AUTHENTIC

TRANSFORMATION
Self-Discovery is the Key to Your
Best Life

By Amar Singh
© Copyright 2020 by Amar Singh - All rights reserved.

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Contents

Preface 4
Introduction 5
Chapter 1 - Consciousness 10
Chapter 2 - What is the Ego? 17
Chapter 3 - Levels of Consciousness 23
Chapter 4 - The Mind and Body Connection 28
Chapter 5 - Trauma and Negative Emotions 36
Chapter 6 - Healing and Transformation 41
Chapter 7 - Courage and Self-Love 48
Chapter 8 - Reprogramming Yourself 57
Chapter 9 - Becoming Unlimited Consciousness 67
Conclusion 73
References 75
 Preface

Dear Reader,
I’d like to share a few quick words with you before you dive into this book. I would like to start
by saying thank you for taking the time to purchase this title. Every effort was made to
ensure it is empowering in helping you on this life journey. The information contained here is
taken from my own story of transformation. Here you’ll find all the knowledge and techniques
I used to overcome a lifetime of struggle. I suffered with anxiety and low self-esteem for
many years. Some of my earliest childhood memories are of being scared and anxious.
Since these limitations were with me from such a young age, it would become the biggest
battle I have had to face and overcome. It held me back in many areas of my life,
professionally and personally. This journey led me to learn and educate myself in different
areas of expertise including hypnotherapy, psychotherapeutic counselling, life coaching and
spirituality. This is alongside the countless number of books I have read and the thousands
of hours I have spent in meditation. I have also been fortunate enough to personally help
others along on their own journey and what I present here to you is what I have learnt. This
has been a long journey of trial and error, finding what works and what doesn’t. There have
been many ups and downs along the way. It has taken me over 12 years to compile all this
information and understand how to help people truly change. What I share in this book will
describe what helped me move forward into a happier, more loving and fulfilling life. I hope
you will use this as a guide for your own journey so you can transform yourself in much
shorter time than what it took me. By using the tools and information presented here, I trust it
will have a positive impact on the direction of your life.

Best of luck!

Amar Singh

P.S – See the links below for my latest videos and content on social media.

YouTube
Instagram
 Introduction

The world we live in today is fast becoming very empowering. It is full of positivity and
motivation. It’s also changing rapidly, quicker than we realize but since we’re in the middle of
it we take these changes for granted. Technological advancements have made life much
easier and more entertaining than ever. Life has never been so undemanding. But there are
also darker aspects, conditions such as anxiety, depression and low self-esteem are rife.
Statistics report these mental and emotional conditions are at an all-time high. Where have
we gone wrong? It’s my understanding that we have lost touch with the truth of who we are.
This disconnect has led to the high prevalence of mental and emotional illnesses. We
haven’t developed in a balanced holistic way, but we’ve gone too far in one direction which
has created disharmony.

Our modernised world offers various solutions for improving our mental and emotional
health, but they are not necessarily the most effective. Results from these treatments are
mixed. I believe we need long-term effective treatments which have a higher success rate.
We should demand new treatments, that perhaps go outside the norms of traditional
westernized medicine and healing protocols, that help us not only manage our limitations but
overcome them. I am not saying traditional methods aren’t helpful, but I am not convinced
they offer a full comprehensive transformation of the human being. My definition of
transformation is to live in a state of peace and contentment without having to revisit old
suffering over and over again. My personal goal and life purpose is to find a long-term
solution to end human suffering. A solution which works relatively quickly and something that
doesn’t necessarily require many years of work such as traditional therapy sometimes can.
From my own experience, I believe it is possible to heal and transform in a few short years.
This is of course what I will be sharing with you in the following pages.

One of the greatest developments of our modern era, is that we have access to unlimited
sources of knowledge and information. We can connect with others all around the world. We
can find people who have had similar struggles as us and came through them. This has
never been possible until recently. This is very empowering for the human race and more
people than ever are transforming and living the lives of their dreams. This also explains the
rise of self-help and spirituality in helping people come together and heal. We are more
inspired and connected than we have ever been, we can now rely on each other's
experiences to improve our own lives. This is also what I am attempting to do through this
book.
In order to be healed at the deepest levels, we have to be willing to go to the deepest levels.
But this isn’t necessarily something your local doctor or even therapist would know much
about. We may have to step outside the regular methods and treatments we’re accustomed
to. In ancient times, people relied on powerful figures such as Shamans who had profound
wisdom and insight of what they called ‘the inner world’. These powerful people were able to
traverse different states of consciousness to bring back a profound healing to those who
were suffering. But you don’t need a mystical witch doctor or shaman, you can do it yourself
by learning from others who have embarked on this journey. With sufficient courage, you can
face and overcome your life’s greatest challenges and transform your whole experience into
something you had always dreamed of.

This book has been written for anyone who feels stuck in life or has been a victim of mental
or emotional suffering. A difficult past can leave us disconnected from our true power which
makes progress in life more difficult. Maybe you have been trying to improve and change but
nothing much seems to stick. I believe the powerful principles in this book will be effective for
any major shift you are trying to create. In essence this book is based on bringing you back
into alignment of mind, body and spirit. When there is disharmony between these 3 core
components, there is disease and suffering. When harmony is attained in these areas, you
become fully you - your true Self. This book's main aim is to help you see past the
distractions that are hiding your true power. When you create a stronger connection with
your truth life begins to flow. If you truly want to live a rich fulfilling life, you must first know
who you really are; this is where the journey of transformation will lead you.

Here we will attempt to bridge the gap between the mystical and magical with the hard
science of today, while also sharing what was effective for me and the clients I have worked
with. Some information you may find to be very scientific and rational whereas some parts
you may find to be spiritual and mystical. I have tried my best to bring these two opposing
opposites together into alignment, as I believe an understanding of both is necessary.

At the time of writing, I have spent roughly 12 years transforming and healing myself. I got
into this work early. I have experimented with many different methods and techniques. I used
myself as a human guinea pig to figure out what works and what doesn’t. This led me into
expanding my understanding and discovering the most effective methods for creating long
lasting transformation. This journey has taught me a lot which I am incredibly grateful for. I
overcame my demons through understanding and practising the techniques outlined in this
book. I did most of this work alone. This isn’t to suggest everyone should walk this path of
transformation alone, if you trust someone who can assist you on this journey by all means
seek their help. However, I tell you this because I want you to know the power of real
personal change is in your hands. You can literally transform and heal yourself; you have all
the tools you need already. Maybe you haven’t been shown how to use these tools, but you
possess them. I hope this book will act as a guide to help you learn how to use these tools
more effectively for your own advancement.

The foundation of this book is grounded in ancient spiritual teachings which have been
taught for thousands of years and still stand true today. I believe that by aligning oneself with
these deep truths we put ourselves into the strongest position to live a full rich life, a life
away from the noise of society telling you who you should be. I want to offer you a guiding
hand to help you better understand who you truly are and what you - as a unique and
wonderful person, actually want from life. I genuinely believe certain things in life are true
and will always be true. I hope this book guides you to discovering this truth for yourself.

How to read this book?

This book has been structured starting with the most fundamental aspects first. When you
understand the foundational basics, you can develop yourself in a more consistent and
effective way. Using the practical exercises in this book without a greater understanding of
the basics, renders them not as effective.

The first chapter talks about consciousness, this may challenge you and the current beliefs
you have about yourself and reality, this however is where it all begins and ends. While
reading this chapter on consciousness, try to understand it through the lens of
transformation. What are the implications of it on your own life? If you already have
knowledge and an understanding about consciousness this chapter will hopefully support
and deepen your understanding.

Other fundamental topics include knowing about the conscious and subconscious mind
respectively, and how they function in your life. We will also comprehend the role the ego
plays and how it influences the levels of freedom and happiness you experience.
As you get deeper into this book, you will find techniques I personally used to transform
myself. These includes breathwork exercises, meditations and methods for managing
difficult emotions more effectively. Some of these exercises will take time to master. But
what I found on my journey, was to find the tools that worked and to spend time mastering
them. We live in a self-help obsessed world (which is good) but there are also many different
techniques and methods for transformation now, there's so many to choose from that we can
get lost and confused as to what's really effective. So we might spend years hopping from
one technique or teaching to another, this is what I did for a number of years. What I learnt in
the end was to find a select few that were effective and stick to them. I was most interested
in the methods that worked for a wide range of conditions, whether that was overcoming
anxiety, depression, stress and even for resolving trauma. Only by mastering these
techniques, did they become truly transformative. I welcome you to do the same, if some of
the techniques I share in this book work for you, then make them a part of your healing
toolkit, but if you find other methods are more helpful stick to them. This is about finding what
helps you the most. If you already have practices which work for you, I invite you to add to
them by using the tools presented here to help you traverse this inward journey more
effectively.

