go of the past which is gone forever and never returning.
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After that, we can continue to the second part, which is moving forward by designing the future we want.
Everyone’s starting point will be a little different based on their life situation; however, we can all create a plan to do the things we love and want in our future.
The most amazing thing I experienced about this step is that once I did the work, the results started showing up in my life. It seemed that things started to happen faster than even I expected. The same is possible for you, and I encourage you to start today.
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Step 5- You forgive people and situations that give you a negative charge, including yourself
Forgiveness is a key to moving forward healthily. Without it, you may find it very difficult to move on.
In order to advance into a new dimension of being, you must return to your past and forgive the people you ‘think’ have wronged you.
You do not have to physically tell the other person, and if you are forgiving them and you do not have to ask the other person if you are seeking forgiveness. You can simply say out loud, or in your mind, “I forgive you,” or “I forgive myself.”
It is just as vital that we forgive ourselves for any past transgressions that we ‘think’ we are accountable for. A powerful part of healing, and it can be very cathartic to do so.
Suppose you hold a severe charge against yourself from a specific time or event. In that case, it is essential to go back to the exact age or moment when this happened and release the younger version of yourself from any blame or fault.
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We can tell our younger ‘selves that we are okay now and that everything turned out fine. However, everything that has happened to us had to happen for us to grow, and our souls needed that experience in this lifetime to move into the next level of consciousness.
We can tell the child in us that they are loved and okay now. We realize that everything is precisely how it is supposed to be and that any pain or trauma is necessary for our soul’s evolution.
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Step 6- You do not identify with things the same way you once did
If we “wake up,” then our state of mind has changed by definition.
When this happens, it is natural that we no longer do or like the same things we once did. It also means that we have passed a crucial stage of awakening.
From this new vantage point, we can create much more freely and be more in control of our world. We now correctly know that we have a definitive say in shaping our destiny compared to during the time period when we were asleep.
Once we see things through this lens the genie is out of the bottle so to speak. What we have seen can not be unseen. There is a profound paradigm shift and things can never be the same again.
With this new power comes great responsibility, for when we go within that is where we find endless wells of knowledge, strength and untapped potential. This can manifest itself in many different ways. The list is endless from the foods we eat to the music we listen to and the people we align with.
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Old habits fall by the wayside and are replaced with new habits based on our clear outlook of the world as we now see it.
Therefore, our new reality will undoubtedly unfold with different predictions and results.
This is the essence of change. By breaking the same recurring patterns of the past, we allow ourselves to step into an exciting and unpredictable future full of unlimited possibilities.
The old self is gone and in turn, because we are no longer repeating those same thought patterns every day our future must be different.
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Step 7- Your inner world becomes just as real as
‘the world of the 10,000 things’ from the Tao Te Ching
Essentially, this step reinforces what some of the other steps say.
It means that once again we get to create our future.
However, as the good Dr. says, we are doing it from nowhere as nobody in no time, no space and, as no-thing. The way we do this is with our eyes closed. We create a future reality that we would like to see manifest from that place.
When we do this over and over every single day then our brain starts believing that it is true and our physiology will start to reflect that change.
The decisions we make become aligned with our desires and we will knowingly and unknowingly seek out the things that need to be done in order to take us to our destination.
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The best part about is quickly we can begin to see synchronicity in our daily life and we know that these are reminders and reinforcement that what we are doing is working.
Not only does this help us create our future but it regulates our bodies in the present. We turn off the stress response in the autonomic nervous system and return to homeostasis.
The infinite intelligence that flows through our bodies and performs countless functions that we never even think about, like breathing while we are asleep or sending blood through the circulatory system carrying oxygen and nutrients to various parts of our body, are upgraded to a better software with a southern interface.
This list of creation is truly endless just like the possibilities available to us in the quantum field.
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Step 8 – You no longer live with a scarcity mindset because you see abundance everywhere
In this step, we make a massive paradigm shift. All of a sudden, we start to see abundance everywhere we look.
We see the amount of life around us is brimming into the billions and trillions with but a simple short walk through an acre of parkland or forest.
We recognize that each leaf on each branch on each tree, although collectively magical, still has a life of its own, breathing in out the same air we breath in.
We notice the trees that line forested areas generate abundant amounts of life together as a single collective unit.
Even the so-called ‘weeds’ that people cut down are food for the birds and the bees, who play a crucial role in sustaining the biodiversity of the planet that we live on.
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If we look really closely, with the right tools, then we can actually see the leaves, bushes and, flowers start shimmering in the wind and vibrating to the beat of their unique rhythm.
Realizing this takes us from the intellectual to the visibly clear and physical view of how big The Earth actually is.
As a result, we see that there is more than enough for everyone around the world and that the idea of lack is just that. Lack is either an idea, belief or mindset that has been instilled and installed over a lifetime. As such, we understand now that it can be flipped on and off like a switch.
A biological example of abundance is inside all of us, as was the intention of God, Source or the Universe from the beginning. Blood.
If I withdraw a litre of blood from my body it will make no difference to me except to possibly make me healthier. Not only does a human reproduce that lost litre within a couple of days, but that blood can go into other humans and save lives, creating more abundance. This is not a flaw in the design of the human body.
Above are a small sample, pair of single examples. One from nature and one from biology which yields massive abundance. If these two ideas can do that then the possibilities for abundance are truly unlimited.
