Art by Brooke Shaden

I began this crazy journey of waking up for 3 am meditations around 3 years ago after contemplating on Rumi’s quote, “The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you, do not go back to sleep.”

As crazy as it sounds, I was deeply called to this practice that I could not escape from it. I realised the significance as I learned more about the am meditations, 3 am is roughly a time known as the “Creator’s hour” in esoteric teachings. It’s the hour of deep silence, so deep and alluring. An invitation for total immersion in self-awareness through the entranced passage into the void of nothingness where every little breath merges into infinite layers of consciousness.

There is a saying, once we step into alignment with the cosmic flow, the universe will conspire to bring everything we need into our awareness and attention in ways that we cannot comprehend and the only thing required is trust in ourselves and follow the signs.

And having trust within has been the biggest challenge on my soul journey as trust requires unwavering faith in ourselves to unlock the inner wisdom.

You see, inner wisdom is not some kind of a woo woo, fluffy idea or a belief, its in the core of creation and existence, available for all. Sadly, we became distant and disconnected collectively from inner wisdom, the very thing that makes us unique and powerful.

In order to unlock inner wisdom, we must activate our intuition, practice listening to our gut feelings and we must go back to silence. We must train our primal desires with the direct confrontation of silence. We must retreat in stillness. 

In silence, we hear our soul speak.

Love and Courage

Art by Jennifer B Hudson

The illusory self is the enemy, not the ego and the illusion of the self goes beyond having an unrealistic vision of who we are and we stay attached to that image forever.

The ego misunderstood by many people in the spiritual world as the villain to be destroyed, killed and dissolved. Yet, the ego is our loyal servant, our lighthouse, navigator, intimate companion. It has only one job – amplifying our illusory self which made of infinite layers of the unconscious construct.

The ego is our best employee, doesn’t question our motives, relentless pursuit of attention-seeking, righteousness, unrealistic expectations of life and others; it never questions our morals, values. The ego is the ally reinforcing what’s already within, protecting the idealised version of us.

It’s not the ego death, but the death of the perceived self can offer greater awareness to shift our consciousness. We are inherently self-deceiving; we create an indestructible illusion of what is real and distract ourselves from self-reflection.

The capacity to self-reflection is at the heart of awakening. This is a time of transformation, initiation, inner work, dive deeper into self-awareness. We are called to remember life is not permanent; it’s a finite dream.

Lay down your righteousness, expectations, assumptions, arrogance, judgements, know-it-all attitude.

Lay down your entitlement, victimhood, resentments, emotional wounds.

Lay down your dysfunctional patterns and sit in silence until you begin to feel your heart opening with grace and humility.

Love and Courage

Art by Brooke Shaden

In any unprecedented life event arriving from a place beyond our personal control or comprehension, we enter a state of great uncertainty where intellect becomes a challenge and we are called to a new perspective.

In many ancient traditions, fire is associated with various spirits and elemental force of power. The most common story is the phoenix, the bird that burns itself to death and then is reborn from its own ashes.

The fire has been very important to mankind since the beginning of time. It’s a magical paradox, in addition to its role as destroyer, it can also be a regenerator, divine force of higher realisation, higher vibration that cleanse and purify our emotions, mental state and physical being.

Fire is an initiator for rapid transformation despite the painful process of shedding the familiar to leap into the void. The fire allows us to let go of the old story, drama, pain and becomes a facilitator of rebirth.

In fire we are cleansed.

Love and Courage

Art by Thomasz Alen Kopera

“Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of great fear.”

Herd mentality describes how people can be influenced and adopt certain behaviours largely based on emotional triggers by the environment and the actions of the people they are surrounded by socially.

Let’s talk about herd mentality from a spiritual perspective.

Our primal desire to be part of something greater is more prevalent than trusting our own instincts or inner wisdom. Many esoteric teachings predominantly based on practicing opening the mind and the heart to the wisdom of the soul and yet most of our suffering is caused by our inability to pursue the path of inner wisdom.

The spiritual principle of the inner wisdom is to trust our intuition despite the external unfolding of the crises, leaning strongly into faith while surrendering to the unknown.

The loss of the individual will can occur quickly in the face of the fear and the fear becomes deadly contagious, spreading like a wildfire resulting in a little or no control of our direct experience with the feeling of despair and hopelessness.

In such cases, the state of inner calm becomes the most powerful and unshakable gift as we move through the external challenges.

Trust the process, do the work, decolonize your mind, break the chains of the herd mentality. You know you have a capacity for greater awareness and wisdom within.

We are stronger together when we unite in our unique and diverse inner knowing. Time to open our eyes, breathe deeper into our hearts and trust.

Trust.

One heart. One love.

 

So here we are, all of us together in this unprecedented situation. Our lives shifted in the ways we couldn’t have predicted. We’ve found ourselves in emotionally charged with fear, anxiety and uncertainty. 

No matter what journey you’re on right now, I want you to know that hard times breed courage and grace, out of crises we can emerge stronger and we are all in this together.

We’ve been prepared for this in the last decade. Think about the spiritual journey we’ve been on individually and collectively whether we are aware of it or not. Each and every one of us had extraordinary experiences especially the last year as some of us were forced to walk through the fire with all kinds of unexpected moments of the chaos unfolding in our lives and some of us went into the fire seeking ways to crack the code of illusion of the perception. 