This is the power of sharing information, if one person makes a journey successfully, then he
or she can share their knowledge to empower others. As one person evolves, they leave a
signature in the collective consciousness (which everyone has access to), this makes it
easier for other people to follow in their footsteps. It is similar to the 4-minute mile theory.
When one person broke this record, of running a mile in under 4 minutes, numerous others
were able to do it. Exactly the same is true for your healing and development. The more of
us that make it through successfully, the wider we leave the door open for others to come
through. That is how powerful we are and how we help each other without even knowing it.
You leave a footprint in consciousness when you achieve something or make something
possible, which can now be accessed by anyone, at anytime and anywhere. If you find
others who have been on a similar path or had similar struggles to you and made it through,
draw inspiration and guidance from their success. Follow their footprints!

This book starts with the most fundamental aspects of transformation which lays the
groundwork for you. Final point, try to read mindfully while consciously applying what
resonates with you. Hold a strong intention to heal, evolve and transform, this alone will
carry you far.
 Chapter 1 - Consciousness

‘It is not the body, nor the personality that is the true Self. The true Self is eternal.’ - ​Marcus
Aurelius

This is where the transformation journey begins - Consciousness. This is the beginning and
end of everything. Science, philosophy, religion and some of the greatest thinkers
throughout human history have been most interested in this topic. It can be a broad and
complex subject which we still have very limited knowledge on. It is beyond the scope of this
book to attempt to explain this phenomenon extensively but rather help you understand the
basics of consciousness and the key fundamentals of how it relates to your own personal
journey of transformation. The deeper your understanding of consciousness the more it will
serve you, not just in the context of transformation but in every area of your life.

I aim to describe consciousness to you based upon your direct experience not on theoretical
knowledge or science. Consciousness is the medium which allows you to experience life. All
the places you go and all the things you do are experienced through consciousness. It's the
part of you that is aware of everything, from the outside world through your 5 senses to your
innermost feelings and thoughts. If consciousness was missing from experience, then you
wouldn’t be able to read this book or have an experience of anything. This is how
fundamental consciousness is to your life. It is life. Without it there is no experience. This is
also known as your true Self. Note - I use the words consciousness and awareness
synonymously. The word Awareness is closer to the actual experience of consciousness.

Consider everyday situations from your own life, when you’re driving are you thinking about
your to-do list or obsessing over something else? Are you conscious of where you are? Or
do you tend to switch off and go into autopilot? Are you really listening, watching and feeling
your current experience moment to moment? When you are eating, are you really tasting the
food or are you mindlessly consuming? How fully are you taking in the experience of each
moment? Your answers to these questions will give you an indicator of your current level of
consciousness. The higher your consciousness, the more aware you are of everything that is
occurring in your experience.

The issue we have is that consciousness is so blatant and obvious we tend to overlook it.
Consciousness is always present; you know it so intimately but it’s actually too close so you
fail to recognize it. We are overly obsessed with the forms and objects of our inner and outer
worlds that we forget who is the experiencer of these? Unless you have learnt about this
from books, teachers or had a direct mystical experience, you have probably never
acknowledged the presence of consciousness in your own life. This is how most people
currently live; this is what we would call living ‘unconsciously’.

We could say then, that consciousness is experiencing everything or we could take it a step
further and suggest consciousness contains everything you experience. There is no
experience without it. Think about this yourself, don’t just take my word for it. Have you ever
experienced anything outside of your conscious awareness? Every moment of your life has
only ever been experienced via consciousness. It remains the same throughout your whole
life. It’s smooth, effortless and consistent. You may change physically - you get older, taller,
heavier, slimmer, hairier, diseased and so on, but the awareness that experiences all these
states and conditions never actually changes. It remains as it is and has always been. It’s
the same during all seemingly bad or even amazing circumstances, consciousness is always
present in the background experiencing it all, non-judgmentally. It is like a screen which
displays many different images but just like the screen it never changes or judges anything.
You are that screen which experiences everything.

The popular world view is that each person is a limited and separate individual who has their
own small piece of conscious awareness which arises out of their brain, but science has
failed to support this theory and so we need a better explanation. Seeking an alternative
explanation we could ask the question, what if there is only one consciousness? What if
everyone experiences the same consciousness? It feels like we each have our own little
piece of consciousness produced by each one of our separate minds, it is this belief that
creates the illusion of separation. We look different, we have different genders, races,
cultures, religions etc, so we must all be different, right? But instead of looking at the
differences why don’t we consider the consistencies? We all experience life through the
same medium, the same consciousness. It is the same for everyone. That is what makes us
one.

You may wonder then, why is there 7 billion people, each with their own subjective
consciousnesses, if we’re all experiencing the same one consciousness? Wouldn’t it make
more sense if there was only one person experiencing this one consciousness? What's the
point of there being so many people? That is because consciousness is all there is. We
could label this as God. Since God is all there is, it has nothing to do because there is
nothing other than itself. If you were the only person who existed and no-one else or no
other thing was present, what would you do? You might get incredibly interested in yourself.
This is what consciousness does, since it is all that is, it wants to know itself and its infinite
nature. The best way for it to do that is to experience itself through each one of us. Each one
of the 7 billion people on the planet give consciousness a different perception of itself. It
wants to experience it’s infinite nature and it does so through each one of us. That’s why
there is infinite variety in the world, so many good things and bad things but from a higher
perspective there is no good or bad, it’s just consciousness experiencing itself, as all that is.
When we become aware of this, we are said to have ‘woken up’.
Consciousness is the basis of loving relationships and honest communication. The next time
you’re with a friend or family member, stop and think for a moment, their consciousness (the
medium through which they experience life) is exactly the same as yours. Everyone’s
‘screen’ of consciousness is identical. Often, we don’t think about others in this way but you
are connected to everything and everyone on the planet, whether you like it or not.
Recognizing everything and everyone on this planet as an extension of yourself brings you
to the understanding of oneness, which is the ultimate foundation of love.

At the most basic level, consciousness remains objective to anything it witnesses. It doesn’t
judge, it just is, it just experiences whatever is occurring in the moment. The small self (ego)
judges and labels things as good or bad. Your individual perception of consciousness is
experienced as the awareness of yourself and everything around you. On the surface it may
appear to be subjective and unique to each of us, but this is simply the effect of
consciousness being filtered through the mind of an individual's past conditioning and
therefore sustaining their ego identity through this identification (More on this later).

A big part of effective personal growth work is becoming more aware of the presence of
consciousness in your own life. Understand that your experience is always changing and
shifting, one minute you’re reading this book but the next moment you’re talking to someone.
During an interaction with someone your consciousness may go through your memory bank
to recall a piece of information related to the conversation you’re having; next you may
notice that you’re feeling cold or too hot. The experience of your life is ever changing,
however the medium through which everything is experienced never changes.
Consciousness always feels smooth and effortless no matter what you are going through.
You never have to worry if it’s going to be there, it’s always there and it has been from your
earliest memory and will be throughout your entire life. It is the only part of the human
experience that stays consistent.
Hopefully you are beginning to understand how consciousness is so fundamental to life.
Start to pay more attention to it. I would urge you to learn as much about this topic as you
can. The more you grow, the more your level of conscious awareness increases and vice
versa. The implications of this will not only free you from suffering but will also have a
profound effect on the quality of your life.

Unconsciousness

Our general understanding of the modern world is founded on the Newtonian model of the
Universe, which is based upon the existence of Space and Time. It explains that
consciousness is produced by the brain and that mind and body are separate from
everything else. The general belief is that there is an outside world of physical objects and
our internal world made up of thoughts and feelings. The relationship between inner and
outer is seen as limited and separate. This theory was first popularized by the French
philosopher Rene Descartes who famously quoted ‘I think therefore I am’. He made the
claim that thinking makes us real. Therefore if we don’t think, we don’t exist. He endorsed
the belief that the human mind is the basis of life and without the mind we don’t exist. This is
the starting point of unconsciousness. If the very basis of how we understand life is incorrect,
then everything that comes from this false foundation will also be incorrect and therefore
create suffering. Falsehood creates suffering.

