Life After Awakening: Things You Finally Understand

 Awakening is not about acquiring knowledge—it is the dissolution of illusion. A truly awakened being isn’t “more” or “better” than others; they are simply someone who no longer believes in many of the assumptions most people still take for reality.

This article explores 13 core realizations that can only be fully grasped by those who no longer identify with the personal self. It also offers insights into how these truths show up in everyday life and what practices support their deeper integration.

The awakened one sees that the body is born and dies, but what we are—timeless awareness—was never born and can never die. This is not belief, but direct realization.

In everyday life, this brings deep peace around death and the transience of things. The moment becomes more precious, not out of fear, but because of deep presence.

Practice: Sit quietly and repeat within: “Who am I if I am not this body, not this name?” Watch what remains when all self-definitions are released.

Thoughts come and go. Most of them are not truth but echoes of past conditioning. The awakened being is aware: they are not their thoughts—they are the awareness that sees them....<<<Read More>>>...

The Hidden Advantage: Finding Your Edge to Success

If there’s something that should be deeply ingrained into the ‘Self Help Bible of Wisdom,’ it’s the commandment: “Look for where you have the edge to succeed.” Indeed, this cannot be underestimated.

Stay with me on this. Don’t hang up here. See it as an opportunity. After reading this article, you may gain valuable insight for yourself and discover where that edge to succeed exists and what’s needed. So, you may want to thank me later on for that!

Remember, insight can allow you to accomplish or achieve something that you wouldn’t have been able to without that insight. It’s all part of the journey along the road to self-awareness.

So, first, allow me to start with an analogy and then make a valuable point....<<<Read More>>>....

How to Break Bad Habits & Create Lasting Change

 Breaking bad habits can feel like an uphill battle. Maybe it is checking your phone constantly, distracting yourself when you’re trying to focus, engaging in destructive habits when we don’t feel great.

Whatever the bad habit might be, what’s happening is that it has been wired into our brain and body via repetition. This means, that through awareness and repetition, we can break those habits and wire new ones.

Neuroscience provides a clear roadmap for making meaningful changes. In this piece, I’ll dive into the science behind how habits are formed and how we can leverage the brain and body’s ability to rewire itself.

One thing we will learn as we go here is that part of the challenge many of us face when it comes to creating habits we don’t like is we have a difficult time being with sensations that are uncomfortable.

This is something we never learned to do effectively and often fear. It results in creating coping mechanisms (bad habits) to avoid feeling sensations we don’t like.

One key element of change is gaining the capacity to be with difficult sensations so we don’t build more bad habits in the long run. This helps us get to the root cause of bad habit creation....<<<Read More>>>....

You see more than you think you see

 Could it be that when we act on impulse or have a hunch about something, we are using information that has been fed into our brains without our knowledge? Dr. Vernon Coleman asks.

Subliminal messaging involves presenting words or images below the threshold of conscious awareness, often for less than one-tenth of a second. The messages will register with our subconscious minds only.

Subliminal manipulation is often considered harmless because its effects typically decay within a second. However, one study suggests that subliminal messages might have long-term effects on decision-making, particularly if the messages contain novel information that must be relationally bound in long-term memory.

According to Campaign, subliminal advertising has been illegal in the UK, America and Australia since 1958. This ban was put in place following public concerns raised by studies and claims about the manipulative power of subliminal messages. Despite this, some advertisers have attempted to use subliminal techniques within legal boundaries.

How about films, music, social media content or even news reports? Could subliminal messages be used in those? How would we even know?

Subliminal messaging is one example Dr. Coleman uses to point out that much of what we see is not consciously registered by our brains....<<<Read More>>>...

True Self-Identity – The Key to Transformational Empowerment!

 Self-identity, the way you see yourself in given circumstances, can mean the difference between getting into a state of overwhelming fear or transformational empowerment. These two states depend on your identification with either the false or true self.

Your perception shapes your reality. In essence, the choices you make between the false self and the true self are determined by how you perceive the world around you.

Distortions or manipulations of perception, fear-based infusions, and limitations result in false self-identity. This is how reality (false reality) is dictated for so many. An example of false self-identity is clinging to your identity and resisting the idea of letting go.

Some people have such a strong attachment to their identity that it becomes irrational in that they are prepared to suffer terrible consequences rather than choose to let go.

