Mindfulness is a conscious state of being present with our external and internal experience of things, without judgement... It is a way of relating to and interacting with life with the essence of our whole being. It is a way of being that brings forth acceptance of each moment “as is”, without needing for it to be different.

At times people can confuse this with not taking action, when action or change is needed. In my counselling practice, people often say “if I accept the moment ‘as is’ then I will have no need to change the circumstances of my life” In fact, it is only when we are fully present to each moment and accepting of it on a deep level of spirit, that inspired action can emerge. Action that comes from the creative, loving essence of who we are... action that preserves the reverence of yourself, others and the life energy in all that is. It will be action that is in line with the highest goodness of ourselves, and with the highest goodness for others.

So how do we be mindful? How do we invite mindfulness into our lives? How do we actually put it into practice? 

Begin by paying attention to what you hear, feel, see, smell and taste. From the moment you awaken in the morning, before you open your eyes, pay attention to what you hear. Is it the sound of birds outside your window? Is it the hum of your heater? Is it a partner snoring? Is it your children whispering outside your door? Is it simply the sound of your own breath? Just pay attention and if judgement comes in the form of thoughts, then simply put your attention on that. Hmmmm.... there are judgemental thoughts in the mind... the mind is saying “darn that snoring!”. Behind the judgemental thoughts that your mind is creating is just you, paying attention, being the witness to the thoughts, without judgement.

Pay attention to what you feel. Are your covers warm, soft, cool or rough? Is your hair on your face? Are you touching the body of someone next to you? Put your attention on that...

Pay attention to what you smell. Is it coffee already brewing in the kitchen? Is it flowers on your bedside table? Is it your dog? Is it the smell of your partner’s breath?

Pay attention to what you taste. Is it last night’s glass of wine? Is it toothpaste? If it is a bad taste, put your attention on that. If judgemental thoughts arise, put your attention on that, softly with blurred edges...

Slowly open your eyes and look around you. You may actually realise that you have never really seen the ceiling, the bookshelves, the window, that picture on the wall... Look at those things with a curious mind, a child’s eyes, as if seeing them for the first time... You may be astounded by their beauty...

Pay attention to your internal state of feeling. What are you feeling in your body? Anxiousness? Dread? Joy? Fear? Excitement? Where in your body are you feeling it? Is there a tightness in your chest? Is your heart pounding? Is there a pressure in your head? Remember, thoughts live in our mind, feelings in our body. Allow yourself to put your attention on the energy of emotion in your body... Be with these feelings in your body without judgement...

Although mindfulness can entail setting aside formal time to engage in this practice on a daily basis, it is actually a way of being in our lives on a moment by moment basis. I think it is a good idea to set aside some time each day to engage in the practice of mindfulness, while keeping in mind that it is not just a practice, it is a way of being... 

~The Awakened Life~ A Moment by Moment Love affair with the Truth...: If we all made this one resolution, we could chang...

~The Awakened Life~ A Moment by Moment Love affair with the Truth...: If we all made this one resolution, we could chang...: If we all made this one resolution, we could change the world in just one generation... Vow to never put down another human being in fr...

If we all made this one resolution, we could change the world in just one generation...

Vow to never put down another human being in front of your children.

Speak with respect and kindness even if you disagree with another’s actions.  This will teach your children that they can stand in their own perspectives and opinions, but do it from a place of Love and dignity, not only for themselves, but also for others. This will change your child, your family, your community and eventually the world that our future generations will experience. 

                                                              It will change you...

"The Gift of Truly Meeting Ourselves and Others"

                     

"You, and everyone and everything that ever existed are the Love that                      gives birth to all. Once you know this, the idea of Loving Yourself and                                                           Others will pale in comparison"

In my last post “How to Access the Human Heart”, I talked about how our connection to the Human Heart can lead us to our Spiritual Heart. Those humans who have experienced an Awakening, (for more on what an Awakening is, please go to “What does a Spiritual Awakening Feel Like?”) they have been catapulted in some ways straight into the Spiritual Heart but even those humans often need reminders on how to keep the Human Heart open, as even they can get lost in the confusion of how to live as spiritual beings within the human life. Even for them it is often difficult to realize that living from a place of Spirit is not to renounce that which makes us Human. In fact to fully embody the Spirit means to come full circle to the Heart of what it IS to be Human.
As mentioned in my last post, as humans beings we develop certain conditionings and these conditionings lead us to thought formed images of ourselves. These images can either build us up or bring us down. However, a thought formed image of ourselves, whether positive or negative, has absolutely no reality in it whatsoever. Yes, the positive images feel better from a human perspective of things but they are really just one side of the same coin. Our thoughts are just stories that we tell ourselves, based on our conditionings.

Whatever image we operate from, whether it's one of "I am beautiful", "I am ugly", "I am hard working", "I am lazy", "I am a great Mother", "I am lousy husband", "I am a liar", "I am an Earth Loving Goddess", "I am a jock", "I am nurturing", "I am hip", "I am young", "I am old", "I am an artist", "I am a Masters' Graduate", they are simply thought produced images that we have become addicted to in order to protect ourselves from vulnerability. Think of it this way. If you are a man in his 20's you may perhaps have an image of yourself as a fit, trendy young man who takes good care of himself. Now living up to that image takes a lot of work. You may have to go to the gym 5 days a week to keep up the image of being fit. You may have to make lots of money to spend on clothes that appear trendy and expensive. You meet someone and have to do all you can to keep up the image that you are in fact what your partner was looking for. Under all that, deep underneath, you actually may believe that you are unworthy, and so you work extra hard to keep up the image of perfection. Whoever meets you is not really meeting YOU, they are meeting the image you have of you...

On the flip side, you may be a woman in your 50's who has an image of herself as a very weak, vulnerable person. You may not want to be this way, but you hold yourself hostage to that image and in fact wok very hard to protect it. You don't often give out your opinion, for fear that you will be ridiculed. In fact, acquiescing to others actually manipulates others into liking you, for an ego loves nothing else than another ego who will bend over backwards to serve the need of the other. Whoever meets you is not really meeting you, they are meeting the image of you and you of them. Our meeting each other is then only as fickle as the images that we work so hard to protect.

Usually unconsciously, we fiercely believe these images and the roles we play as they serve as protection against vulnerability and ultimately, rejection. They are our armour against. a mind conceived onslaught of humans against humans. One of the biggest needs that humans have is the need for acceptance and belonging and we will go to great lengths to fulfil that need. For a more detailed account of this very subject, Psychologist, Brene Brown, has some wonderful books that talk about the research and personal experiences of our fear of vulnerability and fear of rejection. Some of these are "The Gifts of Imperfection", and "Daring Greatly", as well as her latest, "Rising Strong".