However, new evidence is reinforcing what mystics have known for years, that the
Newtonian model of reality is incorrect and in fact consciousness is prior to and independent
of the mind. Ancient teachings have claimed consciousness is always present regardless of
whether a mind is there to perceive it or not. This creates a radical shift in the way we see
our world. You are consciousness which is ever present, whether a mind experiences it or
not. Your mind is just a filter that allows consciousness to experience this three-dimensional
physical reality. We experience one small aspect of consciousness and reality through our
limited mind. There is so much more to ourselves and reality but we don’t have the capability
to see or sense it since the mind is finite.

Many of us limit ourselves based upon our limited mind, this is where the unconscious mind
is born from. Since it feels like the world is made of physical stuff called matter (the material
world) and we are a limited separate self, in order to survive and feel safe in this big scary
world we create an identity or persona (ego) which we believe will help us move through life
smoothly. The basis of the ego persona is created from our early childhood conditioning, this
is where we learnt that certain aspects of myself are acceptable and other parts are
unacceptable. We then go about creating an identity out of all the ‘good’ parts, while
disowning and ignoring the unacceptable parts. This is where the initial separation occurs in
consciousness. We become divided in a bid to be acceptable, with the belief it will increase
our chances of survival. This split in consciousness gives birth to the unconscious mind and
the individual ego. The greater this split, the greater the disconnection from our true Self.

Many of us are familiar with the iceberg analogy depicting the conscious and unconscious
mind. The conscious mind makes up around 5% of our total mind power and the
unconscious makes up the other 95% - this is where all of our past conditioning and beliefs
are stored. Since most of the things we do in life are done unconsciously (we don’t really
think about what we do) we have become creatures of habit and victims of early
programming. Our subconscious programming basically runs us. We might think we have
free will but for the most part we stay confined to the deep beliefs and programs of the
subconscious mind. Once something is programmed into it, it can be difficult to overcome it.
This is one of the main reasons many people can never really change. The programming of
that 95% is so overwhelmingly powerful that it takes time and effort to create noticeable
shifts. Hence why it can be difficult to make progress and transform oneself. This is because
your subconscious mind doesn’t know what you want and it doesn’t care. It is neutral. It just
does as it has been programmed to do.

Let's take this a step further and help you understand how all this relates to your behaviours,
thoughts and actions. We experience life based upon our degree of conscious awareness
(more on this later) which is generally influenced by early programming and genetics. Our
subjective history (the past) therefore creates an individual ‘identity’ which feels like a
separate individual consciousness, a sense of ‘I’ or ego. A helpful analogy of how this works
is to imagine consciousness to be like a clear light shining through a projector which creates
a certain image onto the screen depending on the quality of the film it shines through. Your
past conditioning and belief systems create the quality of the film that consciousness shines
through, which then creates the reality (the image on the screen) you experience. The
quality of the film can either be good and positive or limited and negative depending on your
prior conditioning.
If, for example, someone didn’t receive adequate love while growing up, they may
subconsciously believe they aren’t good enough. Consciousness would be filtered through
the lens of that belief and therefore literally creating a reality which aligns with the deepest
beliefs and programming of that individual. If this person doesn’t believe they are good
enough, everything in their experience will reflect this back to them. Spiritual teachings
suggest that there is no separate inner and outer world. Separation is an illusion. There is
simply one seamless experience, inner and outer are opposite sides of the same coin. They
cannot be separated. They are both experienced through and by the same consciousness.
Therefore, whatever you believe to be true on the inside, is what you will literally experience
on the outside.

Hopefully you can see why your programming and beliefs are so powerful in determining the
quality of your life. Consciousness is like water; it goes with the flow and down the path of
least resistance. Our subconscious beliefs and programming create certain pathways for
consciousness to easily follow. As consciousness continually goes along the same pathways
of past conditioning, it determines what we see and experience, over and over again. You
might have tried tirelessly to change an aspect of your life but it always remains the same, or
you change for a short while but it eventually reverts back. The old programming hasn’t yet
been overcome.

Referring back to the example of someone who has the belief they’re not good enough, this
person will see their world through that paradigm. We always see reality from our limited
perspective and programming. We pay more attention to the things and situations in life
which reinforce the beliefs we hold about ourselves. In this instance, such a person would
see the glass as half empty as opposed to half full. They would mostly see things in their life
which prove to them that they’re not good enough. Maybe they’d struggle with health, or
finances or finding a suitable romantic relationship. This could also be considered the basic
mechanism of the law of attraction - we attract what we are. Only by raising your
consciousness can you rise above your unconscious patterns and gain some power to
change them.

A positive example would be of someone who grows up feeling unconditionally loved and
accepted, they would have a stronger connection to their true Self because their
programming is more in alignment with truth (oneness and love). The way they see and
interact with the world would be very different. A person who feels loved unconditionally
would approach life from that paradigm and therefore express their worth naturally. This
could look like high levels of confidence and self-esteem; or perhaps having the courage to
live the type of life they want.

Understand that consciousness draws no judgements. It doesn’t differentiate between what

we might perceive to be good or bad. It just goes in the direction that is easiest to follow,
which as discussed, is usually formed by our earlier psychological and emotional
programming. These programs and beliefs make up who you think you are, your identity or
what is most commonly called - The Ego.
 Chapter 2 - What is the Ego?

This is an important and complex topic which can be explored in various ways, this section
will focus on helping you understand how ego is functioning in your own life and how it is
holding you back from changing. With a greater understanding of the ego and how it
functions, we develop a greater awareness around our thoughts, feelings and patterns of
behaviour. As awareness in these areas increases, our capacity to gain control over them
does also. I’m sure most of us would love to have a greater handle on our thoughts, feelings
and behaviours. Therefore, developing a basic understanding of the ego can be a big help in
escaping it’s trap and creating long lasting transformation.

What is ego? How do you recognize? Here is a big clue for you to follow - That voice in your
head that never stops talking, that is an aspect of your ego. Yes, that voice in your head is
not who you truly are. The thoughts you have about yourself, your life and your struggles,
that is also your ego. Your thoughts are not you. You have probably got used to listening to
this voice and believing in your thoughts for years, so disidentifying from your ego can be
difficult. In many instances, this voice and constant thoughts are all we have ever known
about ourselves. That is the power the ego has over us, it tricks us into believing falsehood.

A simple way of understanding the ego, is as a program you run in your mind. A program
which gives you an identity as a certain type of person. Just like we have programs and
software for computers, the ‘Ego’ is like software for the human being. This programming is
taken on by our immature minds when we’re young children. Our early childhood
environment lays the foundation of our ego. We develop certain beliefs and programs about
the world we live in. Is it safe and loving? Or is it frightening and hateful? This forms the
basic paradigm of how we see reality. As we grow older, a persona develops upon this
foundation, which becomes the face we show the world. It is usually made up of the
characteristics that society deems as ‘acceptable’ as we suppress and hide the parts which
are considered unacceptable. We do this in order to be accepted by others which increases
our chances of survival.

In many people's cases their earliest programming determines the rest of their lives, for
better or for worse. Generally speaking, the more challenging your past, the stronger your
ego will be. The stronger your ego, the more disconnected you are from your true Self. Think
of the ego as a defensive program designed to increase your chances of survival. Our past
experiences have a powerful effect on our identity, our thoughts, behaviour, and how we see
the world. If you had a less than adequate childhood, then your ego will reflect this and you
may feel incapable of handling life effectively. Whereas someone who was born into a
positive nurturing environment may grow up to thrive and make the most of their life. From
this point of view, it appears that life is a lottery, if we are fortunate enough we’ll have a
positive upbringing and if not, then we’re more likely to suffer. The good news is, of course,
that we can reprogram and bypass the ego, so we don’t need to keep recreating the
suffering that our early programming taught us.

