living fully from the heart
Hello everyone and welcome to the first of many heart letters. Whilst many of you may have been to my talks or know about me through the ‘spiritual’ grapevine, it’s been a while (about seven years actually) since I took the opportunity to share some of my more ‘intimate’ reflections about the journey of awakening through a newsletter. Of course, everything I share with you in the way of teachings IS drawn from my life experience – and I love sharing the insights in the universal sense. Now I would like to share with you in a more ‘personal sense’ too. My intention is to share heart to heart. My whole intention of being in service for the journey of awakening is really about this. As I sat contemplating this morning I asked myself… “What is it I really want to achieve through this service? What is this whole quest really about?” The answer leapt up, straight from my heart… SIMPLE… I want to help people feel BETTER. I want people to feel happy about themselves. I want people to feel a sense of Self Mastery. I want people to feel connected, with their Self, with each other and with life.” Well, I thought about this further. My motivation for sharing has never been to impart knowledge. I don’t want to PROVE anything to you or to give you the false idea that I hold the key of knowledge to the mystery of life. I don’t care to be the be all and end all of your journey… to be THE Guru, your Guru or any “typical idea” of a Guru And, having said that, most people don’t really understand what a Guru actually is – basically and in principle a guru is a guiding presence. Having a guiding presence does motivate some people… for some people they feel a deep sense of purpose in connecting with me in their journey… and some don’t… that’s fine… it just is that different things motivate us all in different ways. But what is it, in the middle of this that is really going on? What is the common factor? Why are we all driven by some need to discover something else, something more, something grand? Because we have FEELINGS. And nearly everyone wants to feel BETTER. We are FEELING beings. And we need to share in the journey of these feelings. It is in the sharing and reflecting of feelings with others that we begin to make sense of our own feelings. I can’t help but remember a moment when I was present at a yoga organisation’s very large retreat event. We were having breakfast. The breakfast hall contained about 200 people. I was simply eating a banana. (Yes, a banana! J) Well, not just simply eating a banana. I was fully present, fully conscious, fully feeling as I was eating the banana. And, the most beautiful thing happened. I realized I WAS the banana, and that I was the person eating the banana… (Now, Ok, a few people might think this all really does sound bananas – but really, this was a very real experience.) I was every part of the experience. I could FEEL my self in the whole experience. I FELT the complete state of being the consumed and being the consumer – total ONENESS. I burst into tears of BLISS. Well suddenly, people from every table began to gather around echoing the words… “I want some of what she’s got”! You see, what drew them to me was the power of the
feeling. They knew what I was FEELING was very real… and
they recognized it was a feeling that they too were looking for… It is our feelings that drive every desire, every hope, every goal, every quest. What we are all seeking is not really anything to do with things or knowledge. What we are seeking is a FEELING about the things in our life and the knowledge we have gained. When we understand these feelings we begin to feel a little wiser. And when we feel a little wiser we also feel a little freer and a whole lot better! And, the truth is… we cannot fake our feelings. Life is so mysterious and so complex. When we even begin to scratch the surface we can be overwhelmed by its complexity. Every second, tens of millions of functions are occurring in billions and billions of parts just for our body to exist. It really is mysterious. But it’s not so much the construct of that – or the question of whether it’s real or an illusion that really matters to us or gives meaning to our life. It’s how we feel about it that gives meaning to our life. Without feelings we would simply be robots and life would just be one great machine… simply existing. And, when we lose sight of the importance of our feeling level we can get very stuck in the mind – and guess what? That still gives us a FEELING. Actually many feelings: frustration, confusion, disempowerment, disillusionment, anger, fear, jealousy… etc. So, I asked my self… what would be the best thing I could share with you? And again, the answer leapt up, straight from my heart. I can share with you what no-one else can share with you. I can share with you MY FEELINGS. I can share with you what it FEELS like to awaken. I can share what feelings I discovered along the way that enhance the feeling of peace and freedom. I can share with you what activities unlock a very special level of feeling awareness: states that give you the tools
to have Self Mastery over your feelings; The journey and combination of all of these feelings is what brings TRUE happiness. It is a journey of freedom: being FREE to truly FEEL… wholly and unconditionally all of life as it is in each moment. And this is how life FEELS to me. Life feels complete and perfect in every moment. I FEEL so alive and at peace in every moment knowing that I consciously embrace every thing, and every feeling that IS life. THIS is BLISS. Bliss is the state of being fully at ONE with all AND feeling it!!! NOT thinking it… FEELING IT. And this is the feeling that I want to share with you. I want to be able to share the gifts that have touched me in my journey. Because I know these can unlock the gifts that lie within you. Because they are the same gifts that unlock everyone’s true power. They are the gifts the masters knew and used as well. I want you to know how to use your own unique feelings to encounter the bigger feeling that is freedom and Oneness with all of life. I want to share this freely and completely with you so that as many people as possible can also benefit from these gifts… so that everyone can know the truth: inside of YOU is the key to FEELING all that you are… to FEEL at peace with who you are… and to feel happy with the journey of the life you are... To feel BETTER.
In moments when I have reflected back over my journey I have recognized some profound paradoxes. I have also seen how, because life is so complex we can be really confused by all the messages that are out there. One of the messages I’ve heard and that I explored was… Follow your joy. (In fact it was something I myself had said time and time again). But then I asked myself… well, what really is joy? Isn’t joy a state of wholeness? And if wholeness is really whole then wouldn’t that be inclusive of EVERY feeling? So, I took to exploring every feeling. Next newsletter I will share with you some of the insights that came from these explorations. Until then here’s a few tips to stimulate some great levels of feeling in your life. Feel this moment. May you feel how the simple moments of life touch you with endless rivers of energy. May you feel the simple joy of sharing words of encouragement, or the peace in words of forgiveness. May you feel the upliftment in sharing words of inspiration. May you feel the strength to endure… knowing that your feelings will always guide the way. And may you feel the comfort in knowing that we really are all in this together. Love and Blessings to you all,
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