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Step 9- You can turn down the outer noise, which allows you to silence the inner critic
This means that in the most excellent possible way, we care not for what anyone else does. Equally, we care not what anyone thinks about what we do. There is no time for such things. When we are creating our future and living as entirely as possible in the present moment, we are too busy being or becoming to pay attention to what ‘they’ think or focus on what ‘they’ are doing.
If we are always helping each other become more incredible than we once were and thus continuously
evolving to previously unseen levels of consciousness and understanding, then there is no space for the negative, misleading and untrue vibrations that try to force their way through the egoic mind anyway possible.
It means that with a moment’s notice, we can very quickly regulate our body and mind via our spirit and soul. We can switch off everything and empty our heads of all thought actions. It means that we are being fully present inside and outside our bodies. It means you shut out the noise and get quiet, and it means pretty beautifully that there is only room to receive the answers to the questions we have been asking.
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Once we learn how to quiet our minds from the constant chatter of the inner critic that consumes the masses and is a massive part of the negative thought spiral that is the human condition, then our world looks and feels very different.
What was once a fairy tale or dream is now a reality and a new hero is born. A more incredible story than was ever thought possible.
The Heroes Journey is our story and we can step into the light to share it with the world.
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Step 10 – You embrace your future while letting go of your past
One of the main points discussed throughout this series is that when you wake up change occurs naturally.
Therefore; we begin to embrace a new future different from the path we were once on. Occasionally this means letting go of certain things we used to do or places we used to go. Other times it means letting go of unmet expectations we had for ourselves from twenty or thirty years ago, in a different lifetime.
When we move from being a victim to being a creator it can be lonely. We realize that we are very different than even we thought we were, and if we were asleep, most likely those around us are still asleep. This can be difficult; however, we quickly learn how to connect with others that are experiencing the same things we are.
As we learned in the previous step, there is no time for the same old story and because we are too busy creating it means the past slowly dissolves itself. This is not something to fear but rather something to be truly excited about.
The strength and courage that come with this new reality will carry us forward and allow life to happen instead of us.
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Since the original creator made everything perfect, it is safe to say that we will find the people we are meant to find when the time is right.
At the stage we notice that certain people show up at certain times so we can help them and in turn, they can help us move forward confidently in the correct and necessary direction towards our highest self. By embracing our future, we begin to see new opportunities and believe in ourselves more.
During this step we know without a doubt that we can make it up in advance the way we want.
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Step 11- You consciously surrender to the present moment
Surrender is what we should be doing anytime we are frustrated or find ourselves getting mad, upset, angry or even depressed at our current situation. When any uncomfortable negative feelings happen, we must stop as soon as we become aware and ask the simple question. “Am I surrendering to the present moment?”. We will find that the answer is always a very loud no. Often, we try and control situations that are out of our control, and that is when we see these feelings arise.
If, instead, we surrender to the present, we realize that in that exact precise moment, there is nothing wrong and that everything is perfect. This idea was best described by a British playwright when he said. “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so”. That is a quote from Hamlet by William Shakespeare, and it is accurate.
Things are simply things. It is the meaning we attach to them that makes them either good or bad. A fair example of this is stealing a loaf of bread. Some may think this is wrong, however, if you stole a loaf of bread to feed your children who may otherwise perish due to starvation, would it still be wrong? You could then say that it would be wrong if you did NOT steal the bread, for in not doing so you would have allowed a child to die.
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Step 12- Overwhelming breaths of compassion
that release tears (or almost do) as they force their way to the surface
This step produces deep wells of emotion that bubble up from inside and explode right out of the throat center. These are mental or physiological imprints from our past. These formations, also called samskaras, are stored inside us and are forcing their way to the surface for immediate release.
This step made me feel very weak and scared until I learned what it was. From the time we are born, we start recording everything we see in our environment. This is how we make sense of the world around us. The stronger the emotional attachment to the perceived past event (whether it’s good or bad), the more likely it will leave a lasting impression.
Childhood trauma, in particular, is like taking an x-ray. As the image gets snapped, our body contracts and imprints are recorded. The imprint or impression stays inside the body until it comes to the surface.
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We either release it or choke it back down, burying it deep inside, in which case the trauma is still a part of us. That is why it is important to release right away.
Especially during the time when we start to wake up there will be many of these deep breaths of overwhelming compassion that rise to the surface.
These are the imprints trying to escape, and it is essential to allow them to out, even if it means we start crying for what appears to be no reason.
A song lyric or a conversation we overhear will suddenly trigger a rush of energy that rises from the solar plexus region and moves from the lower energy centers up through the heart and right into the throat, where we release and shed past trauma by letting go of the samskara.
This is the only way to move beyond them. If we keep them inside and bury them, they will always try to escape until we stop resisting. However, by letting go you get to expand to a new level of awareness, a new level of being and a new level of consciousness.
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Alphabet Soup for the Soul vol.1
This series was originally written to develop my spiritual writing style and see if there was something there. I believe now that there is something there and I am grateful that I can share it with you.
This series allowed me to explore myself and my creative side, which society and all its archetypes told me, and I believed, did not exist. We were both wrong.
Unless creativity is used it begins to atrophy. There are deep wells of creativity inside all of us but, if we believe this is untrue, as I did, it will remain in the cold dark and dormant cellar of our potential, waiting for the light, which is also inside all of us, to shine bright like a diamond. We can truly become the Alchemists of our lives and we do not need permission from anyone else.
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Alphabet soup for the soul vol.1 - "A”
A is for Abundance
"The key to abundance is meeting limited circumstances with
unlimited thoughts"