The reason we mould ourselves into the images that we believe will protect us is because when alone with our own thoughts, we believe them when they whisper "You are not enough". Sometimes it's not a whisper at all, sometimes it's a thunderous roar... We don't believe that just our existence itself means we are worthy and loveable. We believe that we have to "be" something in order to have value. We believe that we have to "prove" our value to ourselves and those around us. I want you to really hear when I say that;

"There is nothing you have to do, be or say to be worthy...it doesn't matter what acts you have committed... and it doesn't matter what acts you have not and think you should have... you have value just because you ARE... Your existence in and of itself is the proof of the pure Love and Goodness that is Life Itself".

To allow people to meet us, rather than the image of us, is a gift of huge proportions. However, first, we have to meet ourselves and see that;

"Who we are is beyond the images, good or bad. Who we truly are is focal points of energy that are part of the whole of the Universe and Beyond. We are that which created the Universe and Beyond. We could not be any more perfect, or any more LOVE than we are. In fact, we are beyond Love, we are that which created it..."

Now here comes the paradox of it all. We are not the images we create, but it is only in giving the images our human attention and focus, that we can recognize when we are operating form a place of those images. That is how you access the Human Heart. You notice when you are operating from a place of image. This is all you have to do...  

The question is not "How do I access that which I truly am?" the question is "When am I accessing that which I am not?". After counselling many people throughout my career as a Registered Clinical Counsellor, as well as speaking to friends and family, I can tell you that you know when you are speaking, acting, or reacting from a place of image. On a deep level, humans know when they are acting from a place that is not authentic. Our inner sense, or that which we call intuition, knows. This is not always a knowing on a level of intellect, it is on a sense level.

The first thing I encourage you to do is to investigate within yourself what these images are for you. Please remember that these images are not in and of themselves good or bad. They simply just are. We are not to investigate for the purpose of judgement, but simply for the purpose of recognition.

Once you are clear on what the images are, the next step is to simply ask yourself when you are operating from a place of these images. If you think of yourself as unattractive, and find yourself in front of the mirror for 2 hours in the morning applying your make-up and doing your hair as you get ready for work, just notice that. If you stand at the checkout at the mall and comment on the salesman's nice tie, notice if this is genuine or if you were playing a role of "see how nice and attentive I am?". If you are taking a walk with a new friend and they say they bake their own bread and you reply "Me too!" just a little over-enthusiastically because you want her to think you too are super cool for baking your own breads, notice that too (yes, I truly did this!)

Accessing your Human Heart means being present to each moment with deep awareness. However, when it comes to our deeply ingrained images that we have formed due to our conditionings, it can be beneficial to investigate about these images. To give space to ourselves to ask questions and see where these images act themselves out in our lives. Sometimes a Counsellor, a Psychologist or Life Coach who has a deep awareness of thought formed images and insight into the spiritual beings that we are, can be of help to guide you on your journey. I love to write, so the space for me where I can access any thought formed images is often found with a pen and paper. I can easily spend 4 hours in a coffee shop deep in awareness of my humanity and all that it entails. For you, this process may be painting or walking in nature. I have often had clients paint pictures of the images they hold of themselves and then through inquiry paint another one that accesses what they are without the images. Spiritual teacher, Adyashanti, calls this kind of questioning "Inquiry". It is about asking questions all the way to the edge of a thought. This means that you ask the questions (whether about your thought formed image or anything else) until you come to the edge of no more questions. We often ask the questions, find some answers and then loop back around to the same questions, going around and around in circles. Adyashanti proposes that we come to the edge of the thought and then let it go. Please be gentle with yourself with this process.

You may also find that you are able to give space to the inquiry itself but then find yourself laying awake at night thinking "Oh No! When I said such and such today, I was operating from a place of image and didn't even realize it!". This is all good. The recognition of when you are operating from a place of image in the moment takes time, even if intellectually you are giving space for inquiry and investigation. Remember, this is about opening your heart to a deeper knowledge and a deeper knowing. Whether the knowing comes in the moment of a situation or after is not important. Just recognize the knowing when it comes. It may come full blast in the moment or just as an inkling and a recognition later that day or even weeks, or months later. However it presents itself, open your heart and sit with this knowing... again, not in judgement, but in recognition...

Once we have some awareness of our thought formed images, we then have the information needed to catch ourselves when we operate from a place of untruth. As I already mentioned, this may not always be in the exact moment of it happening. Even if on a human level we recognize the moment is or was filled with insincerity, need, or greed, we have taken one step closer to the ultimate truth of who we are because we have become aware of the truth of the moment as it is or was from a place of our humanity. Accessing your Human Heart is also to notice when feelings come up in regards to those images. Locate where the feeling is in your body and allow yourself to grieve your human condition and also to rejoice in it.

Accessing your Human Heart is to allow yourself to see the truth of any moment from your deepest sense of humanity. If in that moment, your human self is feeling sadness, then feel that. If your human self is feeling anger, feel that too. To have insight and information (through self awareness and inquiry) about how you protect the thought formed images of yourself, awareness of when you are acting from these images on a moment by moment basis, and permission to allow  yourself to feel whatever comes up, is the only way to open to your Human Heart and then to that which is not only beyond the human self but paradoxically that which comprises and gives birth to the human self.

"Our deep awareness of the imperfect moments of being Human, is to lay perfection upon our Humanity. This awareness will ultimately lead us to unfurl ourselves from the tangle of our thoughts and to lay Love upon the tangled mess. Our awareness of the truth of a moment is the ultimate act of Love for ourselves and anything else that exists..."

To access the Human Heart means to start with your own, for only then will you be able to open your heart to that of another. Once you begin to practice the art of presence in the moment and the art of accepting the moment as it is for you, only then will you be able to accept the moment as it is for others. To accept the moment as it is for you and others is the ultimate act of Love...

As always, Thank You for allowing me to share myself with you... thank you for being the Love that you are... Although I may not meet most of you... thank you for sharing with me this beautiful journey of being Human...and Beyond ...

Much Love and Blessings to you all,

Izabella

"How to Access the Human Heart"

"Be present in every moment from a place of innocence, a place of heart, a place of Love"

No matter what your religious or spiritual perspective, belief or philosophy, there is only one way for humans to enter into Love, Peace and Joy, and that is through the power of our Human Heart. Our ideas, thoughts, and opinions may differ, but what our Hearts feel is Universal. Although ultimately, there is no separation between the Human and the Spiritual Heart, from a human perspective and experience of things, your Human Heart can be a vessel through which you pour, to enter into and through to the Spiritual Heart.

