the time is NOW

I spent last weekend at a retreat with Loch Kelly practicing open-hearted awareness.  Loch's glimpse practices provide a short-cut or direct path to awakening by practicing shifting one's awareness.  For example, one practice is to drop awareness from thought, down into the body, then out into the space surrounding you and then back in through the heart.  This allows one to move awareness from ego identification to heart awareness into spacious awareness (i.e., where there is an impersonal sense of the Divine), and then back into self with an embodied sense of the Divine.  

According to Loch open-hearted awareness is our natural state.  It brings a sense of stillness, peace and clarity into each moment.  In open-hearted awareness all human emotions and experiences (anxiety, anger, loss...) are accepted and held in a sea of love which allows them to be experienced and let go of more easily.

When I am in open-hearted awareness my words are more gentle and I am much less judgmental.  My conversations over the weekend with friends who were also practicing open-hearted awareness were more genuine and we were more vulnerable with each other.  This is truly a beautiful way to live. 

This seems to be the same state that Michael Singer experienced with his surrender experiment: letting go of preferences and resistance to what is showing up in one's life and embracing what is happening with an open heart and mind.  (It is becoming more and more clear to me that letting go of attachment to thoughts in the head is a part of all paths to awakening.)

You can safely drop out of attachment to the chattering mind because there is something greater than you (Life, God, your Higher Self) taking care of everything and showing you the way.  We have been blessed with these simple, practical and wise techniques for returning to our natural state of pure love, peace and joy.  Let us not miss this opportunity to evolve both personally and collectively.

The time is now.

You are a magnificent being.  Let go of your preferences, thoughts and resistances to what is happening and let your God Self show you your own magnificence.

(For those who are interested in learning more about Loch Kelly's work you can check him out on YouTube, read Shift Into Freedom which is a great book but has lots of terms and definitions to understand, or purchase the Audibles version of Shift Into Freedom which provides a brief description of this process and about 30 different glimpse practices.)  

Thy will be done

"If you had asked me about my surrender experiment I would have told you that the relentless practice of letting go of myself in order to fully embrace what was unfolding around me was having a profound effect on my spiritual growth.  It had, in fact, become my way of life.  I had seen time and again that letting go not only led to amazing results, but it also left me in a state of profound inner peace.  I was not in charge; life was in charge, and there was an underlying sense of enthusiasm and excitement about getting to see what was going to happen next.  After all, just look at what had happened so far."  p.189

Reading about all of the amazing ways that Michael's life unfolded as he surrendered is certainly inspiring.  At times when I let go of myself I have felt a sense of freedom...a release from the limiting thought and feelings of ego.  At other times it has been challenging to surrender to what is happening in my life.  At these times I remind myself that God is in charge and that God can certainly do a better job of arranging my life than I can.  I pray for help with letting go.  I sit in the silence and connect with the Spirit within.  I remind myself that God always has my back and therefore I can let go.  I sing songs of praise, Joy, Love and Peace (Singing is a great way to raise one's consciousness from fear to love/joy).

 It has been eye-opening for me to see how many of my decisions are based on my likes and dislikes.  As I let these preferences go, I have been guided by something wiser than my egoic needs and wants.  In one situation I clearly "heard" a wise inner voice guiding me to "do nothing" in a situation with a loved one where I normally would have jumped in.  At other times the guidance has not been as clear but I have felt drawn to lean in a certain direction.

I will continue to surrender and see where life leads me. One step at a time, one moment at a time I will open to God's will for my life.  And so it is.  





 

 

subtle synchronicities

"All the events that had unfolded so far in my experiment with surrender had shown me that the more I was willing to let go of the inner noise created by my personal likes and dislikes, the more I could see subtle synchronicities in what was unfolding around me.  These unexpected concurrences of events were like messages from life gently nudging me in the direction she was going.  I listened to these subtle nudges instead of listening to the not-so-subtle mental and emotional reactions caused by my personal preferences.  This is how I practiced surrender in my everyday life, and the purpose of all these stories is to share with you the perfection of the journey that unfolded." (The Surrender Experiment, p. 167-168)

I have been doing my own surrender experiment and have seen that when I step out of the way there is usually an easier flow to my life.  When I do life the other way, life becomes a struggle and sometimes even a battle.  I am trying to manage situations and make things happen because the "neurotic roommate" (see The Untethered Soul) in my head thinks things need to be a certain way in order for me to be happy.

One example of my listening to the flow of life is the decision to start blogging again.  I had been feeling like maybe it was time to start and then I received a message from someone who has followed my blog in the past asking me to let her know when I posted something.  It was just the nudge that I needed.

I am learning to listen and recognize these nudges more and more and I find that as I stop paying so much attention to what I like and don't like it is easier to see how life is nudging me.  

As Michael Singer so beautifully explains and demonstrates by his own life experiences, life already has a glorious plan for each of us.  There is so much more good waiting for us than we could ever anticipate by listening to the neurotic roommate.   And, life is always showing us the way.

The path is clear...stop listening to the preferences of the voice in your head, and follow the subtle cues that life is giving you.

You are a magnificent Being and it is time to bring it on!!