Egoic programming is not personal. It occurs as a result of early experiences. The

foundation of the ego is laid down before the age of 7. Before this age, the young mind is in
a different state of consciousness compared to older age groups. The young mind is clearer
and highly susceptible to outside influence. However, the human mind does come
pre-programmed with a few basic programs, one of these is the need for survival. This basic
program overrides most of our other functions and embeds the human organism with a
strong capacity to survive. The survival program however can become merged with early
conditioning. If for example, we felt scared or unloved as a child but were physically safe, we
may grow up subconsciously believing we have to be scared (anxious) or act undeserving to
remain safe. The ego has formed an association between being scared or unloved with
physical safety. Since survival is the fundamental program, in this instance, we will associate
being scared or unloved with increasing our chances of survival. The human organism will
literally do anything to survive even if it means hanging onto old negative beliefs about
ourselves and the world. The survival program therefore becomes intertwined with early
egoic conditioning. Needless to say this can become a difficult association to break.

The ego could be likened to a complex and sophisticated program which developed as a
product of a young and incredibly creative mind. This ego entity has been running efficiently
for decades and it has served the purpose of keeping you alive, but now you want to change
it? Trying to heal or change ourselves therefore can be frightening and can bring up a lot of
fear.

Ego also causes us to project meaning onto life circumstances, we might say 'why did this
happen to me?' or 'I am so unlucky, this type of stuff always happens to me'. It creates
stories which provide it with evidence to strengthen itself. In this way the ego makes victims
out of us, it is very intelligent and slippery. It needs our identification with it to keep it alive.
This makes the ego limited as it can only interpret reality based upon prior programming. We
don’t see reality the way it truly is but the way our ego ‘colors’ it to be. You’ve probably heard
it said - ‘reality is neutral’ or ‘life has no meaning; other than the meaning we give it’.
Unfortunately, many of us are giving meaning to our lives based upon negative
programming.

Your programming, whether positive or negative, will create belief systems which reinforce
what you believe to be true about yourself and the world. Some of us grow up unconsciously
believing we need to be afraid or act in a certain way in order to be safe and survive. As
such a person grows into adulthood, they may become overly anxious or identify as shy and
lack confidence. Deep down these dysfunctional programs of behaviour are helping get the
basic survival needs met. This is why overcoming ego can be challenging and
overwhelming. Changing yourself may literally feel like your survival is at risk. You have
survived so far in life with your early conditioning and programming, so why risk changing it
now? The human mind is not adept at dealing with the new, because anything new is
unknown and therefore a potential threat, it can only make sense of the known. The known
is safety and security, whereas the unknown is a risk. This is why letting go off or changing
deep egoic patterns usually requires commitment, effort and courage.

Whatever programs and beliefs we pick up, we create a world around them. The voice in
your head is just a result of past programming. Take a moment and listen to that voice. Is the
voice in your head loving and caring? Or is it negative and fearful? If you grew up feeling
unlovable, then the voice in your head might continuously reaffirm this back to you by
making you doubt yourself, making you feel that you lack self-confidence or that you’re not
good enough.

Another aspect of ego which gives it a tight grip on us, is that it wires itself into our bodies as
well as our minds. It programs our psychology through internal belief systems and it
programs our bodies through our emotional system. Our emotions contain a lot of energy
and power. Once the ego has tapped into this power, it’s hold over us is incredibly difficult to
break. Emotions are a reflection of our subconscious programming; which is around 95% of
our total psychological energy. That is a huge amount of energy to try to counteract,
therefore creating healing and change takes time and needs to be done piece by piece.

Now we know, the ego developed as a natural by-product of evolution. The ego's job was to
help keep you safe, because of that it became selfish by nature. The ego was necessary to
help keep humans surviving as a species because back in early human times, human
consciousness was relatively low and we lived quite barbarically. Without an ego we
wouldn’t have been able to survive those early years. So the best way to keep a human alive
was for them to be negatively orientated and acting from a survival first mindset. For
instance, if our early ancestors were hypervigilant and anxious, they would be more aware of
predators or rival tribes therefore increasing their chances of survival. Whereas someone
who was too relaxed may not have survived. So without ego, consciousness wouldn’t have
been able to evolve to where we are now. Humans simply wouldn't have survived to make it
this far. From this perspective, the ego is neither good nor bad, it is neutral. It just does what
it is programmed to do. The problem we are facing now however, is that we are evolving
beyond the ego, we don’t need it to keep us safe anymore. We live in a much safer world
and now ego has become a hindrance to our growth and the evolution of consciousness. A
fact of evolution is that when something doesn't serve us anymore it is phased out. When we
stop identifying with ego and feel safe without it, it will also be phased out. When you stop
going unconscious and identifying with ego, it will slowly begin to lose its hold and wither
away. For this reason, we are at a critical stage in human evolution.

This journey of transformation can sometimes feel like we’re taking 2 steps forward and one
step back but understand this is part of the process. Some people tend to get frustrated
during these backward phases, but this is the ego struggling to adapt to the changes and
therefore creates resistance. We tend to grow through two phases; Expansion and
Contraction - acknowledging these phases when they arise is the best way to move through
them. Often times when you have been working diligently on yourself you may start to feel
low or as though you’re going backwards (contraction), understand this is part of the process
before you can take the next leap forward (expansion). Then after that, a backward phase
might be experienced again. All of this is growth. The ego wants to hold on because too
much is changing, this is what creates resistance through the contraction phase. I believe
most of us expect our healing and growth to be a linear line of progression, that we just keep
growing upwards, higher and higher, the more we work on ourselves. But in actuality, it is
more of a forwards (expansion) and then a backwards (contraction) movement. Through
each expansion phase you’ll likely feel good and experience positive states, as you are
moving beyond old limitations. But there is only so far you can expand without being pulled
back through a contraction. During the backward movement, the ego comes back with
vengeance, which can bring up a lot of old thoughts and unwanted feelings. This is where
you must stay strong. Understandably it is frustrating, you’ve been spending so many hours
trying to heal and change but now you feel even worse or back where you started! Please
understand this part of the growth and healing journey. By remaining conscious and aware
of this when it occurs, you will move through these phases more smoothly. The ego simply
wouldn’t feel safe if it allowed you to consistently expand by going higher and higher but as
you slowly keep pushing forward the ego gradually learns to let go, more and more.

There is however an indirect benefit of the ego, as a result of the suffering we experience,
we start to desire freedom from the ego. Consciousness only evolves through desire and so
from a higher perspective ego is a necessary catalyst to help us transform. If ego didn’t
create difficulties and suffering, we wouldn’t have the desire to go beyond and heal
ourselves. From that perspective, ego and the suffering it brings is necessary for authentic
transformation and the evolution of consciousness.

Another part of human psychology which gets hijacked by the ego is called the Reticular
Activating System (RAS). This is a network of nerve pathways in the brain and brain stem
which work to reinforce our level of consciousness and our sense of reality. Examples of the
RAS at work can be seen in your everyday life. If for instance, you had been interested in
buying a new car and were particularly fond of a Mercedes model, in your mind you would
have given that car a heightened sense of importance over other cars. This car would
register with your RAS. Whenever this model of car was in your environment, your RAS
would detect it and therefore make you aware of its presence which would make you pay
attention to it. There are numerous types of cars on the road, but have you ever wondered
why you always tend to notice your favourite car? It’s because you have given this car a
higher sense of importance and so your RAS scans your environment and recognizes it
immediately as something of significance. It’s a psychological method of pattern recognition.
This is a very powerful part of the human mind, but it can also work against us, particularly
when it comes to our egoic programming. If for example, you were brought up in a fearful
environment and were conditioned to believe the world is a frightening place, then your RAS
would acknowledge this and exaggerate the importance of any potential threats in your
environment. Your mind would literally be scanning for anything that could be a risk because
you gave fear such a heightened sense of importance. The RAS just follows the orders it is
given by what we give importance to, which is usually based upon prior conditioning. In the
same way, if a child was brought up to believe that life is full of amazing opportunities, then
wherever they would go their mind would be scanning for fruitful opportunities. Again, this
happens because the RAS looks for and detects what we believe in and what is important to
us. Consider this in your own life, what do you unknowingly give importance to? See how
your mind is always bringing these things into your awareness. This is the RAS at work.
If you believe you are a limited human with just a body and mind then you're susceptible to
the suffering ego creates. By making you believe you are separate from everything else the
ego keeps you a victim and keeps itself alive. It’s like an energetic system which feeds of
your identification with it in order to survive. You may wonder then, ‘if I am not my ego, who
am I?’. That short answer is you are consciousness. Initially it can be difficult to separate our
ego out from consciousness but the more aware you become of the underlying dynamics of
ego and start to recognize them in your daily life, the more space you create between the
ego and your true Self. Slowly you’ll begin to disidentify from ego, when this happens you
start to withdraw the emotional and psychological energy you had been investing into for all
these years. It requires energy to keep the ego identity alive, but when the ego begins to
soften through healing work, that energy is freed and becomes available for you to live life
with and not to keep a fictional character and story alive. This is the real essence of spiritual
transformation work - disidentifying from ego and falling back into your true essence.
 Chapter 3 - Levels of Consciousness

‘Control of consciousness determines the quality of life.’​ - ​Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Now we know that each individual perspective of consciousness (each person) experiences
life based upon their past programming, traumatic and negative experiences create a
negative view of life and positive past experiences create a positive view of the world.

