The link below has all 12 steps in one article. If you scroll past this post you will see each individual step and some beautiful imagery from 12 down to 1 however there is no definitive order and each step can stand alone.
Step 1 – You begin to see clearly. Leaves and Flowers become brighter and deeper
This was a beautiful yet challenging discovery. It was beautiful in the fact that the flowers, trees and leaves all began to radiate and shine brighter. My focus became clearer and sharper. The challenging part was not understanding what was happening and wondering if I was seeing things.
Was I the only one noticing these things? Were they always like that? Regardless of the answer to those questions, the brightness and connectedness, I felt to this aspect of nature laid the groundwork for all the amazing things that followed. It was a sure sign that there was a higher power that had made these beautiful flowers for us to look at and enjoy.
Stopping to smell the flowers has become an integral part of daily life and I believe that everyone should not only try this but must do this regularly.
The smell of Peonies (bright pink flowers that look like coronations in shape) now grips my soul and intertwines inside my lungs to become a part of me.
With this newfound understanding and a longing for a life surrounded by nature instead of the smoggy smokestacks of the city, I knew it was time.
It was time to start looking at moving further away from everything I had ever known to cash in on this lost secret that is nature and to reconnect to the Earth both as a planet and form of soil. The soil used to grow all the food we need to strive and survive.
Step 2 – You feel more connected to nature and infinite intelligence
After noticing the radiating beauty and brightness of the trees and flowers that were always there yet hidden through the dormant filter of my previous life gone by, it was time to broaden this tasteful new perspective of the world around me.
I began to notice that everything in nature was designed perfectly and that God and the Universe had truly created a masterpiece of epic proportions. I noticed things like cornfields in their abundance and started to question the nature of their existence. How could it be that the smallest of seeds had the DNA information already inside them without human involvement or interference?
A blueprint to grow perfectly into a specific fruit or vegetable was available inside a tiny little seed and all the seed needed was a triad of elements found in nature.
The combination consists of light from the sun, the soil under the earth and water falling from the sky to grow into huge trees and bushes offering a vast array of nurturing food for the body.
As noted in the preceding statement, another magical creation is the fact that water falls from the sky. Have you ever stopped to think about that?
On a planet spinning through space and time which is mostly covered by oceans that gravity has pulled forth to the center of the earth, water most naturally falls out of the sky.
These are only a couple of the secret designs that nature waves in front of us in a hypnotizing trance and beautiful dance that illustrates the true wonders of the world. Unfortunately, most are too busy to see and appreciate the complexity of these simple systems. All this is a very small sample of what is available in nature if we just pay attention and take a close look.
step 3- a strong connection to stars and space
As day turned to night under the clearest of skies on the eleventh of August, just like every other year, the presides meteor shower was at its most visible far overhead.
This is a phenomenon that billions of people never even notice let alone stand in awe of.
Conversely, about ten hours later as night was about to turn into day, I glimpsed Venus in her beauty staring back at me. The planet was so radiant in its brightness that it somehow made the billions of other stars seem small and insignificant, although that is not an accurate depiction of all the other stars.
When our focus is clear and distractions are limited, these are the types of things that we start to notice. They are also the type of events that keep us grounded and make us realize how small and insignificant we really are.
It is only when we look closely at the night sky and notice that there are billions of stars and planets and that we as humans are all spinning around on one giant rock called earth that is hurtling through space and time, only then can we begin to fathom the enormous nature of our existence.
Step 4 – You take responsibility for your life
In short, it means that everything is your fault. An expanded version of this is that you are responsible for your life and your reaction to the circumstances that appear in your life.
This is one of the biggest differences between being a victim and a creator. Victims blame everyone and everything for the way their life is. It is not even their fault that they are the way they are because, it is based on a belief system that has been handed down to them by their parents, who in turn got it from their parents and so on. While all this happens in a seemingly repeated cyclical motion the truth is that everyone is just doing the best they can with what they have learned.
The victim is forever stuck suffering the past or worrying about the future, not knowing that they can change all of it in a single moment by making a decision to accept responsibility for their situation. There are two things that must be done in order to change this mindset. The first is letting go of the past which is gone forever and never coming back. Once that is done, we can continue to the second part which is moving forward with a plan to create the future we want. We must also accept the starting point which is the present moment. Everyone’s starting point will be a little different based on their life situation, however, we can all create and plan to do the things we love and want in our future. The most amazing thing I found about this is that once I did the work, the results started showing up in my life, it seemed that things started to happen faster than I expected. The same is possible for you and I encourage you to start today.
Step 5- You forgive people and situations that give you a negative charge including yourself
Forgiveness is key to moving forward in a healthy manner. Without it, you may find it very difficult to move on.