For instance, some people have such a strong identity with their money that they’re unwilling to let go.

Take the case of the 1929 Wall Street crash, leading to the Great Depression. Some financiers committed suicide by jumping out of high-story buildings because they had such a strong attachment to their money it was considered by them to be their life! Therefore, when losing all their money in the crash, their self-identity was gone, and they considered themselves to be dead....<<<Read More>>>...

Meditation Provides True Pain Relief by Altering Brain Perception

 Scientists from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have discovered that meditation reduces pain not just through the placebo effect but by actually altering how the brain perceives pain. 

The study was published in Biological Psychiatry.

Meditation, a practice where individuals observe their thoughts and emotions without judgment, has roots in Buddhist and Hindu traditions but is increasingly studied for its health benefits.

In this study, researchers aimed to understand how meditation influences pain perception. 

They recruited 115 healthy participants, dividing them into four groups: one group practiced meditation, another did sham meditation (deep breathing), a third used a placebo cream, and a fourth listened to an audiobook as a control.

Participants were exposed to painful heat on their legs, with brain activity scanned via MRI before and after the procedure....<<<Read More>>>...

How the Ego Forms the Matrix We Seek to Escape

In a world where the quest for freedom often leads us to explore new philosophies, spiritual practices, and even technologies, we find ourselves in a paradox: the very thing we seek to escape is within us. The matrix we’re so desperate to transcend is not some external, oppressive system but the limited ego self we’ve constructed. Through the lens of self-realization and self-inquiry, we can begin to understand that this egoic matrix is the illusionary world that binds us, and our true liberation lies in seeing through it.

The concept of the matrix often conjures images of a simulated reality controlled by external forces, yet the real matrix is much closer to home. It’s the ego—the collection of thoughts, beliefs, and identities that we mistake for our true self. This egoic self is the lens through which we perceive the world, filtering reality through our fears, desires, and conditioning. It creates a false sense of separation, making us believe that we are individual entities navigating an external world, disconnected from the wholeness of existence.

The ego is adept at crafting stories, projecting them outwardly as reality. It convinces us that our thoughts are real, our identities fixed, and our separation from others and the universe inevitable. But what if the world we see merely reflects this internal matrix? What if the true journey is not about escaping an external force but dissolving the internal structures that keep us bound?...<<<Read More>>>...

Humanity’s Crisis of Imagination

 Many seem to believe that our existing systems and ways of living are not only good enough to solve the many challenges we face but that they are also the best we can do.

Sure, maybe people scoff at wealth inequalities and the levels of corruption in politics and big business in every country, but the belief I’m referring to tends to state that government, politics, economies, and what we’ve flashed out generally beats all other ways of living and we should accept that.

As a result, not very many people are looking deeper at what else is possible for our local and global social design. Part of this is because there isn’t much ‘viral content’ out there doing so. After all, not many of today’s influencers focus on this discussion, but it’s also because people seem to lack the motivation to do so.

Our globally wicked problems seem unsolvable and too big to wrap our heads around, new ideas are probably bad and a scam anyway, so why not just stick to what we know and hope it solves things, right?...<<<Read More>>>...

How Society Gets Trapped In Limiting Ideas

We live in a time where our systems and overall society is crumbling or transitioning – media, technology, economies, education, consciousness, relationships and more. Our existing ways of looking at and understanding our world are no longer sufficient, and new conversations are encouraging us to look more deeply at why our world is the way it is, and what about us creates it to be this way.

Today, we orient to our world so cognitively, stuck in our heads and thinking constantly. Often focused on ideologies of someone else’s making, unsure how we TRULY feel about them. In the end we often respond to, view and consider what’s possible based only on what we know from a limited way of seeing the world.

In modernity, we have lost sense of the sacred, the subtle, and the interior of ourselves. This has had a big effect on our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health inevitably producing the practical decisions we collectively make in the world.

Simply, the state of our world is a natural manifestation of our existing level of consciousness. Therefore we should not be overly surprised by our outcomes....<<<Read More>>>...

Another New Year

So here we are on the eve of another New Year here in the UK. Its already 2024 in the Southern Hemisphere. Friends of ours in New Zealand and Australia have had their new year celebrations. Ours are less than two hours away.