We could say then, each subjective individual consciousness gets stuck on the level of its
past experiences. Negative emotional experiences translate into lower states of
consciousness and positive loving experiences equate to higher levels. Remember
consciousness is awareness. Therefore the higher your consciousness, the higher your
awareness, which means you literally experience more of reality. Your senses take in more
information, colours appear brighter and you’re more aware of the type of thoughts and
emotions you’re experiencing, which allows you to manage your state more effectively. You
see less separation in reality and see more of how everything is connected, we could also
refer to this as love. In this same way, lower levels of consciousness equate to lower levels
of awareness, this can be seen in people who suffer from negative feelings and thoughts.
Their awareness is not high enough for them to be able to see how they are stuck in these
dysfunctional patterns. Some people can be totally unaware of how they react to life and
even less aware of how to change. Lower levels of awareness make the world and
everything in it appear separate and disconnected. If we never expand our consciousness
beyond the level that was predetermined by our past history then we’ll never experience
more than the sum of our past and this is how most people live their lives, as victims of their
pasts.

However, as humans we possess a cheat code, which is the capacity of our conscious
awareness, this is what sets us apart from our animal cousins. The small 5% of our
conscious mind which appears tiny compared to the power of the subconscious, is still
enough for us to create shifts within ourselves and in our lives. We can learn how to
leverage and expand that 5% of our awareness intelligently and efficiently to raise our
consciousness. This conscious aspect allows us to affect change. We can overcome what
happened to us and change ourselves for the better. We can heal past wounds and step into
a better version of ourselves by understanding that real change starts from within. If you only
focused on changing things on the outside, without doing the work to change things on the
inside, these external changes wouldn’t necessarily make you happy and would be less
sustainable.

Consciousness does not discriminate, good and bad are two sides of the same coin. It just
experiences itself through each one of us, by following the path of least resistance in order to
do so. As each one of us becomes more conscious of consciousness, we experience an
’awakening’. To help explain the various levels of consciousness I would like to introduce
David Hawkins’s map of consciousness, this scale has become increasingly popular,
especially over the last few years. This scale demonstrates how we can experience a better
quality of life by raising the level of our awareness by following this map. Consciousness has
depth and the deeper you experience it, the higher levels of awareness you’re able to
access. His map as you can see below, runs from a scale of 0-1000. Towards the lower end
of the spectrum we have negative emotional states and as we move upward we see more
positive states. If you are interested in learning more about this, I would highly recommend
you read any of David Hawkins books. This is a helpful guide you can use as a reference
and roadmap for your transformation and growth.
On my journey, I learnt one simple yet powerful philosophy, it dawned on me that by raising
my level of consciousness, my life would improve as a by-product. It was really that simple. I
didn’t have to spend countless hours trying to work on my confidence, self-esteem or
changing belief systems. Instead, I focused on finding the most effective methods of raising
my consciousness to higher levels, so I would naturally act in accordance with that new
level. The higher you move up this scale the happier, more positive, carefree and loving
person you will become.

A phrase I like to use is - The quality of your consciousness determines the quality of your
life. It’s simple. If you consider the fact that you can’t experience anything outside of your
conscious awareness, then consider the possibility that the consciousness you experience
everything with, is literally determining and creating everything about your experience.
Therefore, by changing or raising the quality of your consciousness you subsequently
change the experience of your life.

The most effective transformational and self-development work involves creating increases
in consciousness. This is why meditation is considered the ultimate self-growth tool and by
using a map like the one above, we can also track our progress. Later in this book I will
share methods which will help you to raise your consciousness.

This map also serves as a helpful guide for understanding what level you are currently
functioning at, especially in relation to the lower states (below level 200). These are
considered the negative emotional states such as shame, guilt, apathy, desire, pride and
anger. Take some time to study this map to define your current level of consciousness. Do
this by recognizing if you experience certain negative emotional states often, this will indicate
where you are currently in relation to this scale.

I feel almost everyone will experience the lower states from time to time. The ups and downs
of life are all part of being human. But some people spend most of their lives literally stuck at
the lower levels. A few examples of this, would be a depressed person who is stuck at the
level of apathy, or an overly anxious person could be stuck at the level of fear. Draw on your
own subjective experience, to see if you have difficulty dealing with any of these lower
emotions. If you do identify with one of these levels, then that is a clue of where a part of
your consciousness currently resides. This is good news because when you define where
you currently are, you have a greater awareness of yourself and you know what the next
emotional state is that you can move up to.
Everyone can move up this scale to a happier and healthier life. Granted, it may be more
challenging for some than for others but is absolutely possible for everyone. How do I know
this? Well apart from experiencing it myself and seeing it in numerous other people, the
reason I truly know this is because everyone is conscious. Everyone is functioning through
the same medium. As we have discussed, everyone’s consciousness is essentially the
same. We may be at different levels individually, but we are all experiencing it. That means if
others are living at higher levels, then you can too. Simply because we’re all one and
connected. If something is possible for another person then it’s possible for you too.

As you do the work of raising your consciousness, through the exercises you’ll find later in
this book, you’ll be able to go beyond thought, your mind and any dysfunctional
programming you may be suffering. When you rise above these aspects, you are getting
closer to the source of consciousness. This will shift your programming and belief systems to
align with your new level of awareness. Imagine consciousness as a light which shines
through your mind to create your life, it’s filtered through all your past conditioning and belief
systems, which reflect and resonate with your current level of consciousness. For example,
the lower the level of your consciousness the more negative beliefs you’ll have about life. As
you begin to raise your awareness the light of consciousness, which is filtered through your
mind, will have a transformative impact upon your mind, beliefs and conditioning. By default,
it changes your old level of mind and beliefs to align with a new higher level of
consciousness. For instance, if you raised your consciousness to level 500 (love) your
beliefs about yourself and the world would naturally align with unconditional love which
would change the way you see everything. You would see the world through the eyes of
unconditional love.

I welcome you to become familiar with this map and pinpoint where you feel you may be at
right now. This is the simplest model I have come across for guiding us to long lasting
change, so I urge you to use it.

Final point, transformation occurs two-fold - firstly by raising our base-line level of
consciousness while also changing the unconscious programming of our mind and
emotions. Each one supports the other. Throughout this book, I will present ideas and
exercises with the aim of helping you expand your level of understanding (awareness) and
therefore create a positive shift in your level of consciousness.
 Chapter 4 - The Mind and Body Connection

Understanding the mind and body connection is a very important factor in creating lasting
change. Based on the old model of science, it was believed mind and body functioned
independently. That the brain is the control centre of the whole organism and directs the
body to follow its orders. This however, is not entirely true. It would be more correct to say
the body IS the mind or to be even clearer, the body is a reflection of the subconscious mind.
What you’ll discover here is that your thoughts, feelings and beliefs influence your health and
how your body works.

Conscious and Subconscious

As discussed previously, our past programming and beliefs are stored in the subconscious,
which has a very influential effect on our state of being and behaviours. Most of us live life
through our unconscious programming, reacting to things without thinking about what we’re
really doing. Most of our reactions come from programs which were wired into our minds
from an earlier part of our life. This is what is meant when we say living ‘unconsciously’.
Since we’re not taught this, we grow up thinking that I am my programming, I am the way I
react to things, I am my thoughts, my behaviours, I am the things I identify with (all ego). All
of this, is the old tapes of conditioning playing themselves out on repeat over and over again.
Many people never get beyond their initial level of consciousness or their early subconscious
programming and therefore remain stuck in the same mindset throughout life. I believe this is
down to a lack of understanding of how the mind and body work coherently. When you
understand this, you can consciously work with the body to create changes in the mind and
vice versa.

