Awareness
“The outcome of any relationship in life is inseparable from the level of awareness of the one entering into that relationship.” – Guy Finley
This past week in my retreat I met some wonderful women. We created relationships that will be fostered by what we experienced together, and by the community that has been created around the program. Most of the time when we meet people through a program we might connect energetically with one or two people.
With this program I believe that all of us established a connection with each other.
As part of the program, we learned to release our resistance to things by paying attention to the energy that we bring with us as we live our lives. When you have resistance and pull the cord of energy that is attached to that resistance, it creates a totally new way of dealing with the “drama of everyday” as things that pop into our lives.
I think that this level of awareness is what Guy Finley was referring to with this quote. I also believe that living life with this level of awareness is illuminating, as you begin to see how the little irritants that we are used to living our life with, can simply be let go. It isn’t necessary to be attached to the story that we tell ourselves about what someone said or didn’t say; what someone did or failed to do; and how it really isn’t all about us at all. Pulling the cord releases the drama and then we can look objectively at the issue at hand and determine how much of the drama was simply created by our own illusions about what something means.
Living with this level of awareness isn’t an easy thing to do, but it is something that we can remind ourselves of everyday. At first we realize what we have done afterwards. Then we pull the energetic cord and forgive ourselves for falling into the illusion again. And if we pay attention, we start catching ourselves right in the middle of the illusion; and then one day we stop ourselves from spinning the illusion right at the beginning. Of course since we aren’t yet perfect we still spin some interesting stories that we will find ourselves pulling cords over, but as time progresses the stories become few and far between.
I think that a good catch phrase is “what does love want this to be?” If we can just remember to ask this before the drama starts, we have the “perfect” level of awareness for every relationship that we enter into everyday of our life.
Hiding
“What is unwanted within us changes by holding it in the Light (of awareness), not by hiding it from sight!” – Guy Finley
A friend told a story of something that happened to him when he was in 6th grade. He never told his friends or his family about it. I imagine that this experience changed his behavior at home. His parents probably asked him what was wrong and he probably said nothing.
That is the typical answer from a child that is ashamed and doesn’t know what to do, except hide from the experience. He had buried anger from his experience and that anger festered inside him like a poison and eventually he escaped into the drug world because he couldn’t deal with it. He eventually came to the bottom and knew that he had two choices, stop the drugs and face his feelings, or the drugs were going to kill him. He chose life and awareness.
One of my sons had a change in behavior when he was young. I noticed and began asking questions. As my sons could tell you, once I started asking questions, I didn’t stop. I would stay in their room for hours if that was what it took, until they finally started talking. When he finally opened up about what happened, we took the steps needed to help him. He became a happy boy again .
Listening to my friends story I thought about the many times I would go into one of my boys rooms and sit on the bed and ask what is wrong. I think about how if I had just accepted the answer, nothing – would they have had buried anger and shame? Would they have turned to drugs or alcohol to run away from their feelings?
When those we love are hiding in pain, do we help them shine the light of awareness on their situation? Or do we just look on wanting to help, but accepting their answer that nothing is wrong?
Do we shine the light of awareness on ourselves? Sometimes it is necessary to lance the wound so that it can drain out the poison and heal. It never helps to run from what we don’t want to face. Expose those unwanted feelings to the light of healing and drain out the poisons that we have been hiding from – whether they are our own pain or that of someone we love.
Chose life and awareness like my friend. You have great things to do in this world.