 But to me its meaningless. Its just a man made cycle of months and years; a cycle created by forces to deceive human kind.

Tomorrow in 2024 will be no different to me than today in 2023 or even back a year ago in 2022. Its just a journey in a fake reality. A place that is nothing more than a virtual reality ...

Tomorrow will be 2024 yes, but nothing will have changed. I will still be thinking the same and things will still manifest like they have always done.

Tomorrow I will be in an EIGHT vibration year, and my own personal life path journey number is a 1 until March when it becomes a 2. Its going to get interesting for sure.....

I'm not one to really celebrate a new year. They are always the same. An anti-climax. Years ago I would spend the night in busy and loud night clubs watching others get heavily intoxicated. I would attend New Year's Eve parties and be very bored. These days I sit sipping an Malt Whisky watching TV. This year is no different. I have a glass of Jura and I'm watching an Alien Abduction program on TV. I will wake up tomorrow in New Year's Day feeling no different than I did today.

 I make no resolutions for the new year which probably makes me sound boring, but I have yet to experience a new year where there is sudden change between the old year and the new. 

It is what it is.... a milestone that has been created which is meaningless and the ideas of the twelve months and the years is a reference point in this fake reality. It is what it is ... part of this software program. 

Before we know it, we will be in March before we know it and then it will be Xmas again .... the cycle goes round and round until the software program as been written to end this virtual reality .... 

Your Inner Critic

 The Inner Critic is that part of yourself that criticizes everything you do, doubts what you do, doesn't think you are good enough, gives you negative thoughts, is cynical, is never satisfied, and is a perfectionist. Another term for the Inner Critic is the Inner Villain that plays a plot with yourself. Once you have disengaged from the plot with other people, you then have the task of disengaging from your own Villain that is making you a Victim to yourself.

As long as you are busy blaming other people for your feelings and circumstances... Your Inner Critic remains invisible to you. So it stands to reason, that when you cease blaming others, you will then become aware of your own self blame, and inner criticism. It is your inner criticism that has you blaming others in the first place. If you are sensitive to others blaming or criticizing you... Then you have a well developed Inner Critic. It is the Inner Critic that cares what others think about you. It is the Inner Critic that has you feeling hurt by what others say or do.

Once you have dealt with your Inner Critic, you will be less at the effect of other people, and more at cause over all areas of your life. If you have a fear of rejection... This is a fear born directly from the essence of your Inner Critic.Technically, the Inner Critic is your shadow self that is you rejecting you. It is found in the depths of your subconscious mind.

The opposite of your Inner Critic is self acceptance, or another way of saying this is your Inner Cheerleader.

When your Inner Critic is beating you up for a mistake you made, you become unsavory to other people. They feel that you are negative and perhaps toxic and therefore will be inclined to reject you. Your Inner Critic seduces the worst behavior from people as it only leaves space for a harmful act or nasty comment. You might as well have a sign on your forehead that says, beat me up, reject me.

It takes a very clear person to see this and not reject you or beat you up. This takes a lot of energy and isn't fun. So you are no fun to be around (and you can't stand yourself either.)

So now that we know what the Inner Critic is, how do we deal with it? How do we disengage from it?...read more>>>....

The Art of Morning Meditation: A Path to Inner Peace

 In the fast-paced whirlwind of modern life, where chaos often reigns, finding moments of serenity may seem like an unattainable dream. Yet, within this turbulence, exists a potent and transformative practice—the art of morning meditation. Join us as we delve deeper into the profound impact that this ancient tradition can have on your quest for inner peace, offering practical guides and detailed insights to help you navigate this transformative journey.

In a world that bombards us incessantly with information and stimuli, carving out time for quiet contemplation becomes a revolutionary act. Morning meditation serves as a sanctuary, a space where the ceaseless noise of the external world fades, allowing you to reconnect with your inner self. This sacred silence becomes the foundation for cultivating a profound sense of peace that resonates throughout your day....<<<Read More>>>...

The Incredible Influential Power of Music

What is it about music that moves us in so many different ways? The rhythm begins and we slide onto the dance floor, gyrating to the beats; a guitar strikes a chord and we throw ourselves into the crowd, surfing across a sea of hands; a favourite song comes on the radio and we sing along at the top of our voices, oblivious to the looks of bemusement coming from other drivers stuck in the traffic jam.