As I talked about in my last post, “Is a Love Affair with the Truth possible without an Awakening?”, the way to truth is through the Human and Spiritual Heart. For those of you who have experienced an Awakening , your Human Heart was catapulted into the Spiritual Heart with no choice on the part of your Human self. Oneness was simply ready to wake up out of its identification with form. However, I have had many people inquire whether one can enter into the Spiritual Heart without having experienced an Awakening and the answer is Yes!

"We enter in the Spiritual Heart through opening up to the capacity of our Human Heart"

Most people that I speak with nod when I tell them this, as it makes sense on an intellectual level right? However, as much as this is something that may make sense to most of us, from my own experience as a Registered Clinical Counsellor, this is by far the number one fear of any clients I have ever had the privilege of counselling. To open up to the capacity of our Human Heart, there is an innate requirement of Vulnerability. Through my personal as well as my professional relationships, I can tell you that most people don't do vulnerability. In fact, most people run from it as fast and as far as they can. To make oneself vulnerable, means to open oneself to the possibility of being hurt, rejected, and sometimes even shunned and persecuted. One such example is Jesus, who was shunned and persecuted for being vulnerable. He not only walked this earth through the Spiritual Heart, but also through his Human Heart. For a beautifully written, modern account of the story of Jesus, I recommend "The Jesus Story" by Adyashanti.

Now for most of us, we will not be literally persecuted for being vulnerable and yet we fear it, for it feels as if to be vulnerable means to be subject to a certain type of death. This death is the death of our thought formulated image. Most of us structure a whole image of ourselves through our thought forms. The mere idea that this image may be shattered by another's opinion, treatment or rejection of us, makes us fear opening our hearts. Let me give an example to illustrate this point.

A few years ago, I was counselling a couple who were having difficulties in their marriage. The woman's main complaint was that her husband never shared his thoughts and ideas with her. She felt much anger at him for being so closed up with her. When we delved deeper into what lay under the energy of her anger, we uncovered that what she actually felt was fear. The fear was that he did not share things with her because he didn't think that she was an interesting enough or smart enough person to listen to his thoughts and ideas. We delved deeper still. What we realized was that under the fear that he didn't find her interesting or smart enough was the fear that he thought she wasn't good enough for him. We continued to delve deeper... Under the fear that she wasn't good enough for him, was the fear that she wasn't ENOUGH for anybody. We uncovered that she believed she was not lovable enough. That something was innately unlovable about her. We traced this formed belief many years back to her childhood where she felt ignored, unloved, and virtually invisible. Due to her experience of life as a child, this lovely woman had formed a deep seated story about herself and her self worth. However, the image she projected into the world, according to her husband, was one of a very confident, sure-of-herself woman, who as he said "took no bullshit from anyone!". In order to cover up her insecurities of her perceived inherent un-lovability, she went to great lengths to formulate and perform an image of herself as a person who didn't need anybody. In turn, her husband too had his own image to uphold.

The husband shared with me that he grew up with a domineering father, who belittled him for expressing his own ideas and feelings. He therefore thought formulated an image of himself based on his past experiences and conditionings and this image was that of a man who was strong and didn't show any weaknesses, vulnerabilities or doubts. Therefore, in the face of his wife, who appeared to be stoic at all times, he felt that he even more needed to uphold the image of himself as a strong man who never felt scared, lonely or vulnerable. To him, sharing his thoughts, opinions and feelings was seen as a sign of weakness.

Both of my clients were fiercely protecting their Human Hearts. The tricky part of our thought formulated images is that unless we step back from identification with our mind, we believe these images, and in fact don't even see that they have control over us. These images hold us bondage and make us do and say crazy things. All in the name of protection from our fear of ultimate rejection. One of the biggest needs that humans have is the need to be accepted. Rejection is the complete opposite of acceptance. What we don't realize is that living from a place of thought formulated images instead of from the Heart is the ultimate rejection of Ourselves.

Not living from the place of our Human Heart is to forget your OWN ESSENCE. That essence is Love. When you close off your heart, you reject that which you are at the core of your existence. When you close off your acceptance of the Love that you are, you reject all of Humanity and the Love that resides within it. 

What are your thought formulated images.............?

If you can, try to give yourself the space to visualize the images that you hold of yourself.

In what images do you hide from the world..............? 

My next post will be about what to do with the images that you have formulated of yourself and how to accept them and in fact use them to open up your Human Heart.

Thank you all once again for sharing in my journey....

Until next time....

Much Love and Blessings,

Izabella

"Is a Love Affair with the Truth Possible Without an Awakening?"

"Listen to the space between thought as  you gaze at the night sky, for it is there you will find the silent beating of your Spiritual Heart"                                                                                      

In my last post "Moment by Moment Love Affair with Truth", I talked about some personal moments that I encountered which led me to face the truth. As I mentioned, this meeting of truth was surprisingly painful and at the same time filled with the most beautiful JOY that I have ever felt.

Now what do I mean when I say "to meet the truth"?To meet the truth is to meet oneself from every angle, regardless of whether your conditioned human thoughts tell you that what you see is ugly, unbecoming and unlovable, or beautiful, enough and utterly perfect... it is to meet the MOMENT as it is unfolding... To  meet oneself from every angle, regardless of the feelings inside your body which may reveal that you are in fear, disappointment and resentment, or love, peace and acceptance... is to meet the MOMENT  as it is unfolding... To meet oneself from every angle, regardless of whether it is from a place of your Ego, Separation and Conditioned Self or from your Spiritual Heart, Connection and Love... is to meet the MOMENT as it is unfolding.

To meet oneself from every angle, regardless of whether it is from a place of your deepest Humanity or your deepest Spirit is to meet the MOMENT as it is unfolding... it is to meet the truth of what is. There is no other more important task than this....

As Spiritual Teacher, Mark Nepo, writes in his ever poetic and beautifully insightful book "The Endless Practice", we are,

"To learn how to ask for what we need,

only to practice accepting what we're

given. This is our journey on Earth"

Accepting that which we are given... From a human perspective, we like to think that we can find acceptance of what we are given, until what we are given rips our human hearts to shreds and bring us to our knees. It is far easier to accept thoughts and feelings that feel good and circumstances that make our hearts dizzy with happiness. And yet, even though we may encounter difficulties, heartaches and sorrows, we have to question why we were even given the capacity to feel, to hurt, to cry out in pain as our bodies shake and our hearts tumble down a spiral staircase from which we see no end.

