While working on my new Enrealment Method Course course, I pulled this old piece from my archives. There a few parts that I am not so sure about anymore. Wondering if it resonates with you? Let me know in the comments, if you wish...
Throughout my tumultuous early life, I found comfort in blissful and perfectionist imaginings. In an effort to escape the chaos of my family environment, I focused my gaze on visions of a self-actualized reality, one where the world I inhabited would be in a state of perfect order. This vision served me for many years, until I made the mistake of projecting it onto my spiritual life, manifest as a misguided quest for enlightenment. I soon learned.
Although enlightenment has been broadly defined in the spiritual literature, it is often interpreted as a kind of pure consciousness; a 'heightened' and purified state of being that is detached from our everyday concerns. In its own way, this interpretation can actually invite us away from the karmic field of expansion itself—our daily life. It is only through a growing interface with our real-life experiences and challenges—the School of Heart Knocks—that we can evolve towards a deeper spiritual life.
Enrealment is the quest for a more inclusive consciousness, one that makes no distinction between our spiritual and earthly lives. Through the eyes of enrealment, the more spiritual person lives in all aspects of reality simultaneously—the emotional, the material, and the subtle realms—rather than only those realms that feel the most comfortable. Our quest is not simply to live in the light, as enlightenment implies, but is to be more genuinely here in all respects: shadow and light, earth and sky, grocery list and unity consciousness. By living in the real, our experience of the moment becomes more complete, our ascension more true.
Enrealment means that we recognize the chaotic magnificence of our daily life as intrinsic to our spirituality. It means seeing the Godself in our connection to the world around us: Everything is God, God is Everything. It means consciously seeking a "Weastern" Consciousness—a consciousness that weaves the quest for unity that is fundamental to the east with the quest for emotional health and a healthy self-concept intrinsic to the west. It means honouring our physical form not simply as a 'vessel' for the soul, but as the embodiment of the soul. It means learning how to connect with our bodies as gardens of truth. It means calling ourselves on our detachment from our shadow. It means honouring our personal experiences as our own built in learning channel. It means shifting our perspective: What is on one level a challenge, is also an opportunity for expanding our consciousness.
Enrealment also includes doing the often difficult work needed to clear our emotional debris and work through our most pressing issues. Repressed emotions are unactualized spiritual lessons. We clear our emotional debris both because it creates space inside for our authentic self to emerge and express itself, and because inherent in those feelings and memories are the lessons we need to grow in our spirituality. By bringing our repressed emotions to the surface and working them through, we expand our "soulular" consciousness. By growing down, we grow up...
In "chakric" terms, enrealment means we begin at the beginning. We begin with an honouring of our root chakra—the quest for OM begins at home—and work our way up from there, one chakra after another. It is not enough for our feet to merely skim the ground. Our spiritual life begins with our feet planted firmly on Mother Earth. With our soles firmly planted, our soul has a leg to stand on in its efforts to go higher. Ascending with both feet on the ground.
As we work through our chakras, we become organically present in our bodies and in the moment. From this delightful presence emerges a natural and sustainable movement toward God. Instead of settling for the occasional enlightenment moment, we are now capable of a more heightened way of being. One we can actually sustain. One we can actually ground into. From sole to soul...
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The Abandonment Wound Healing Course SHAMELESS PLUG!
Many of us have an abandonment wound. At some point in your life, whether it was in your most vulnerable stages of infancy and childhood, or later in life—you have likely experienced the searing pain of feeling left behind, unwanted, uncared for, rejected, or unloved. And it has stayed with you, impacting your relationships, your self-esteem, your sense of security, and your feeling of belonging in the world. You may not be able to directly identify the wound—but somehow you know it’s there, beneath the surface, acting upon your life in a multitude of ways.
Sometimes it manifests itself as issues within personal relationships, or as unhealthy attachments. It may show up as a fear of intimacy or of being vulnerable with others. At other times it shows its unhealed face as a painful trigger, a persistent personal issue, or a feeling of being unsafe in the world and in your own skin. It may take the form of not believing in yourself, and holding back from the dreams and goals that have meaning for you. It may rear its head in the form of toxic connections, self-destructive behaviors and addictions, paths that don’t serve your self-actualization. The abandonment wound may eat at you with a nagging sense of unworthiness, a hesitation to take chances. You may feel that you have been rejected by love, and life itself. There are so many hidden faces and facets to this core wound.
We know our abandonment wound is in there—but its vulnerable nature makes it difficult to meet head-on. You may have tried to work it through (internally, emotionally, and therapeutically), and still it persists. Or maybe you haven’t yet begun the work. You come close and retreat, or you can’t begin at all. You delay, deny, distract. Perhaps you feel afraid of its intensity, its honesty, the raw primal nature of this core wound. Perhaps you are overcome with self-doubt, resistance, perfectionism, and shame. Or you can’t quite figure out how to integrate this work into a busy daily life. It seems impossible to create the space to thoroughly work it through. At the same time, you are tired of being subconsciously influenced by it. You are tired of burying and repressing it.
If any of this describes you, then this course is for you.
In this course, you will finally get the insights, tools, and techniques that you need to meet this long-standing wound. This empowering course supports you in identifying precisely where the wound lives inside you, and to come to terms with how it impacts the many areas of your life. And, most importantly, to get to its roots and heal that which is ready to be healed. This supportive course meets you right where you live and walks beside you as you finally find your way to comfort and resolution. Our wounds themselves are not always a great gift, but the healing of them can often liberate and transform our consciousness in brilliant and beautiful ways. You will be free to live the confident and secure life that you were born to. Self-regard will become your natural and organic way of being, and you will become emblazoned on your path, living your life like the purposeful force of nature that you are. You will.
I am very proud of this course. If it calls to you, check it out at the following link: Abandonment Wound Course Link
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~written by Susan Frybort (Susan's substack), in her inspired (and inspiring) poetry collection, Hope is a Traveler
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Finally, my quote of the week. From the inimitable sacred activist, Andrew Harvey:
“If you're really listening, if you're awake to the poignant beauty of the world, your heart breaks regularly. In fact, your heart is made to break; its purpose is to burst open again and again so that it can hold evermore wonders.”
With evermore love, Jeff
‘ By growing down, we grow up..’ 😍