The right songs can change the way we feel in an instant, as effective as the mood pills consumed in Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

I had the good fortune to attend a live performance of Beethoven's legendary 9th Symphony. While it is something of a cliché - and perhaps exaggeration - to call this "the greatest music ever written" it's certainly an intensely powerful experience which has endured the test of time, remaining one of the most popular pieces on the classical repertoire....<<<Read More>>>...

How Fear Blocks Creativity

 To understand how fear blocks creativity, take a moment to imagine yourself telling a story. First, imagine telling the story to someone you love and who loves you. You probably feel warmth and energy as you fill in the details of your tale to your friend’s delight. Now, imagine telling the same story to someone who, for whatever reason, makes you uncomfortable. The wonderful twists and turns, the fine points and colorful images that unfolded in your mind for your friend probably won’t present themselves. Instead of warmth, energy, and creativity, you will probably feel opposite sensations and a desire to close down. When we feel unsafe, whether we fear being judged, disliked, or misunderstood, our creative flow stops. Alternately, when we feel safe, our creativity unfolds like a beautiful flower, without conscious effort.

Knowing this, we can maximize our creative potential by creating the conditions that inspire our creativity. In order to really be in the flow, we need to feel safe and unrestricted. However, achieving this is not as simple as avoiding people who make us feel uncomfortable. Sometimes we can be alone in a room and still feel totally blocked. When this happens, we know we have come up against elements in our own psyches that are making us feel fearful. Perhaps we are afraid that in expressing ourselves we will discover something we don’t want to know, or unleash emotions or ideas that we don’t want to be responsible for. Or maybe we’re afraid we’ll fail to produce something worthy.

When you’re up against fear, internal or external, ritual can be a powerful — and creative — antidote. Before you sit down to be creative, try casting a circle of protection around yourself. Visualize yourself inside a ring of light, protective fire, or angels. Imagine that this protective energy emanates unconditional love for you and wants to hear, see, and feel everything you have to express. Take a moment to bathe in the warmth of this feeling and then fearlessly surrender yourself to the power that flows through you. (Daily OM)

How to Practice Self-Observation (Prompts and Meditation)

 Self-observation seems pretty basic and even a little mediocre or like some pedestrian psychological technique on the surface.

But in my many years of exploring and walking the inner path, I’ve found that self-observation is THE most crucial practice, skill, and undertaking EVER. Full stop. Period. Fini!

At the time of writing, this might not be common knowledge, but there are actually two levels to self-observation – the latter being largely unknown to most people.

I’m going to show you how to practice both types of self-observation in this guide so that you come to the irrevocable conclusion that many through the ages have discovered there is ultimately no “you” or separate self; there is only life living itself!

(I know this may sound odd, but it’s at the crux of most spiritual and religious paths; it’s just put in different ways: the kingdom of heaven, Self-realization, moksha, anatta, oneness, etc.).

Firstly, let’s get the basic definition out of the way...<<<Read More>>>...

Unlock Your Inner Magic

 We all know inspiration when we feel it. It is a force that enlivens us and activates us to do something — we might dance, sing, paint the house, or envision a new career. We might call an old friend or plan a trip abroad. Whatever the case, doing what we do from a place of inspiration makes all things seem possible. Inspiration sometimes comes out of nowhere, landing unexpectedly in the midst of your life and lifting you out of your habitual mind and into a higher level of seeing. However, we can be more intentional with our relationship with inspiration than just waiting for it to come to us. There are many ways to cultivate its presence, from journaling to scrapbooking to visiting with a particularly interesting friend. Finding what inspires you and consciously cultivating it will give you access to new ways of thinking and energy you didn’t know you had.

Some people find that frequent trips into nature inspire them. Others have a box full of objects — a seashell, an old photograph, or even a collection of rocks — that does the trick. There are as many ways to find inspiration as there are people looking for it. If you already know what inspires you, find a way to incorporate it into your life on a regular basis. If you aren’t sure what inspires you or if it has changed, take some time to think about it. When was the last time you felt the spark of your imagination? When was the last time you acted on an impulse that felt totally right? When we are in the presence of what inspires us, we hear our inner guidance more clearly and we have the energy to follow its cues.