 Why were we given this capacity to be so deeply human? We were given this capacity because "through the experience of being human we come full circle to the same Spiritual Heart that feels Love, Joy and complete Connection to all that is" 

I am sure you have all had the experience of watching on TV or reading and hearing about a tragedy where humans inflict pain on one another. Through the experience of being human, we have the capacity to hurt one another in ways unimaginable. And yet, at the same time that tears of sorrow run down our faces, we see how the same human hearts that are so capable of hurting another can come together to help ease the pain and burden of a tragedy.

I remember the intense pain I felt as I watched the tragedy of 9/11 unfold on my TV. It was a pain of the biggest proportions. As my heart beat to a fast frantic nonsensical rhythm of a million drums, it was the same heart that simultaneously felt a perfect steady rhythm of Love for all of life and all the humans in it who were using the same human heart to help those suffering from this tragedy. In that one single moment my heart burst wide open to a Love for all that is. This included the humans that inflicted the pain and suffering. This tragedy allowed me to awaken to the truth that the same heart that beats in a human who inflicts pain, is the same heart that causes that human to express a Love that unifies, that heals, and that sustains all of the Oneness of Life. Our Human and Spiritual Heart is the Portal through which we can fully step into the other. Except there really is no Other. It is all One.

The experience of my heart bursting wide open in and of itself was not an Awakening, but it was a realization and a knowing that changed my life immensely.

Ever since the Awakening that I encountered two years ago, I have had many people tell me that they have not had an Awakening experience and don't know how to meet the Truth for they don't know what the Truth is. I would like to dispel the notion that you need an Awakening in order to live an Awakened Life.

Yes, I did have a spiritual experience two years ago that awakened the Oneness out of identification with thought and feeling forms. And no, I did not have any conscious choice in that. Oneness was simply ready to awaken through my human body. It used my body and the human experience to awaken itself and from a human perspective of things, I had no choice in that. However, to think that a life of meeting Truth on a moment by moment basis is available only to those who have had an Awakening experience would be to reduce the power of our Innately Spiritual Heart.

Just as I did on the day of 9/11, I know you too have felt the power of your Spiritual Heart. It is that place deep inside that gets stirred when you look up at a dark night sky full of twinkling stars with all its mystery and wonder. It is that deep place that bursts your heart wide open into infinity when you look at your newborn child. It is that deep place of reverence when you inhale the beauty of a sunset or feel the life inherent within something as tiny as an ant. It is the deep place inside that stills your breath. It is that deep place before thought comes in. The Love that resides in our Spiritual Heart is available to us any time we decide on a human level to access it through our Humanity. That is how we access the truth.

Our Humanity, and our Human Heart is the gateway to our Spiritual Heart and paradoxically, our Spiritual Heart, the gateway to our Human Heart. Both are gateways into the truth of the present moment...

They are really one and the same... but for the sake of our human perspective of things, it is helpful to understand these from their own individual approach. My next post will be "How to Access the Human Heart".

As always, thank-you once again for partaking in my journey... I hope that through these writings you feel the Love in your own Human and Spiritual Heart...

I would love to hear from any one of you who have comments, questions, or simply musings of any kind. My hope is to keep expanding the spiritual community that is growing in our hearts and lives...

Thank you again dear friends,

Much Love and Blessings to all of you,

Izabella

"Moment by Moment Love Affair with the Truth"

In my last post, "How Partial Awakening Manifests in Human Form", I ended by sharing with you how painful a Partial Awakening has been for me (for an explanation between a Full and Partial awakening, please go to my post, "What is an Awakening?") This is not to say that a Full Awakening does not have its own challenges! However, initially, my own journey was that of a Partial Awakening, and so I thought it best to begin with my own account of that experience.

As I mentioned in my past post, following the Awakening,life from a human perspective became really difficult for me. It felt as if I couldn't hold the simplest of conversations without being acutely aware of how I was being pulled in by my conditioned thoughts and the stories that these thoughts spun. I will share with you a specific example of this.

One beautiful summer evening, I was out for a walk by the picturesque Okanagan Lake with an acquaintance whom I was developing a closer friendship with. We had just began our walk when my friend mentioned that she makes sourdough bread. I responded with "Yeah, me too! Isn't it great?". Now in the past, prior to the Awakening, there would not have been any recognition or questioning on my part about why I would say that. It sounds pretty normal within the context of the situation right? However, as soon as the words were out of my mouth, within a millisecond I recognized that behind my words was a deep  need for this new person in my life to like me. I wanted her to think that I too was like her and that we had something in common. Funny now to think that I actually believed in that instant that this person would be my friend because I too knew how to make sourdough! It sounds so silly but we do it ALL the time. Now that's not to say that this response couldn't have been said without any other ego driven need for acceptance. However, for me, in that instance, there was definitely something very needy behind my response.

As soon as the awareness was there that this response came from a deep place of need driven by my ego, I instantly became aware of the feeling this caused inside of my body and let me tell you, this was NOT a comfortable feeling by any means. The instantaneous knowing that I was not acting from a place of who I really AM, the Love, Awareness, Consciousness, and Oneness that had Awakened, on a human level, was physically uncomfortable and downright painful. I remember my eyes filling with tears as I walked with this acquaintance who I barely knew and feeling immense sadness that I was acting from a place of  identification with my thoughts. Now looking back, I recognize that even the thoughts about how I was somehow being false and the feelings this created inside my body, were too identification with ego. My thoughts said that I was being inauthentic, and not acting from a place of Love. I then judged this. I remember questioning how I could possibly have been pulled into identification with ego. I KNEW better!

And yes, I did know, but the true deep knowing of this was from a place of Love, a place of Spirit, and Oneness. That place wasn't judging, wasn't violent against my human self and it certainly wasn't belittling me for my human conditioning and habits. It wasn't commenting "Wow, how could you be so weak as to fall pray to your Ego!". That place was pure Love. That place was acceptance of the highest order, for it accepted the moment as it was, without wanting it to be different. However, the thoughts that screamed "I KNEW BETTER!", and the judgements that followed these thoughts came from a place of Ego. A place that was judging me, a place that was being violent towards my human self, and a place that belittled my human conditioning and habits. This was a place that did not accept the moment as it was. This was a place that wanted the present moment to be something other than.