Our past experiences, particularly the emotionally charged ones, leave a deep imprint within
us. Not just in the recesses of the subconscious mind (brain) but also in our physical bodies
in the form of emotions. Emotionally charged events that occur in childhood influence us
deeply because are minds and bodies are more susceptible to them.

One of the main causes of emotional and mental health issues in adulthood is due to
emotional and psychological dysfunction created by past events. Past experiences
(particularly negative ones) alter the flow of consciousness through our being, leading
towards dysfunctional pathways which don’t serve us. Negative experiences leave our
consciousness stuck at a lower level. These experiences cause us to unconsciously contract
and tense our physiology and muscles while holding the breath, so that we don’t feel
negative emotions and their energy as deeply. This creates disharmony within the body. As
discussed in the previous chapter, survival emotions include the lower states of being such
as shame, guilt, anger, fear and resentment.

If you suffer from negative emotional states or thoughts, then it could be unresolved stuck
emotional energy causing this problem. Certain emotions tend to get ‘stuck’ in our physical
bodies during highly charged events. As a child you may have freaked out or froze during an
incident and the emotion you were feeling at the time, didn’t get the chance to run its course.
Emotions want to run to completion. They come up, we experience them and they go but
when this natural process doesn’t run smoothly, the energy behind the emotion gets trapped
in the body and nervous system. This stuck energy then influences the subconscious mind.
We might create a personal story around this negative emotion, along with a set of belief
systems which resonate with it.

Once emotional energy is held at a certain level, this level becomes your established state.
Then the subconscious mind goes to work to reinforce this new emotional set-point. The
individual may then become shy, withdrawn, anxious or depressed - all indicators of a
negative emotional state. Breaking free of such a low state can be challenging since the
whole mind and body has been powerfully programmed from an early age to act a particular
way. This shows just how important it is to raise children consciously and responsibly. A few
bad decisions or life circumstances can leave a child stuck at a lower level for the rest of
their lives without ever realizing their true potential.

To counteract this dysfunction, our brains need to be re-conditioned to believe that feeling
the full range of emotions is safe. You can do this by paying closer attention to your inner
body and any sensations that arise. Do certain muscles always feel tight? Are others
relaxed? What happens to your body and muscles when you’re stressed or overwhelmed?
Use these questions to uncover any tension and emotional blockages you are holding in
your body.

The Body is the Subconscious Mind

As we know, the subconscious holds a lot of power, because of this, it can be difficult to
influence and change its programming directly. We tend to believe we’re in full control of the
choices and decisions we make through the 5% of our conscious awareness but the real
decision maker is the subconscious, change the subconscious and you change your life.

The real power of the subconscious is accessible through the body and emotions. Research
into the mind-body connection in medicine has discovered emotions and thoughts can create
imbalances and disease in the body. What we think and our predominant emotional states
directly influences our health. If someone lives under constant stress or anxiety, these states
are known to suppress immune function, which increases the likelihood of developing certain
illnesses.

The human head is relatively small in comparison to the human body, just like our conscious
awareness (5%) is small in comparison to the subconscious (95%). The conscious mind
(head) uses language and words to communicate, whereas the subconscious uses feelings
and emotions. Emotions are the language of the body. For too long we have been overly
identified with the brain and it’s limited capacity, that we have ignored the innate wisdom of
our bodies. The key to transformation lies in your body, the powerhouse of your being. The
beliefs you hold about yourself are reflected in the emotions felt throughout your body. Your
emotions (whether positive or negative) always express how you truly feel in the moment. If
you’re unsure about a situation learn to trust your feelings over your thoughts. Feelings are a
much more accurate indicator of what you’re experiencing. This is where the notion of ‘follow
your gut instinct’ comes from because the gut is highly dense in neurons (brain cells).

Our emotions are indicators which direct us to what needs our attention. How do we know
what to heal? How do we know where we need to develop ourselves? By simply paying
attention to our feelings and emotions. We all feel them, but intentionally focusing on
experiencing them will deepen your awareness of them and guide you towards your true
Self.

I believe each one of us has a unique emotional footprint which developed and evolved from
our early life experiences and programming up to how we are now. Every emotional
experience you have had in life has influenced and moulded your emotional footprint, which
would present a clear reflection of the type of person you are. If there was a scientific way to
measure each person's footprint, we could understand each other more deeply. The good
news is we can change our emotional footprint, to reflect a different type of person (more on
how to do this later).

The beliefs you hold about yourself and your life developed around your emotional
programming. That means mind (beliefs) and body (emotions) are a reflection of one
another. Beliefs and emotions are intertwined. Using the example of someone who was
raised without a sufficient amount of love, this lack of love would be felt and programmed
into their body emotionally. These emotions would then trigger the mind to create a set of
beliefs which resonate with that emotion. This is how we get stuck! After years of
conditioning our thoughts and feelings continue to reinforce one another then breaking free
becomes an uphill struggle. Most people live unconsciously and never realize they’re being
run by their emotions and therefore react to whatever comes their way. The more you
expand your consciousness, the more awareness you develop which helps you recognize
negative emotions and how they are influencing your thoughts and behaviour.

I will talk about how to work through difficult emotions in later chapters but understand that
by working with the emotions, we can directly influence and change our subconscious
programming. Once the subconscious is on side and in alignment with the ultimate truth of
love and oneness, then achieving desired outcomes and living a more fulfilling life becomes
easier.

Chakras

As we understand, highly charged negative experiences can cause emotional energy to

become trapped within our bodies. You may be wondering where most of this energy tends
to get stuck? That would be at the chakras!

Chakras are energy centres in our physical bodies which run from the bottom of the torso to
the top of the head. There are 7 in total and each one resonates with a specific frequency,
emotion, level of consciousness and area of our body. Each chakra is a unique expression
of prana. When they are healthy and aligned, they allow our life force energy (prana) to flow
through our body in a harmonious way. This creates balance, harmony and peace in body
and mind. Each chakra is made up of a plexus of nerves and a high volume of neurons
(brain cells). Wherever you find neurons, you will find a higher degree of intelligence. Just
like our physical brain gets conditioned and programmed, these chakra points also get
programmed from life experiences. By working with them, we can undo negative
programming and energy blockages by reprogramming these centers to reflect mental,
emotional and physical well-being. Each centre has a corresponding level of consciousness
which can be linked to the scale of consciousness presented in the previous chapter - Levels
of Consciousness. The chakra system is like a map of consciousness and can help guide us
toward a healthy expression of all our energies.

Your life force energy starts at 100%, but as it moves through your body and through the
chakra points, it gets stuck wherever there is disharmony within a specific centre(s). When
this happens, that original 100% of prana is reduced. By the time your life force energy
reaches the heart centre, you may only be accessing 50% or less. Ideally, we want 100% of
our prana to be flowing through our whole body from the 1st chakra (root) to the 7th chakra
(crown). As we increase the flow of our life force, it is experienced as an improvement in life
and well-being.

One of the main aims of this book is to help you to live from your heart center (4th chakra).
By becoming a heart led person, you will experience more heartfelt emotions such as
unconditional love, forgiveness, compassion and courage. Living through the heart center is
a major milestone and accomplishment on the journey of transformation but many people
struggle to get here if they have imbalances within the first 3 chakras.

Most blockages tend to occur within these first three centres - the root, sacral and solar
plexus chakras. The first 3 centres are associated with life on Earth, which relate to the
survival emotions and lower states of consciousness, hence the reason these are
problematic points. These chakras can become blocked and imbalanced based upon past
experiences. Imbalances within a particular center means life becomes imbalanced at this
level. The work here is about finding any blockages within these first three chakras and then
learning how to harmonize them to allow your energy to flow through more freely. The more
harmony you create within them, the more you move into alignment with yourself and create
a harmonious flow throughout all your chakras.
Here we will focus on the first three chakras briefly to help you recognize any blockages and
imbalances you might hold in these energy centers.

Root - Muladhara
This chakra is physically closest to the Earth. It sits at the bottom of the spine/torso and is
associated with the colour Red and the element Earth. When in harmony this centre makes
you feel safe, secure and grounded. You experience a sense of belonging to the human
race. If you have imbalances in this area, you may feel the world is unsafe, you may not feel
quite at home or like you’re an outsider. Conditions such as fear, worry and anxiety can be a
symptom of imbalances in this area. Physical exercise such as jogging, yoga, gym workouts
are a great way to create harmony here.