Either way, we’ve been called to inner work to expand in our awareness so that we can begin to make conscious choices to do our part to be a good human being for ourselves, for the people, for the planet.

We are on the verge of a new order, a new way of life, a new way of being. Here’s a list of tools I’ve put together that I’m practicing daily to keep my mind-body-soul in check.

Mind – the mindset plays a huge role in times of uncertainty, this is an opportunity to eliminate unnecessary mental overload.

• cut down your media consumption, avoid engaging in the blown out of proportion news, conversations and other people’s negative opinions
• Stop sharing and circulating content that you’re not sure of its source and reliability, do not add to the fear by taking responsibility of what you are sharing
• Meditation is crucial, it must be practiced daily, no fancy distraction, just sit in silence with yourself and breathe
• Start reading a book daily or make it a priority to keep reading daily
• Lead those around you with inspiration and support, the more we help others, the more we help ourselves. Especially while social distancing, connect virtually with others, let’s use social media for a good cause
• Practice box breathing or breathwork that works for you
• Take cold showers 
• Journal daily even it’s for a few minutes

Body – nourish your body with all-natural nutrition and movement.

• keep the body moving even if it’s 10 mins stretching, sun salutations, spinal move or yoga, get creative
• Do 25 burpees 
• Eat real food, veg and fruit 
• Intermittent fast daily at least until noon
• Stay hydrated 
• Boost your immune with natural supplements
• Get plenty of rest and sleep 

Soul – feed your soul with positive vibes from the beginning to the end of your day.

• incorporate prayer into your life as prayer is the communication with the universe. 
• Retreat in solitude as much as you can 
• Positive affirmations 
• Drink lots of natural herbal tea 
• Light a candle 
• Listen to calm music 
• Watch a stand-up comedy 

Above all, remember to keep calm, with inner trust, all is possible.

Love and Gratitude 

Unpredictability is causing fast-paced events and actions that are destroying the perceived order of the known. Most people will handle this by blocking out or panic and get overwhelmed to be swept away.

Do not fall into over-focusing on gathering all the misleading information, instead pause, take sometime to meditate and breathe in stillness.

What we are experiencing is the chaos of unsustainable structures breaking down to give way to a new order.

This is the unknown in between the chaos being reorganised, reinforces our essence to take a stance to act accordingly, to resist change is to face greater loss in chaos.

Out of crisis people can emerge stronger, we are tested in chaos.

We are forced to shift to awareness in all directions, in chaos, we are forced to deal with everything at once.

Step up people, time to lead with courage. We are called to unite once again and we are going to have to work collectively.

Anchor yourself in faith, it’s time to breathe deeper into our hearts and trust.

Trust.

Love and Gratitude

‘Your own Self-realisation is the greatest service you can render the world.”

In terms of transformation, we are limited by our agendas that are formed from the unconscious mind. Behind every excuse, there is fear, because we walk around with the beliefs from age five.

Much of our motivation comes from striving to fulfill our unconscious nature, whatever is incomplete within us will find a way to surface because we can only perceive the world from where we are standing.

At some point, we each experience “the call” of our higher awareness which moves in a way that makes us realise that there’s more than we perceive. 

Our nature is to unfold an ever-expanding and deepening awareness of the self, standing on earth as a bridge between physical and spiritual transcendence.

Asleep or awake, we are travellers in the consciousness, we seek to know ourselves in all that we do. There’s no universe outside of us, it takes form through us. It’s the awareness that renders the reality and the awareness comes in waves, sometimes it will find you unexpectedly, unprepared. 

Remember to keep your heart open to capture it.

Love and Gratitude 

A silent revolution is taking place, it’s happening from the inside out. A global movement, a shift in consciousness is emerging and the gentle wave of the awakening touches our hearts in our sleep.

We are caught in this wave of awakening, one by one, on different timelines, crawling out of the illusion that no longer serve, seeking a greater truth than the one we’ve been told.

Most of us are deeply aware of this phenomenon and quietly doing the work behind the closed doors, learning to trust and surrender. And some of us are not fully ready but deep down knowing that something is off, a strange feeling is in the air.

We are here, arrived at a time in existence that we can no longer carry on with the same model of operations, behaviour and attitude.

We are here, arrived at a point where our unconscious actions and choices are turning against us like a weapon of mass destruction.

We are here, arrived. It’s unfolding, no longer a matter of choice anymore to awaken from the dream and emerge a new horizon.

Love and Gratitude

“Wakan Tanka, Great Mystery, teach me how to trust my heart, my mind, my intuition, my inner knowing, the senses of my body, the blessings of my spirit. Teach me to trust these things so that I may enter my sacred space and walk-in freedom beyond my fear with the passing of each glorious day.”

When you are stricken and cannot bare your life any longer, be still, be very still, enter the sacred space deep inside and let the silence speak within you, take refuge in solitude. Our capacity to pause and reflect can bring forth the strength to face great challenges.

Nothing is more beautiful than your will to endure the storm, the struggle, the pain. The wisdom that exists within you transcends all-knowing. You are intrinsically interconnected to something beyond yourself that’s been patiently waiting to guide you to you. Time to dig deep into that body of yours and find trust.

You are made to reveal the eternal strength in your darkest hour, it’s not so much a matter of escaping from suffering but finding the courage to trust that every step is a rebirth, every step leads you home.

Trust.

Love and Gratitude