Over time, the experience of Awakening taught me that from a place of Oneness, nothing is good, bad, right or wrong. Oneness may be aware of something but it does not judge it. Oneness does not judge anything for Oneness is all there is. Oneness does not turn against anything for to turn against something would be to turn against itself. The Love that Oneness is does not discriminate. Love Loves all... It Loves every single present moment, including the one that has within it a human form within which there are thoughts that are judgemental, violent, belittling and unkind.

For the longest time (about a year and half, and let me tell you, this felt like a lifetime), this was my experience of life. It caused me some of the deepest pain I have ever felt. It actually brought me to moments where my thoughts were screaming "I never ASKED for an AWAKENING!!!!". But somehow, somewhere beyond those thoughts, while tears ran their course, there would be JOY. Pure Joy for existence itself. Joy that was rooted in the most Innocent Love imaginable. Pure Love for the Present Moment, no matter how painful that moment may have been from a human perspective of things. Somewhere beyond those thoughts, my Love Affair with the Truth began.

This Love Affair has grown over time... it has matured, and is no longer the gut wrenching, heart breaking experience that it used to be. This Love Affair is now the only truth upon which to rest my ever tangling thoughts... moment by moment...by moment...

Thank you once again to all you lovely friends for sharing in my journey. Please feel free to share with me any questions or comments you may have. I understand that some of what I write about may need clarification and am absolutely open to any further explanations of concepts.

My next post will be "Is a Love Affair with the Truth possible without an Awakening?".

I send all of you much Loving Kindness and healing Light,

Izabella

"How Partial Awakening Manifests in Human Form"

When most of us think of a Spiritual Awakening, we visualize a very romanticized version of this experience. If you have read my last blog post, "What Does a Spiritual Awakening Feel Like?", I wouldn't blame you for coming to the conclusion that an Awakening is a beautiful, blissful, and transcendent experience. From a human perspective, there is no doubt that the actual moment of Awakening was a very blissful one, with transcendent qualities inherent within it. The experience was certainly one where although no specific feeling was attached to it in the moment of its' happening, from a human perspective, if I had to attach some word to the state that I experienced, the closest would be that of a state of peace.

If we use our thought forms to conjure up what that complete state of peace would feel like, we can easily imagine that an Awakening experience must have an other worldly quality  to it where we become free of thoughts and feelings. After all, isn't it thought and feeling forms that cause anguish and struggle? To be free of thoughts and feelings, would we not experience the ultimate form of peace? We can easily imagine that an Awakening will free us from any forthcoming struggles because we have become free of the human state of thoughts and feelings. We can easily believe that because to have an Awakening means to be finally free of the human experience, we will live out the rest of our human lives in a protected blissful state of light, presence, peace and everlasting happiness. We will have realized the truth of our being and therefore get to escape the illusion that is our thoughts and feelings.

I understand these imaginings... We so badly want to end the suffering we have endured that we want to neatly package the experience of an Awakening so that it pacifies our mind identified existence. There is nothing inherently wrong with this. When we operate from a mind identified state and see the pain and struggle this causes, it is no wonder that we want to believe that there is a way out of this suffering. When we look about the state of our planet and see the violence, pain and hurt that humanity inflicts on itself, we want to believe that the experience of an Awakening can save us from this pain and struggle and that there is hope... and there is... it just doesn't come in as neat a package as we expect.

As I said a moment ago, there is nothing inherently wrong with our belief that an Awakening will free us from pain and suffering. However, the quicker we can let go of any expectations, the closer to freedom we will be. Expectation itself, as it is based in thought forms, can never bring true freedom because it is in and of itself focused on the future. It is one thing to purposely choose to use our mind and the thought forms that come along with it such as for the purpose of finding solutions, creative answers, or even setting goals, but another to be pulled into identifying with thoughts that tell us "when such and such happens, then,  I will be happy". True freedom can only happen in this present moment. More on this in another post... :)

I was probably lucky that I didn't have any clear expectations of what an Awakening would be like prior to it happening. However, in all truthfulness, I certainly did not expect it to be as difficult as it has been.

Perhaps I will continue with my story of what happened directly after the actual moment of Awakening. As you will recall if you read my last post, "What Does a Spiritual Awakening Feel Like?", following the actual moment of an Awakening, I walked back to the camp ground and began to help out with dinner preparation along with my husband and daughters. I felt as if there wasn't much dense matter to my body and had the sensation that the body was being propelled by the Energy within. I felt as if my body moved slower than the normal movement I was used to. It also felt as if who I was extended far out beyond my body, so there wasn't a clear sense of "this is where me and the body ends and something else begins". Another very acute sensation was that all of my actions, such as grabbing the plates, taking steps, and filling the water glasses were the most important thing to be doing at that time. The best way I can describe it is that I felt completely and utterly present in each  moment. Now looking back, it seems strange that I did not right away share the Awakening experience with my husband. In fact, It wasn't till many hours later that I told him of the experience.

The next morning, I woke up and although the sensations that I had felt the night before were no longer as strong, I knew that my whole world as I knew it had completely and utterly changed.

I did not know exactly how, but I certainly did not expect that the Awakening experience would bring me literally to my knees... As I had mentioned before, prior to the Awakening, I had read much about dis-identification with the thought forms. On an intellectual level, I understood this. However, following the Awakening, because it was of the Partial Awakening kind as I had talked about in my post, "What is a Spiritual Awakening?", on a human level there was not an instant dis-identification with thought. However, Consciousness itself had woken up out of identification with thought forms. Imagine being completely caught up in believing your thoughts, as humans are, but yet KNOWING from a place of the Consciousness that you ARE, that your thoughts have absolutely no reality to them whatsoever. I am not talking about an intellectual knowing here. When you experience an Awakening, the knowing comes from a deeply experiential place.

There is no denying that on a human level, there is the huge gravitational pull of our thoughts. We believe them. Not only that, we believe ourselves to be them. When an Awakening happens, unless it is a Full Awakening, where complete dis-identification with thought occurs, that gravitational pull of our thoughts still automatically happens. (for a detailed explanation of what a Full and Partial Awakening is, please go to "What is a Spiritual Awakening?" )

Let me share with you an example. Shortly after the Awakening, I had brought up to my husband the idea that we should sell the house that we had just bought a year prior (I know, crazy right?!), and look for something that was better suited for us. Now my husband is a very logical, 'let's look at this from all angles before we jump into anything kind of person'. Taking huge leaps, particularly ones brought on by emotion, is not his cup of tea. As I was passionately sharing with him why this was a good idea, all of a sudden, the Consciousness that I AM, that which had woken up, became aware that my human form was identifying with my thoughts and wanting to be right, wanting to convince, wanting to get my way, even if at the expense of my husband not being heard and respected for his own opinion. Consciousness knew that on a human level I was identifying with the thoughts that aligned with the belief that happiness could be had through something externally attained. Consciousness knew that my human self believed that my children would have a happier childhood if we had a better house. It knew that I identified with the thoughts that aligned with the belief that if we had a house that was surrounded by more nature then I could feel closer to the earth and be more spiritually connected. Consciousness knew that I was deathly afraid that my husband didn't respect my opinions and therefore my needs didn't matter. Consciousness knew that this fear reminded me of my father and how unloved I felt by him. Consciousness knew that the feeling of being unlovable was guiding this discussion and my life. Consciousness KNEW IT ALL... I knew it all... and yet, because my human self was still under the gravitational pull of my thought and feeling forms, I could not stop the trajectory of this argument. I could not stop how I was acting and reacting. And yet, while I was in the deep trenches of this behaviour defending my own ego, I KNEW... 

