We are living during a time where more and more people on this earth are seeing through their clouds of fear, judgment and despair (if this interests you, my latest book, What’s in the Way IS the Way, is a guide for clearing the clouds and coming back to life).
I feel passionately that WE are all the healing the planet has been waiting for. It begins as more and more of us are interested in healing the war inside of ourselves.
Can you become passionate enough that you are willing to trust life and know that it is putting you in situations so that you can see your fear-based mind of attack and defend, like and dislike, good and bad, right and wrong, rather than live from it?
Can you become awakened enough that you bring your aware heart to the extremely judgmental and neurotic separate self that you think you are?
Michael Beckwith, minister of the Agape Church, describes this evolution from unconsciousness to consciousness in four phases.
I have added two more, “Life happens in you” and “Life happens for you,” and I call them the “Six Phases of Consciousness.”
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Life Happens To You
For a good deal of your life you have probably lived like most human beings, feeling that Life is happening to you.
Life is so big and if you are honest with yourself, you never really know what is going to happen next. You wake up one morning and your heart is light and happy and the next day you’re unsettled.
Bosses fire you, the flu debilitates you, people you love reject you, every day you get a little older and death is always lurking around the corner.
So it is understandable that the more unconscious you are, the more often you feel like a victim to Life.
When you live in the belief that Life is happening to you, you often view it as a possible threat.
So you stay caught in your head, finding yourself lost in your storyteller that resists, reacts, defends and explains, hoping to figure everything out. It generally does absolutely anything except be open to Life, right here, right now.
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Life Happens By You
When it becomes too uncomfortable to live with this much powerlessness, you evolve into the belief that Life is happening by you. Rather than being a victim to Life, you believe you can control it.
There can be a great feeling of personal power in this phase of consciousness. It is a necessary step in moving out of the victimhood of the first stage, but people get caught there.
Men try to control women and vice versa. Religions try to control the masses. Countries try to control other countries.
The majority of people try to control others who are not like them (gay, different skin color, dissimilar religions).
Most of all, we try to control ourselves, hoping to make ourselves be what we think we should be.
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Life Happens In You
You eventually begin to see that all of your reacting and controlling hasn’t brought you the ease and joy you long for.
Instead of being the victim to your life and or needing to make it be any particular way, which is the endless game of struggle, you begin to get an inkling that Life is something to be listened to, opened to.
This is where you start evolving into the next step, where Life is happening in you.
At this level of consciousness you begin to realize something very startling: most of the time, rather than experiencing Life, you think about it, seeing only the thoughts in your head!
When you experience Life through your thoughts, you stop experiencing it as it is.
Or, as the well-known French author Anais Nin once said,
“We don’t see things as they are. We see them as we are.”
You project your spells onto yourself and others rather than really seeing what is.
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Life Happens For You
The more you become curious about what is happening rather than reacting and controlling, the more you come to a wonderful realization that your life is for you.
Rather than Life being something that is happening to you that you must control, you realize there are no ordinary moments!
Life is not a random series of events. It is a highly intelligent unfolding that is putting you in the exact situations you need in order to see and unhook from the spells that keep you separate from its flow.
No matter what is happening in your life, you finally understand that Life knows what it is doing.
Rather than Life being something you have to mold and shape into what you want it to be, you begin to show up for Life exactly as it is. Yes, the flow of Life includes pain, loss and death.
But resisting the pains of Life only turn them it into suffering, and the suffering that comes from resistance is always much greater than directly experiencing your pain.
Instead of tightening around your experiences and turning away from them, which only thickens your cloud bank of struggle, you bring your attention to your experience, whatever it is.
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Life Happens Through You
The for you phase shows you that there is no such thing as an ordinary moment in your life and helps you to see that Life is speaking to you at all moments.
Becoming curious about what you are experiencing and giving it the light of compassionate attention so it can let go, you evolve into the next phase of allowing Life to move through you.
This is where you recognize that Life is trustable. It is not always likable, but it knows what it is doing.
Imagine a life where you trust Life implicitly. Every morning you wake up with a sense of adventure. Your belly is soft, your mind is curious and your heart is open.
Rather than struggling with Life, you open to it, even when you are facing deep challenges.
If you find yourself caught in reaction, you give your reaction the attention it needs to let go.
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Life Is You
The more you can stand with Life, allowing it to move through you rather than reacting to it or controlling it, the more you begin to get glimpses of the sixth phase in which you see that Life is you.
You are no longer a separate being. Instead, you merge completely back into the creative flow of Life, understanding that everything—every rock, person, cloud, molecule and ladybug—is you. You are Life!
As Eckhart Tolle said,
“You are not in the universe; you are the universe, an intrinsic part of it. Ultimately you are not a person, but a focal point where the universe is becoming conscious of itself. What an amazing miracle.”
We all need to know that we don’t have the luxury anymore to hang out in the fear-based separate self.
Every time we get lost in our minds, we are identified with that which causes so much suffering on our planet. Every time we pay attention to this war inside of us, the war of the struggling self, we become a part of the healing.
One moment at a time, one person at a time, healing is showing up on our planet.
Will the violence of the planetary cloud bank of struggle disappear in our lifetime? Probably not, but I believe it is coming…
BE the healing that our planet is longing for!
Mary O’Malley is an author, counselor and awakening mentor who resides in Kirkland, Washington. In the early 1970’s, a powerful awakening led Mary to begin changing her relationship with her challenges, freeing her from a lifelong struggle with darkness. For over 30 years, Mary has been helping others heal their fears, anxieties, shame and confusion. Her latest book, What’s In the Way IS the Way, is a guide for transforming struggle into the peace and joy that is our birthright. Visit her website here.
