How I got here, Part II

"Knowing".

I have a quote in my email signature that says, "As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live."

I love that quote. To me, you can't really acknowledge and believe the things you just know without deep trust in yourself.

That "knowing" comes from a place deep inside of you that is the very essence of who you truly are. The part of you that is connected to the energy that created the universe, the Source, God, Consciousness...whatever you want to call it. But you can't acknowledge, even now, that you know this is True if you don't fundamentally and implicitly trust yourself to know it.

We live in a society that doesn't value intuition (or at least hasn't for a long time). Intuition isn't just a "wild guess"; it is a knowing that comes from your connection to all that is and all that has ever been. And because we are all connected to this-to each other-we all know the same elementary things.

It was when I started to trust myself and my ability to know certain Truths that things began to really open up for me. And then a friend of mine lent me the movie, The Secret.

Though it has gained worldwide recognition, the concepts presented in this movie are merely the tip of the iceberg. I will credit this film for prompting my very active search for more knowledge and understanding.

I believed the concept of the law of attraction immediately. I knew it was a universal Truth. But at the same time, I also knew that it was not the whole truth. There was something deeper here and I had to find out more. So I started reading. In the original version of The Secret, Esther Hicks was one of the primary contributors. She was edited out of the second version for some reasons surrounding recontracting for a global release of the film (it was her decision to be removed from the film). Anyway, I decided to read Ask and It is Given, by Jerry and Esther Hicks. The book is actually written by a non-physical entity named Abraham, channeled by Esther.

This again, was just a beginning. I read The Teachings of Buddha, Busting Loose from the Money Game (by Rob Schienfeld-don't let the title fool you, it's a very spiritual book), The Sedona Method (by Hale Dwoskin, also of The Secret), QBQ! The Question Behind the Question (by john Miller), The Celestine Vision (by James Redfield), The Secret of Letting Go (by Guy Finley), The Power of Now, Stillness Speaks, and A New Earth (all by Eckhart Tolle).

All of these books have had a significant influence on the awakening of my consciousness. I feel that the stage I am at now, is creating new habits. No change happens without consciousness. We all experience moments of consciousness, some of us more than others, and some moments we are able to sustain for longer than others. We have spent so long living unconsciously, that those ingrained habits, not to mention the strength of our egos, require that we be conscious of consciousness...at least until it becomes our normal state.

From the vantage point of this stage, I have to say that every small effort is absolutely worth it.

In my next post I will talk about some of the things that prevent people from approaching consciousness.