Let me share with you that it was much easier not knowing. Knowing, and not being able to change your behaviour and live in accordance with that which you know on the deepest of levels imaginable, was and continues to be on a human level,  excruciatingly painful.

There has not been a moment since the Awakening, that Oneness has not been at the forefront of my human life. It is present in everything I think, say, do and feel. It is not actually even at the forefront of my life. IT IS LIFE ITSELF. This is why it is so painful when the human form denies the LIFE that it is. The struggle comes in when form believes it is separate from Awareness and all of LIFE ITSELF. When a Partial Awakening happens, the human identification with the ego has some catching up to do. Awareness has awoken, but not yet necessarily the human form which is so identified with its conditionings, habits, thought and feeling forms.

This is where the moment by moment love affair with truth dances its way through your human heart. It tears at it in ways unimaginable and yet it uncovers a Love you never thought possible...

My next post will be a more detailed account of my "Moment by Moment Love Affair with Truth".

For those of you who felt compelled to read this post and for any of you who didn't, I send you much, much Love and Healing Light,

Blessings, Izabella

"What Does a Spiritual Awakening Feel Like?"

I finished my last blog post, "What is an Awakening" with Spiritual Teacher Adyashantis' comment about a Full Spiritual Awakening which is "Don't count on that being you". Before I begin to tell you about what an Awakening feels like, I would like to explain the difference between a Full versus a Partial Spiritual Awakening, so that by the time I go on to recount to you my own experience of what the Awakening felt like, there is an understanding of which type of Awakening I experienced.  I will also explain why the statement "Don't count on that being you" is so relevant to all of us, no matter where we are on our spiritual journey.

As explained in my last blog post, an awakening is when Oneness awakens to itself within the human form.  As I talked about in my last post, the human form itself does not awaken, but the Spirit inherent in and part of the human form, does. When the Energy awakens to itself (Please note that I interchangeably use different terms such as Awareness, Oneness, Consciousness, Spirit and Energy to describe that which is truly indescribable through the limitations of spoken language), although the Awakening does not happen to a personal "me", there is no doubt that the human form structure is affected by the Awakening itself. It is in the "process" of how the human form structure is affected, that differences occur.

For some humans, there is no difference in time (at least in the mind made perception of time) between the actual moment of Awakening itself and the  complete and full assimilation and impact of the Awakening  on the human form structure and how it functions following the moment of Awakening. There is no process through which the human has to navigate through to dis-identify with the thought form (or what we may call the ego).  That which has Awakened  literally jolts itself out of the human experience of identification with thought and feeling form. The impact of this is tremendous on the individual, and nothing is ever seen as it was prior to the Awakening. This does not mean that the person stops experiencing thought and feeling. A Full Awakening does not in any way mean that from a human experience of things, the individual is free from thought or feeling. However, it does mean that the individual no longer identifies with the thoughts and feelings that he or she experiences, and no longer believes that they ARE their thoughts and feelings. They no longer disillusion themselves with the idea that their "Beingness" is located within the limited structure of thought and feeling. As mentioned in my last post, an example of this Full Awakening is Contemporary teacher Eckhart Tolle, who upon the moment of Awakening had an instant dis-identification with the thought and feeling form structure. To this day, his identification with thought and feeling form has not returned.

For other humans who have experienced a Spiritual Awakening, there is the experience of perceived time from the moment of the Awakening to the complete assimilation of this experience by the human form. In this type of Awakening, although the human form has complete awareness of the actual moment of Awakening, the energetic pull of the thought and feeling forms is of such gravity that the individual is still able to get pulled into the vortex of identification. As in an individual who experiences a Full Awakening, the individual continues to have thoughts and feelings, but unlike a Full Awakening, there is still some form of identification with these forms. The human still grasps onto these and and even at times believes themselves to BE the thoughts and feelings that they experience. We may call this type of Awakening a Partial Awakening, but partial only in the sense of the non completeness of dis-identification with thought and feeling forms. In a Partial Awakening, there is a process that the human goes through from the moment of an Awakening experience in order to reach the complete symbiosis of Spirit and the experience of the expression of Human Form. This may be hard to understand even if just on an intellectual level, but I hope that sharing my experience of the Awakening will help shed some light for you on this process.

Before I start, I want to distinguish between the felt experience of the moment of Awakening and the actual felt manifestation of an Awakening in the human form following the moment of an Awakening. It is the actual moment of Awakening that I will share with you at this time. My next post will be about the manifestation of this in the human form thereafter. Actually, my whole blog will focus mostly on the manifestation of the awakening in my human life. However, I feel it is important to share both with you.