Sacral - Svadhisthana
This centre sits in the navel region of the body, around/below the belly button region. It is
associated with the colour orange and the element water. This chakra is related to our
sexuality, desires, creative powers and pleasures. A healthy Sacral chakra enables us to
own our desires and pursue them with passion for the highest good of all. Imbalances in this
region are associated with sexual dysfunction, addictions and lower emotions such as
shame and guilt. Pursuing your dreams and expressing creativity is a powerful way to bring
harmony to this chakra.

Solar Plexus - Manipura

This chakra sits just below the center of the rib cage in the pit of the stomach. It is
associated with the colour yellow and the element fire. It provides us with the power to show
up in the world with that 'fire in the belly'. It is also closely linked to our self-worth and
self-esteem. Imbalances in this region can make us obsessed with controlling everything, a
feeling of not being good enough or undeservingness. When this chakra is balanced and in
harmony you feel you have the capacity to direct your future in the way that you wish, you
own your power and tap into the energy required to accomplish your life goals.

Alternatively, you may experience discomfort or an imbalance in the higher centers also,
such as the heart or throat. You can use the meditation below to work on these areas too.

The work of harmonising your chakras, begins by paying attention to when you feel any
emotional discomfort and pinpointing which of these centres is being stimulated. This is often
an indicator of an imbalance. With this insight, you’ll know what areas specifically to focus
on. It helps to become more aware of what's going on in your body when you’re feeling
overwhelmed or emotional. Welcoming emotions and allowing them to come up will help you
to direct your attention to them. Once you have the awareness on which chakra to work on,
you can create more balance and harmony by using the meditation below. Excess emotional
energy which has become ‘stuck’ can then be freed up and transmuted into higher levels of
consciousness.

Chakra Meditation

We can balance, align and harmonize the chakras through a simple chakra meditation.
This meditation will involve focusing on each individual chakra point, one by one. By
consciously directing your attention to each center, you send energy there and activate the
intelligence of each chakra. This intelligence begins to create coherence and harmony -
where attention goes, energy flows.

I would like to explain how you can do this powerful work for yourself. Read through each
step and then practice it for yourself. Start by getting comfortable, you can choose to either
sit or lie down. Make sure you’ll be free of distractions for at least 20 minutes. In this
meditation, you will focus on each chakra point starting from the 1st (root) up to the 7th
(crown) chakra.
 1. Close your eyes and when you feel relaxed enough you can begin. Bring your
awareness to your first chakra (root) which is at the base of your spine/torso. Keep
your attention locked onto this area and visualize a red ball of energy. Send a strong
intention of love to this center by keeping your attention fixed here for a few minutes.
By fixing your awareness here, you activate the intelligence within this set of
neurons.
2. Next, expand your awareness to the space around the chakra. The energy around
the center is what feeds the chakra. Embody a positive emotion such as love,
gratitude, or courage while keeping your focus on the space around the chakra. Do
this for a few minutes.
3. Now move up to the next chakra - Sacral. This is located in the navel region and is
associated with the color orange. Do exactly the same as you did for the first chakra,
but this time visualize an orange ball of energy. Pay attention directly on the chakra
for a few minutes and then to the space around it while embodying a positive
emotion.
4. Now move onto the Solar plexus. Located in the pit of the stomach and is yellow in
color. Do exactly the same practice as you did for the 1st and 2nd chakras.
5. Move through and do the same exercise for the rest of the chakras. Next in line, is
the heart - green in color and is located in the center of the chest. Then the throat -
blue in color and located within the neck. Then it is the third eye - located in between
the eyes at the bridge of the nose/between the eyebrow’s region. It is set back
behind your eyes and is indigo in color. Finally do the same with the crown chakra -
located at the top of your head and is purple in color.
6. Once you have focused on each center move back down to the root (1st chakra) and
visualize a clear light shining through your whole body, through each one of the
chakras and out the top of your head. It should look like a full beam of energy is
flowing through your whole body. This is 100% of your life force being activated. Hold
this visualization for a few moments or for as long as you like.
7. When you feel ready, you can start to come back around, take a few deep breaths
and open your eyes. The meditation is complete.

Do this meditation regularly and you will begin to experience a shift in your mental and
emotional well-being, as you bring these centres more into alignment. The key to this
practice is repetition, the more you do it, the better you will get at it and the bigger the shifts
you make. I suggest committing to this practice at least 2-3 times per week to​ create more
balance, health and harmony within yourself and your life.
 Chapter 5 - Trauma and Negative Emotions

‘Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear’​ - Marcus Aurelius

The subject of Trauma has become increasingly popular in recent years. Many people are
waking up to how their early life experiences left them traumatized. It’s estimated that over
half of Americans will go through some traumatic event in their lives. As a result, diagnosis of
conditions such as PTSD and Complex-PTSD have become much more prominent in recent
times. These disorders have probably always been present but only now are we becoming
more aware of their prevalence.

It is now believed that almost everyone carries at least a little trauma. Trauma can be
challenging to overcome because it keeps you strongly attached to the past. However, some
can manage its effects better than others. Some people are genetically more adept at
recovering from trauma or not feeling its effects as strongly. Others, in contrast, usually more
sensitive people, feel the brunt of trauma more impactfully. This ends up with them having to
carry the burden of their trauma for a whole lifetime which has a debilitating effect on the
quality of life. The emotional consequences of trauma can show up as - anxiety, depression,
stress, low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence, shyness, OCD and panic attacks. What
these conditions have in common is that they have an emotional and psychological
foundation which can be linked back to trauma.

If you’ve been struggling in your own life, there is a possibility that you need to overcome
some past traumatic event(s). The purpose of this chapter therefore is to help you
understand the impact trauma has on the mind and body which subsequently creates
emotional pain and suffering. With a greater understanding of these matters, you expand in
awareness of yourself, which helps you to recognize and overcome unconscious patterns of
behaviour. When you experience trauma, you lose a part of yourself. A part of your
consciousness gets trapped in the memory of the traumatic event. When you can't get
beyond what happened and you are experiencing negative symptoms as a result, a part of
you is literally stuck there. This is how you become a victim of your past and why your past
experiences maintain a strong hold over you. Only by finding a way to heal and reclaim
these stuck parts can you become whole and rediscover your true Self. Your psyche will
keep a lot of the emotions and thoughts associated with your trauma repressed in the
subconscious. Therefore, all the parts of your essence which have been split off and
repressed need to be reintegrated. This is often referred to as shadow work.
Certain situations can trigger your traumas which makes you retract back into an
unconscious state and behaviour pattern that plays itself out in the present moment. For
example, someone who is shy or anxious around groups of people, might behave in this way
due to past trauma. They may not understand why they revert to this type of anxious
behaviour but they feel helpless to stop it. They probably assume it is just their nature, that
they are naturally shy and not very social but there might be something deeper at play. Such
a person, who can’t help but go quiet around others as much as they try not too, is helpless
to the energy behind their trauma. It is of little use telling such a person to ‘try’ being more
social, considering their whole mind and body are negatively programmed by past events.
It’s a perfect example of trying to use your limited 5% conscious awareness to tackle the
95% powerhouse of your subconscious programming.

Trauma leaves its imprint in our minds and bodies. It impacts the body at the deepest levels,
at the level of the nervous system. The nervous system controls some of our most important
physical and mental functions. When this part of our being is impaired everything else will be
impacted as a result. The common term used to explain this phenomenon is Nervous
System Dysregulation (NSD). When this happens, it creates disorganization in the body and
nervous system, this disorganization is what the psychological self is then built upon. NSD
diminishes access to our life force energy (prana) by knocking the chakras out of balance. It
also impacts our capacity for connection with ourselves and others. When we are not in
touch with our authentic self we have lower emotional resilience, so we get overwhelmed
more easily and can’t manage negative emotional states effectively. This inability is what
creates the suffering we experience through the anxiety, depression and stress we feel.

