What is Awakening?
In my blogs, newsletters, and books I oftentimes use the word awakening. Even my business is called Awakening and my email is awaken@maryomalley.com.
What in the heck is that word awakening pointing to? Awakening from what? Awakening to what?
What that word points to for me is waking up out of the dream of struggle and reconnecting with the intelligent, loving flow of life, exactly as it is – in this moment. In all our longings – for better health, a different body, a better mate, and more money – when you have moments of opening into life exactly as it is, no matter what is happening, all those longings pale in comparison with this intimate, alive and trust-filled connection with life. Why? That kind of connection is all about coming home.
Take a moment. lift your eyes and really see where you are. Even if you have been in this space a thousand times, see it with new eyes. All the millions of moments of your life have brought you to this moment and it is different than any other moment you have ever experienced.
Stay with this as long as you can. Maybe just a split second or a few minutes but if you’re honest, you will notice your thoughts about life will fairly quickly take over this spacious connection with life.
But you are so much more than your thoughts!! They are a wonderful and necessary tool for maneuvering though reality. But they are not reality!
At one time there was not one thought in your head. When you were very, very young you lived in the immediacy of life. You didn’t consciously recognize this intimate connection, but you lived it. Then, slowly and surely thoughts filled up your head and you left life for a stream of thought that is talking in your head all day long.
But we are all homesick for an intimate, alive connection with life. Deep inside every human being is the longing to come home – to fully experience life rather than their thoughts about life. As the Zen philosopher Alan Watts once said, “No matter how many times you say the word water it will never be wet.”
How can we come home? Not by trying to come home. That is just more struggle. And the truth is, you are already and always here but your thoughts are clouds that put a veil between you and the connection with life you long for.
Coming home arises from developing the ability to see your thoughts rather than being seduced by them. When I first was able to see shame, rather than being seduced by its story, it was a revelatory moment in my life. And now shame, which caused me to try to kill myself 3 times, has no power over me. When it arises, I recognize it and bring it right home to my heart.
This is not the quick fix we all want but having explored awakening and worked with thousands of people over the years, it is the way out, back into an open, alive, and trust-filled connection with life.
All my books, online courses, radio shows, blogs, show you how you can relate to your thoughts rather than from them, bringing all your fear, anger, shame, trying, fixing, judging and loneliness back home to your heart.
In the meantime, gift yourself with 5 minutes a day where you choose a focus in life, like sounds or your breath, and every time your attention wanders back into your thoughts, bring it back to your focus without any judgment.
At first, your attention may wander in thought most all the time for you have only been caught in your thoughts for most of your life. But every moment you bring your attention back is a moment of healing. And those moments accumulate. As my mentor said to me, “If you sit for an hour and bring your attention back to your focus one time, that is time well spent!”
Are you willing to gift yourself with bringing your attention out of your stream of thought and reconnecting with life? If you are, you are on the journey of awakening, which is a gift to yourself and to the collective mind of humanity.
If this blog resonated with you and want to explore more of my work, I invite you to listen to my upcoming radio show on Dreamvisions 7 Radio: A New Way, A New Year, It will air on Thursday, January 9th and 16th at 5am and 5pm HERE. After the 16th, it will be available on demand, along with every other radio show I’ve ever done HERE. Please feel free to explore my catalog and listen to topics that call to you.
Offerings:
NOW ON BLUESKY: Are you on BlueSky? Well, I’m excited to announce that we are now on BlueSky too! If you would like to follow me over there, you can click HERE.
NOW RESCHEDULED: Free Live Call: Does Pain have to be so Painful?
We will now be meeting on Tuesday, January 14th at 5:30 pm PST for an hour and a half. We will continue to meet every two months, so keep an eye out for future events!
We all experience pain. And we all experience all levels of pain – physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.
But we are living in an exciting time where we are changing our relationship to pain. Join Mary in exploring how, rather than resisting the pains in your life, you can befriend them so that you receive the gifts that always come with them.
Don’t forget if you can’t make it on the day, you can still participate by sending your questions and enjoying the recording after the call at your convenience. I hope to see you there!
Click HERE to learn more and register!