In order to advance forward into a new dimension of being you must return to your past and forgive the people you ‘think’ have wronged you. You do not have to physically tell the other person and if you seek forgiveness you do not have to actually ask the other person. You can simply say out loud or in your mind “I forgive you”. It is equally important that we forgive ourselves for any past transgressions that we ‘think’ we are accountable for. This is a powerful part of healing and it can be very cathartic to do so. If you had a particularly heavy charge against yourself then it is important to go back to the exact age or moment when this happened and release the younger version of yourself from any blame or fault. We can tell our younger selves that we are okay now and that everything turned out fine. Everything that happened to us had to happen in order for us to grow and evolve and that our soul wanted that experience in this lifetime. We can tell the child in us that they have always been loved and that everything is exactly perfect and how it is supposed to be and that we love that younger self.
step 6 – You do not identify with things the same way you once did
If we “wake up” then by definition our state of mind has changed. It is natural then that we would no longer do or like the same things we once did. It also means that we have passed a crucial stage of awakening.
From this new vantage point, we can create much more freely and be more in control of our world. We now correctly know that we have a definitive say in shaping our destiny than during the time period when we were asleep.
Once we see things through this lens the genie is out of the bottle so to speak. What we have seen can not be unseen. There is a profound paradigm shift and things can never be the same again.
With this new power comes great responsibility, for when we go within that is where we find endless wells of knowledge, strength and untapped potential. This can manifest itself in many different ways at the same time. From the foods, we eat to the music we listen to and the people we align with, the list is endless.
Old habits fall by the wayside and are replaced with new habits based on our clear outlook of the world as we now see it. Therefore, our new reality will undoubtedly unfold with different predictions and results. This is the essence of change. By breaking the same recurring patterns of the past, we allow ourselves to step into an exciting and unpredictable future full of unlimited possibility.
The old self step is gone and in turn, because we are no longer repeating those same thought patterns every day our future Must be different.
Step 7 – Your inner world becomes just as real as “the world of the 10,000 things” as the Tao Te Ching calls our 3D world of physical form.
In essence, this step just reinforces what some of the other steps are saying to us. It means that once again we get to create our future. However, as the good Dr. says, we are doing it from nowhere as no-body, no time, no space and, we literally have to become nothing.
The way we do this is with our eyes closed. From that place, we can create a future reality that we would like to see manifest. When we do this over and over every single day then our brain starts believing that it is true and our physiology will start to reflect that change. The decisions we make become aligned with our desires and we will knowingly and unknowingly seek out the things that need to be done in order to take us to our destination.
The best part about this is that very quickly we can see synchronicity in our daily life and we know that these are a reminder and a reinforcement that what we are doing is working.
Not only does this help us create our future but it regulates our bodies in the present. We turn off the stress response in the autonomic nervous system and in turn, we function better. The infinite intelligence that flows through our bodies and performs countless functions that we never even think about like breathing while we are asleep can work even better. Our hearts pumping and blood travelling through the circulatory system carrying oxygen and nutrients to our tissues become stronger and healthier.
This list is endless just like the possibilities available to us in the quantum field.
step 8 – You no longer live with a scarcity mindset because you see abundance everywhere
In this step, we make a huge shift. All of a sudden, we start to see abundance everywhere we look.
We notice the amount of life around us is brimming into the billions and trillions with but a simple short walk through an acre or two of parkland or forest.
We recognize that each leaf on each branch on each tree although collectively magical, still has a life of its own, breathing in and out the same air we do. We notice that together the trees that line these forested areas generate abundant amounts of life. Even the so-called ‘weeds’ that people cut down are food for the birds and the bees who play a key role in sustaining the biodiversity of the planet that we live on. If we look really close with the right tools then we can actually see the leaves, bushes and, flowers start shimmering in the wind and vibrating to the beat of their own unique drum.
Realizing this takes us from the intellectual to the visibly obvious view of just how big the Earth actually is. As a result, we see that there is more than enough for everyone around the world and that the idea of lack is just that, an idea, belief or a mindset that has been instilled over a lifetime and as such we understand now that it can be flipped on and off like a switch.
A biological example of abundance is right inside all of us as was the intention of God or Source or the Universe from the beginning. It is Blood. If I withdraw a litre of blood every week from my body it will make no difference to me except to possibly make me healthier. This is not a flaw in the design of the human body. Not only does a human reproduce that lost litre within a day but the blood that was withdrawn can go into other humans and save lives, creating more abundance.
Above are a pair of single examples, one from Nature and one from Biology which yields massive abundance. If these two small ideas can do that then the possibilities for abundance are truly Unlimited
Step 9 -You can turn down the outer noise which allows you to silence the inner critic
This quite simply means that in the nicest possible way that we care not for what anyone else does and conversely, we also care not what anyone thinks about what we do. There is no time for such things. When we are creating our future and living as fully as possible in the present moment then we are too busy being or becoming to pay attention to what ‘they’ think or focus on what ‘they’ are doing. If we are always helping each other become greater than we once were and thus continuously evolving to previously unseen levels of consciousness and understanding then there is no space for the negative, misleading and, untrue vibrations that try to force their way through the egoic mind anyway possible.