The actual moment of Spiritual Awakening that I experienced happened in the summer of 2014. I was on a camping trip in the Okanagan, BC, with my husband and my two girls who were 5 and 8 at the time. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were playing at the beach enjoying the warmth of the sand and rocks. As it was nearing around dinner time (maybe 5 or 6), most of the people at the beach had drifted off, probably to start dinner at their camp sites. As we ourselves were gathering our things to go back to our site, I told my husband and girls that they go ahead without me as I would just take a few minutes to do a meditation before returning to the camp site. As they left, I sat in the lawn chair that we had brought with us and looked out at the water which was sparkling and twinkling from the sun. I sat there feeling myself relax from the energetic activity of playing with my children and from the general busyness of the day. I remember not really thinking about anything but just feeling a stillness and a peacefulness, however not unlike any other I had felt before when surrounded by nature and silence. Then all of a sudden, as I was looking out over the water, the light from the sun that was penetrating the water and making it sparkle seemed to expand in a strange way. The only thing that I can liken it to is that it seemed as if each sparkle became bigger. In fact it appeared as if I could literally see the vast spaciousness between each atom. Although there appeared to be space that opened up, the totality of how big the sparkles were, or how big the lake, was untouched. What I mean by this is that nothing seemed to be of larger proportion than before, but yet there appeared to be endless space between what before seemed to be solid matter. The lake, the water and the light sparkles took on a floating type quality as if there was no solid matter present. I don't remember really having much thought at this time. I didn't have any emotion either. As I sat there looking out at this phenomena, all of a sudden the mountain behind the lake took on that same quality of spaciousness. It no longer appeared as a solid structure but just bits of floaty pieces between which there appeared once again this vast spaciousness. I remember at this time having the knowing, as I can't really say it was a thought, that my whole being could walk right through this mountain. It also felt that the lake and the mountain had somehow merged, although they still looked like a separate picture in some sense. The best way I can describe it is that the atoms of the water and the atoms of the mountain merged in some way and there was no longer a clear distinction between the two. It also appeared that the mountain was in front of the water just as much as the water was in front of the mountain. As I sat there just experiencing this, I suddenly felt the same spaciousness within my body. It felt as if my body had lost its' matter and took on the floaty quality of much space between the atoms that comprised it. My body no longer felt solid.  I then had the sensation (although it wasn't really a bodily sensation per se) that this space that I was, merged with the water and the mountain. There was no longer the human sensation of being separate from something else. I can't even say that the sensation was of becoming one with the water and the mountain. It was more that I was the water and the mountain. I want to say that it was the most peaceful feeling I have ever had, but there wasn't any feeling in this experience. At least not in the way we humans experience the energy of a feeling or emotion in our body. It was more a sensation (for lack of a better word) of "Beingness" or "Awareness".  I don't really quite know how long this experience lasted although my husband later told me that I was gone for about a half hour or so. Eventually, the feeling returned to physically feeling my own body sitting in the lawn chair and to seeing the separation between the lake and the mountain. I remember sitting there and feeling that nothing was going to be the same after this. I didn't feel scared, surprised, happy or any other emotion really. I remember though that as I picked up my chair and began to walk to the camp site, it felt as if Oneness was walking my body. I was no longer identified with my body, thoughts, or emotions. Who I was, was Awareness,  Oneness,  and Spirit, but what that is I don't really truly know...

I returned to the camp site and went about helping with dinner, talking to my husband and children. All along, I felt like what I had thought of as a self prior to this experience, was now just like a shirt that you put on in the morning. It is something you wear, but not what you are.

Following the Awakening, I never forgot the knowing and the knowledge that I am not  my body, my thoughts and emotions. However, with time, I realized that my Awakening was not of the Full Awakening kind. It was a Partial Awakening and this Partial Awakening was about to take me on a journey I never expected....

I never did get to Adyashantis' "Don't count on that being you" did I? I will. It just somehow feels like now isn't the time.

If you are coming back here, Thank you for joining me again on this journey. If this is your first time, only you will know whether something has resonated within you. Regardless where your journey may take you, I send you much Love and Kindness along the way.

I welcome any comments or questions you may have about this post or my previous one "What is an Awakening?". I understand that there may be some questions or things to be clarified and am here to provide as honest an answer as I possibly can with such a vast subject. You may click on the "Please leave a comment" under my post to do so.

My next post will be about "How Partial Awakening Manifests in Human Form".

Until next time, much Love and Kindness to all of you,

Izabella

"What is a Spiritual Awakening"

Welcome to my first blog post. Before I begin, I would like to explain to you the voice that is speaking the words that I will share with you. We may not know one another and all you may have to go on is my "writing voice" as well as the content of my posts, so I figure it may help if you have an understanding of my voice and intentions.

Before I decided to do a blog, I asked myself about my intention of doing a blog of this nature. A good friend of mine has been telling me for a while now thatI should write about living an awakened life but I have to admit that at the time that she first mentioned it, I couldn't quite decipher what the intention of that would be. However, as time passed, and as  my human self grew and matured into the awakening that was experienced a couple of years ago, I realized how much I cherished reading of the experiences of others who have also been through the same journey. Through reading their words, I came to an understanding that they were not trying to steer me or anyone else into an awakened life. Their words were completely free of any hidden agenda. They were not trying to point me to anything else other than myself. Their words were simply a guidepost. I read them many times over, but I only really heard them and felt them deep in my spirit, because I was ready. Sometimes I was more ready than others!  At times, I understood on an intellectual level what the words were saying, but my heart and spirit hadn't caught up yet, and so the words would reach a type of philosophical crescendo, only to fall flat as if the notes of the words had no soul or spirit to propel them further upward, beyond the mind. However, I always, always felt the sincerity of their words, and on a very deep level I knew that their voice was full of love, understanding and a truth that resonated in my heart and soul even though on a human level I experientially may have not yet lived that truth myself.

Whether you are on a spiritual journey, or at least consciously aware that you are on one or not, I hope that you hear my voice as a sincere one that comes from a place of Love and Kindness. Whether something resonates within you through my words, or not, and whether you are drawn back to my words, or not, just simply know that you have received a good dose of Loving Kindness that comes from a very sincere place. You are never not Loved, never Not Enough and always Perfectly Lovable ...

Okay, on to "What is an Awakening?". Some of you may be quite aware of what an Awakening is. Perhaps you have had one, and are feeling very unified from a human level with the awakening experience. Perhaps you have had one and are struggling with the concept and reality of what it means for you. Then there may be those of you who are conscious of your spiritual journey, but have not yet had the experience of an awakening. Then there may be those of you who are not conscious of a spiritual journey but yet something still drew you to this blog, at this moment in time.

As defined in the Oxford dictionary, and by the conventional mind, an "awakening " is "the act of waking from sleep". Some may add to this concept the idea that when one awakens, one becomes conscious or aware, as opposed to the sleep state where one is unconscious and unaware. When we talk about a Spiritual Awakening, we are essentially talking about the same concept, however, the awakening is no longer applied to a personal "me", as in "I awoke". A Spiritual Awakening is where one's spirit, consciousness, or awareness becomes awake to itself. This is not a personal awakening, the way that we see ourselves as a "me" from a human experience of form. The awakening happens to the Oneness that is inherent in all of existence. It is the Universal Oneness that awakens through the human form. I am sure most of you have heard the story of the little wave in the ocean which while it appears that it is separate, eventually realizes that all of the ocean is inherent within it. Although the Universal Oneness is inside every human being, it too, like the little wave, forgets that it is inherently the whole of all that is. Just as the whole of the ocean recognizes itself within the seemingly separate little ocean wave, the whole of the Universal Oneness awakens within the human form.

