THE SURRENDER INTO STILLNESS
Each person reaches a point, perhaps it’s the equivalent of hitting and falling through the bottom, perhaps it’s just a mysterious enlightening moment that sweeps through the mind and feelings one day, giving us a glimpse of the truth. It can feel like relief, grace, peace, or a huge gaping doorway into the the void. We are sucked entirely into the present moment away from our controlling, willful ego-mind, and can’t make ourselves do the things that used to work so well.
There is still a tendency to panic and retreat to comfortable behaviors and ideas as we face emptiness and the idea that we’ve come to the “end of progress.” Here we learn to let go and trust, be with life as it is, and see this period as a time of ripening where we are to deepen our perception of who we are, beyond definitions into direct experience. When we engage with this time cheerfully and nurture the rejuvenation of our imagination, which is happening invisibly below the surface, we can more easily receive the subtle new signals the soul is giving us about who we really are.
During this quiet time it helps to enter the body in a fuller way, activate sensory, artistic awareness, appreciate beauty, and take actions that bring a sense of childlike involvement. We learn to be more receptive so we can reap the rewards of past good deeds and the things we’ve earned. As we practice placing attention inside the body and merging with it, we first recognize what is untrue about our lives and determine to disengage from participating inauthentically in the world. We build a new consciousness habit: releasing and neutralizing negative thinking, soul-blocking thoughts that belong to other people, projections into past and future, and fear-based “tape loops.” We transform liabilities and “yes, buts” into insight and gifts, clear away shoulds, rigid beliefs, unconscious vows, and holding patterns.
We finally understand how it feels to be in the body and at peace, with no clutter in the personal field around the body, and space to breathe and expand. Real freedom! As we rest in spaciousness, we’re able to experience the first taste and feel of the soul’s reality. Suddenly we know who we are with our entire body! We’ve surrendered, found true center, and it feels fantastic! We gain great understanding, often all at once, and immediately begin a visceral reorganizing of our molecules, belief systems, and priorities.
We may no longer fit with the rest of society and must courageously resist the pressure from others to revert to familiar habits. It is key to find a “felt sense” of the core self now—an experience of our “original tone,” true vibration, or basic texture—so we can recenter into it whenever we drift too far.
As this experience of being “at-home-in-the-center” becomes routine, we compare our old reality based on fear to the new reality based on the soul’s love. We see how much better we feel physically and emotionally, how much easier it is to be creative and successful. We then prefer our new self and new reality; this is a crucial turning point where we intentionally choose, and in so doing, catalyze enlightenment. We are interested in themes like the power of now, the void, the soul, prayer, devotion, blessings, grace, meditation, centering, renewal, introspective retreats, visionquests, and all forms of spiritual practice.
The Revelations: My soul is in my perception! My soul is in my experience of love. My soul is in my core motivations! My soul is the experience of deep comfort! My life can be fabulous!
The Choice: I will reenter stillness and spaciousness whenever I forget who I am.
Copyright by Penney Peirce