It means that with a moment’s notice we can very quickly regulate our body and mind via our spirit and soul. We can switch off everything and empty our heads of all thought actions. It is being fully present inside and outside our bodies. It means you shut out the noise and get really quiet and it means quite beautifully that there is only room to receive the answers to the questions we have been asking.
Once we learn how to quiet our minds from the constant chatter of the inner critic that consumes the masses and is a huge part of the negative thought spiral that seems to be a most human condition, then our world looks and feels very different. What was a fairy tale or dream becomes a reality and the new story is born. A greater story than was ever possible to even imagined before.
Step 10 – You embrace your future while letting go of your past
One of the main points that we have been discussing throughout this series is that when you wake up then change occurs naturally.
Therefore, we begin to embrace a new future that is different than the path we were once on. Sometimes this means letting go of certain things we use to do or places we use to go along with letting go of unmet expectations we had for ourselves from 20 or 30 years ago, in a different lifetime.
When we move from being a victim to being a creator it can be lonely at first. One thing we realize is that we are very different than even we thought we were and if we were asleep then most likely those around us are still asleep. This can be difficult however we quickly learn how to connect with others that are experiencing the same things we are.
As we learned in the previous step there is no time for the same old story and because we are too busy creating it means the past slowly dissolves itself. This is not something to fear but rather something to be truly excited about. The strength and courage that come with this new reality will carry us forward and allow life to happen for us instead of to us.
Since the original creator made everything perfect it is safe to say that we will find the people we are meant to find when the time is right. We also start to notice that certain people show up at certain times so we can help them and in turn, they can help our souls move forward confidently in the correct and necessary direction. By embracing our future, we begin to see new opportunities and believe in ourselves more and we can literally make it up the way we want to.
Step 11- You consciously surrender to the present moment
This is what we should be doing anytime we are frustrated or find ourselves getting mad, upset, angry or even depressed at our current situation. When any of these uncomfortable negative feelings happen, we must stop as soon as we become aware and ask the simple question. “Am I surrendering to the present moment”. We will find that the answer is always a very loud no. Often, we try and control situations that are out of our control and that is when we see these feelings arise.
If instead, we surrender to the present, we realize that in that exact precise moment there is nothing wrong and that everything is perfect. This idea was best described by a British playwright when he said. “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so”. That is a quote from Hamlet by William Shakespeare, and it is accurate.
Things are simply things. It is the meaning we attach to them that makes them either good or bad. A fair example of this is stealing a loaf of bread. Some may think this is wrong however if you stole a loaf of bread to feed your children who may otherwise perish due to starvation, would it still be wrong? You could then say that it would be wrong if you did NOT steal the bread, for in not doing so you have allowed a child to die.
So, in this example we see that right and wrong is not as black or white as some certain archetypes may have you believe. It is dependent solely on the meaning we attach to it. To sum it up, surrendering to the present moment is more about feeling than thinking and it becomes the very definition of being alive itself. If we can stop thinking and instead feel then we will find the answers we seek.
12. Overwhelming breaths of compassion that release tears (or almost do) as they force their way to the surface
This step produces deep wells of emotion that bubble up from inside and explode right out of the throat center. These are mental or physiological imprints from our past. These formations, also called samskaras are stored inside us and are forcing their way to the surface for immediate release.
This step made me feel very weak and scared until I learned what it was. From the time we are born we start recording everything we see in our environment. This is how we make sense of the world around us. The stronger the emotional attachment to the perceived past event (whether it’s good or bad) the more likely it is to leave a lasting impression.
In particular, childhood trauma is like taking an x-ray. As the image gets snapped, our body contracts and an imprint is recorded and stays inside until it comes to the surface. We either release it or choke it back down, burying it deep inside, in which case the trauma is literally still going to be a part of us. That is why it is so important to release them right away.
Especially when we start to wake up there will be many of these deep breaths of overwhelming compassion that rise to the surface.
These are the imprints trying to escape and it is very important to allow them to escape even if it means we start crying for what appears to be no reason. A song lyric or a conversation we overhear will suddenly trigger a rush of energy that rises from the solar plexus and moves from that lower energy center up through the heart and right into the throat where we release and shed past trauma by letting go of the samskara.
This is the only way to move beyond them. If we keep them inside and bury them then they will always try to escape until we stop resisting.
Thank you for reading this series and please let me know what you have experienced during your journey into awakening by clicking the following link. https://wordsfromwalden.com/contact/
Please comment reach out on the contact page and let me know which if any of these steps you have experienced
Because of this series, I have grown as a writer and a person. It helped me to share some of the creativity that was stuck inside and forced me to grow as a writer by producing 12 articles. the progression is predictable and I can not wait to see where I am in one year’s time.
I will continue to develop this endeavour of Wordsfromwalden.com . Starting in 2021 I will be sharing an Alphabet Soup of Spirituality. The goal is to develop much more as a writer and to discover the finer points of the prose.
After reading some emails from readers it is clear that I am not alone in this creation and that it needs to continue past the 12 steps already revealed.