If it has been a while since you have been touched by inspiration, you may feel listless and dissatisfied. Know that you can turn things around by remembering what lights you up and bringing that into your life....<<<Daily OM>>>...

Ways to stay sane in a world gone mad

 The latest woke vs. conservative outrage. A new war. The next insane policy. The shattering of our dearest assumptions and sacred cows. A novel theory that blows your mind. A crazy conspiracy theory you begin to suspect is true. Factions in the alternative media and various grifters at each other's throats. Anger and insults every day. Glued to our screens, our brains get scrambled until we lose touch with reality, with who we are, with what we know. Addictions of various kinds. Our lives pierced by a virtual reality we can't escape.

Maneuvering this situation requires us to keep sane. But how? Here are some things that have helped me...<<<Read More>>>...

Two Weeks Of Exhaustion

It's been a while. Our apologies for our absence over the last couple of weeks. Its taken until today to get our mojo back. Something viral was behind being so badly immobilised as we have been.

It feels also like an intentional spiritual attack. It's been hit and miss over the last week. Energy levels have been ridiculously low; the viral attack started suddenly one afternoon.

I was fine one minute and then there was a loud noise entering into my left ear and then I went downhill from there.

There was a horrendous nightmare/dream attack last night when several Hydra like creatures with razor sharp pincers started to attack me. Somehow I have endured. I'm just left with a tickly cough and the remnants of the awful exhaustion I've had for nearly two weeks..
 

Don't live in your head

Know thyself!

Who could possibly be against the Socratic maxim?

Well, the ever-insightful Goethe, for once.

He argued that it is only through others that we can hope to gain insight into what is going on with us, not through introspection. We are simply too messed up to be our own judge. He wrote:1
Here I confess that the great and so important sounding task: "Know thyself!" has always seemed suspicious to me, as a trick of secretly conspiring priests who wanted to confuse man by unattainable demands and to lead him from the activity towards the outside world to a false inner contemplation. Man knows himself only in so far as he knows the world, which he becomes aware of only in himself and only in it. Every new object, well looked at, opens up a new organ in us. In other words, our first order of business is to observe the world as it really is, which in turn gives us access to new insights, new capabilities, new inner lights.

However, it is not primarily material objects we should be concerned with, but other people:
But the most supportive are our neighbors, who have the advantage to compare us with the world from their point of view and therefore to gain a closer knowledge of us than we can gain ourselves.

In mature years, I have therefore paid great attention to the extent to which others would like to recognize me, so that I could become clearer about myself and my inner being in and through them, as through so many mirrors. The people around us serve as mirrors that we should take seriously. If done right, this is the exact opposite of narcissism: whereas the narcissist projects his own grandiose image outwards and then enjoys looking at this false projected image, Goethe looks at the real image of himself as reflected back from the truthful mirror provided by trusted friends.

This means our task is to distinguish between distorted mirrors and truthful mirrors: between those people who are honest and well-intentioned and those who are dishonest and don't want the best for us, and between our own projections (what we want to see reflected back) and truthful reflections...<<<Read More>>>...

Breaking Free from Negative Thoughts: Strategies for a Positive Mindset

 Negative thoughts can be overwhelming and can have a significant impact on our lives. They can interfere with our ability to enjoy life, affect our relationships with others, and even lead to physical health problems. Although integrating your shadow self (and with it any negative personal traits) is important for spiritual development, being trapped in a cyle of negative thoughts helps nobody. Here’s how to recognise if you have a problem – and how to break free if you do.

Identify Negative Thought Patterns

Negative thoughts can be difficult to identify, especially if they are deeply ingrained. The first step in breaking free from negative thoughts is to become aware of them. Start by paying attention to the language you use when you talk to yourself. Do you tend to use negative words and phrases? Do you focus on the worst-case scenario? Negative thinking patterns can manifest in many different ways, such as black and white thinking, overgeneralization, and personalization.

Black and white thinking involves seeing things in absolutes – things are either all good or all bad. Overgeneralization involves making broad assumptions based on limited evidence. Personalization involves taking things personally and assuming that other people’s actions are directed towards you. By understanding the different types of negative thinking patterns, you can start to recognize them in your own thoughts....<<<Read More>>>....