At the moment of conception, all the potentiality of the Universal Oneness is inside the now physical human expression of that Oneness. That universal energy is literally inside every single one of the cells that grows and forms a human being. As that being grows and is eventually born into the world, the Oneness begins to identify with the very form into which it entered. It literally falls asleep as to its’ true nature. It becomes identified with the human form and the thoughts and feelings that arise within this human form. As all of us have experienced, our thoughts and feelings have a very strong gravitational pull. For most of us, we are so identified and pulled into the thoughts and feelings that we don't even question whether our thoughts and feelings are what WE ARE. Even when we look at the way we use language, it is clear that we identify ourselves to be our thoughts and feelings. As an example, most of us use the wording "I am angry", "I am happy". We believe "we are" that which we feel. We forget that the energetic expression of a feeling is simply the felt energetic sense of our thoughts within our body. It is not what we ARE. There is a reason we call it "Feelings", for it is what we "feel", not what we "are". The next time you experience an energetic felt sensation in your body, say of anger, state "I have the energy of anger in the body". You will be amazed at the freedom you will gain when you no longer identify yourself to "be" the feeling you experience. You will no longer feel bound by it. There will be a sense of freedom surrounding it. (Keep a lookout for a future blog post on how to guide our children to be emotionally aware in my Conscious Parenting section)

Since I have devoted some time to talking about the energetic felt sense of feelings in our body, I would like to also devote some time to talking about thought. Thoughts in and of themselves have no true reality. They are simply energetic expressions in our mind of a belief system, based on conditioning, experiences, and moment by moment circumstances. Contemporary Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle talks about this energetic entity of our thought form as our "Ego". There actually isn't truly an entity called an "Ego". Any name we give it is simply just another thought form isn't it? Eckhart Tolle is simply just pointing us through words or concepts (because what other way is there on a human level to point toward these ideas?) to the energetic pull that these thought forms can have on us. These thought forms are often based in fear, shame, anxiety, sadness and a myriad of other feelings and emotions.  The "feeling" can be the basis of these thought forms, or the "thought" the basis of the feelings, and both of these the impetus to our actions.

Since my experience of the awakening a couple of years ago, I have come to realize that most of our actions come from a place of self-protection of the very thought forms that resulted from a painful feeling or emotion at a very early stage of our lives.  Later on as we matured and wove stories through words, these also gave rise to a painful feeling or emotion. As babies, we have the ability to experience the energetic felt sense of instinctual self protection way before we have the ability to have conscious thought, as our capability to experience emotion comes before our ability to have and understand spoken language. As humans we are wired for survival. Anything that may threaten that survival such as physical danger, starvation, lack of attachment to a caregiver, or abandonment, will elicit the energetic felt sense of fear. The part of our brain called the Limbic System (which comprises the lower part of our brain at the back of the neck) which ellicits the Fight or Flight instinct as well as intense immediate feeling of anger meant to protect our very physical survival, is fully developed when we are born. However, the part of our brain called the Prefrontal Cortex (which is behind our forehead), which consists of the Right and Left Hemisphere that govern emotion, intuition, images, words, planning and organization, develops throughout our early years all the way to 25 for females and 27 for males. Therefore, the actual physical act of being birthed can elicit fear in the baby (coming from the well developed Limbic System), as well as any experiences or any energetic felt sensations that the baby takes on through its’ Mother while still in the womb. Quite amazing isn't it!?

On a human level, we are first connected to our body, which is where our emotions live. The capacity to have conscious thought or even an awareness of ourselves as separate beings from our caretaker, develops as our brain matures. As our brain matures and we begin to give words to our experiences and the things around us, we begin to use these words to weave stories around the emotions we experience in our body. These stories are based on our experiences and the conditioning that arises as a result of these experiences. As our thoughts have a very strong gravitational pull, we begin to strongly identify with those thoughts and believe ourselves to be those thoughts. Although base feelings such as fear may have been in our body prior to thought, it is now the thoughts that can give rise to the experience of the energetic felt sense of those thoughts in our bodies. These stories can become so unconscious and ingrained in our psyche, that before we are even aware of them on a conscious level, they have already resulted in a felt sense in our body, or that which we call a "feeling".

After a Spiritual Awakening, on a very deep level Oneness no longer easily identifies itself with the energetic flow of feelings and thoughts. It "knows" that the feelings and thought can be expressions of the Oneness but it no longer "identifies" itself with them. This can be a hard concept to understand. In the world of absolutes, no-thing, no experience, no felt energetic sensation is ever separate from the Oneness that is. Everything is not only an expression of the Oneness that is, but is also the "Oneness Itself". However, if we are to understand some of these concepts from a human perspective and from a human understanding of things, we have to let go of absolutes.  I am doing my best using words to explain that which is beyond words... Bear with me...

After a Spiritual Awakening, even though Oneness becomes awake to itself and is no longer identified with the energetic felt sense of feelings or thoughts, because we are still operating through the form of a human being, complete symbiosis of human form and Oneness has still to perfect itself. On one level, there never is a separation of the human form and the Oneness that is (and the Oneness that awakens to itself recognizes this), but on another level, we cannot deny that our awareness or consciousness of that symbiosis from a human form experience has yet to catch up to the awareness inherent in the "Awakening of the Oneness". You may have to read this last sentence over again. This is a lot to take in!

There are some individuals throughout history who have had an experience of awakening that was what we may call a full awakening. What this means is that the human form did not have to play catch up with the Awakening of the Oneness. The Awakening happened, and the individual never got caught up and identified with the thought and feeling state again. This does not mean that the unique personality of the individual or the thoughts and feelings ceased to exist, but just that the moment thought arose, there was an instantaneous dis-identification with the thought.  A feeling could still be felt in the body, but there was no identification with it. It could simply be felt and let go of. Indian sage Nisargadatta Maharaj and contemporary teacher Eckhart Tolle come to mind as an example of this full Spiritual Awakening. Spiritual teacher, Adyashanti, calls this full awakening an Abiding Awakening. However, as Adyashani also so wonderfully expresses in one of his brilliant books, "Don't count on that being you"...

Thank you for being a part of my journey of sharing my experience of an Awakened Life. If you are called to return to my writings, I welcome you to check in at least once a week. I will endeavour to post every Monday, and some weeks it may be even more frequent than that.

My first writing was about "What is an Awakening" and my next post will be about "What does an Awakening Feel like".

With much Love and Kindness,

Izabella