When you can’t manage negative emotions (self-regulation) effectively, you will suppress
them and end up being controlled by them. Facing uncomfortable feelings is vital for your
well-being, so that you can learn to manage both negative and positive emotions in a
productive way. NSD also negatively impacts our capacity for autonomic regulation, which
includes our breathing, sleep, heart rate, digestion and blood flow. Irregularities in these
areas can lead to disease. If you’re constantly struggling with difficult conditions such as
depression, anxiety or stress, understand that you’re in a state of dysregulation. If you tend
to get triggered easily by others, this is also a sign of emotional dysregulation. If we never
learn how to self-regulate we'll never get past our trauma. Humans respond to trauma by
disconnecting and dissociating from their bodies. This shuts them off from their life force and
vitality, such a person may then lack the motivation to take productive action. Feeling
regulated means you feel at ease, safe and at home in your body, this adds to the quality of
life. A regulated person should be able to go to most places and be around most people
without feeling threatened or anxious. This is also why so many people fall victim to
addictions. The addictive behaviour is helping them to self-regulate their disturbed internal
emotional state but usually through an unhealthy means. Later chapters will explain how to
self-regulate your emotional state.

When we experience trauma, the energy (arousal) from the event can get trapped in our
nervous system. This occurs when we experience something that was too overwhelming for
us to cope with, usually when we were at an earlier age. When threatened, the human
organism naturally goes into a Defence Orienting Response (DOR) - this is a natural survival
mechanism that humans use to protect themselves when there is a perceived threat of harm.
It’s a natural biological response. The DOR wants to be resolved and run to completion, so
when a threat occurs the DOR mobilizes energy to support us to fight or flight. When we
complete the DOR and discharge the excess energy through an appropriate response
(fighting or running) our body returns back to homeostasis. But, as is the case in most
traumas, when the person doesn’t act accordingly and channel this energy effectively, it
becomes stuck in the mind, body, muscles and nervous system. This keeps the person
trapped in the DOR which places continuous stress on their mind and body. Only by
discharging this excess energy can we return back to homeostasis where we are more
connected and at peace with ourselves.

When the DOR is left incomplete it creates havoc in our mental and emotional well-being. As
extra amplitudes of emotional energy get stuck in the nervous system (at the chakra points)
it keeps the body out of homeostasis. The ‘rest and digest’ parasympathetic branch of the
nervous system is abandoned and we start living through the ‘fight or flight’ sympathetic
branch. When we experience a situation which reminds us of a past trauma we immediately
go into fight or flight mode and the survival emotions take over because of the perceived
threat. When associated thoughts and feelings come up from this lower state of being, it
creates conditions such as anxiety, depression, OCD etc. The excess energy which floods
the system after traumatic events needs to be discharged in a safe and healthy way. Until
this can be done, the body and mind will not function efficiently. Overtime we get used to
living with stress hormones constantly flooding our bodies as they are addictive by nature.
We start to crave the hit of negative emotions which strengthens the hold trauma has over
our minds and bodies. You can get trapped in thinking-feeling loops, where you
unconsciously desire to experience negative states just to get your hit of the stress
hormones. Needless to say, this makes life much more difficult than it should be.
Relationships tend to suffer along with productivity and general well-being.

The most common trauma we hear about is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which
occurs as a result of a single horrific event and is also known as ‘shock trauma’. But a new
diagnosis of trauma is also becoming increasingly popular, called - Complex Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder (CPTSD) which is otherwise referred to as ‘developmental trauma’. This
type usually occurs over a period of time in response to prolonged and repeated experiences
of smaller traumas. These are usually not as horrific as those single traumatising events
people with PTSD experience, but they are still very harmful. In CPTSD the victim is often
left feeling trapped or helpless. Childhood abuse, neglect, dysfunctional parenting and
bullying can all contribute to the development of CPTSD. Both PTSD and CPTSD activate
the sympathetic nervous system response of ‘fight or flight’ - which can also be labelled as
survival mode.

We more commonly see trauma patterns in war heroes who can be shaken by regular
occurrences such as hearing a car backfire. They may logically know it's just a car, but the
body doesn’t. The body reverts back to the fight or flight response which was triggered
during the original traumatic event(s). Such events can literally set a person back
psychologically and emotionally to the state they were in when they experienced previous
traumas. The body is subconscious programming, so it will react if it is reminded of a past
threat such as hearing a car backfire. Staying with the example from above, someone who
freezes in social situations, has potentially fallen back to an old state of being from a time in
their life where they literally froze. Their body is reminded of something threatening by being
in groups, then the same traumatic state washes over them leaving them feeling helpless
and disconnected from their true Self. This is what makes trauma so insidious, it can show
up anytime if it is triggered through resemblance. It is not a pleasant condition to live with but
the mind and body doesn’t know this, it just reacts. It believes it is protecting you. It is a
primitive reaction since survival is the predominant program the human psyche is constantly
running.

If you ever felt under threat during a past traumatic event, your body likely went into survival
mode which forced you to constrict and contract from the world which impacted healthy
nervous system function (NSD). It’s helpful if you can begin to recognize the events or
situations that trigger your traumas, then you can be more present and face these
challenging circumstances consciously. Since traumas are usually functioning below our
awareness, only by catching them when they arise can we hope to overcome them.
Awareness is the key.

Generally speaking, there tends to be a divide between spirituality and psychotherapeutic

orientations for healing and transformation. When it comes to healing trauma both modalities
are required to offer a comprehensive recovery. Spirituality doesn’t necessarily tend to the
nervous system dysregulation caused by trauma. In order to progress spirituality, mind and
body need to be in a regulated and organized state. Traumatized people trying to advance
spiritually without addressing their somatic dysfunctions are usually left spinning their
wheels. Higher states of consciousness are not as readily accessible in trauma victims due
to their disorganized nervous system. Only when you feel at home and at peace in your body
can you master your emotions and advance spirituality. Although it is generally believed
throughout spiritual teachings that the past should not influence you in the present moment,
in traumatized people however, the past has left a deep residue within the body, trying to
ignore this will lead to stagnation and limited growth. Therefore, a dual approach is needed,
which entails working with the body along with the spiritual work of expanding
consciousness.
 Chapter 6 - Healing and Transformation

Healing is like pushing the reset button on yourself and removing everything that limits the
expression of your truest self. The goal is to undo negative egoic programming which was
taken on as an identity and a form of self-preservation. Healing can also be seen as an
opening up to your true Self which gradually overpowers old patterns and programs until
they crumble and fall away. How much progress you will make depends upon your level of
motivation and your current emotional & psychological state. For some, transformation will
be more challenging than for others. Some people will be forced into this work because life
hasn’t given them the answers for how to live a happy and fulfilling life. On the journey of
transformation, we are ultimately all headed in the same direction but everyone brings their
own reasons and personal history, therefore everyone starts from a different place but in the
end we all arrive at the same place.

How long this inward journey takes is also difficult to define. Some people can overcome a
lifetime of trauma in a few short years, whereas others can spend a whole lifetime just trying
to get a grip of themselves. If you’ve been struggling with obvious conditions such as
depression, anxiety or panic attacks then it may take you longer than someone who suffers
with less severe conditions. Also, many other factors can come into play such as support
from friends and family, genetics and the willingness to change. We just have to do the best
that we can, from wherever we are starting from. I would suggest not worrying about the
time it might take to change. Getting impatient with your rate of progress will only create
internal resistance and slow down your progress. Instead focus on taking each day at a time.

How do you know if you’re healing and progressing? Transformation can be difficult to
measure so I advise scoring your starting point (your predominant emotional state) out of 10.
1 being very low and 10 being super happy and fulfilled. Then make a commitment to score
yourself regularly, around once a month, to see if you’re progressing. With this simple
method we can see if what we are doing is effective or not. Are we really getting better? Are
we really healing? Or are we just spinning our wheels and not actually progressing much?
Using a numerical scale for our well-being helps us determine the rate of our progression.
You’ll be using the severity of your current issue (the thing you’re trying to overcome) as a
measuring stick for the progress you are making. By regular tracking, you’re also
demonstrating commitment to your own well-being, which acts as positive reinforcement.
You are demonstrating to yourself; you are worth the change and you’re committed to this
path, regardless of the ups and downs and the time it might take. Regular journaling is also
supportive in this regard. Another big indicator of transformation is positive things happening
in your life more often. These things usually happen more haphazardly, just recognize them
if they do occur. As you change internally, it will be reflected externally. This is essentially
the Law of Attraction.

Try not to compare your suffering or healing journey with others. Everyone’s suffering should
be acknowledged. Everyone’s suffering is valid. Infact if others appear to be making more
progress than you, use it as motivational fuel. When one person heals, they leave a footprint
in the collective unconscious, that means others can follow the footprint to speed up their
own transformation. Think of the collective unconscious as a vast field of information which
stores everything that has ever occurred and will ever occur throughout human experience.
It includes every single person's thoughts, actions and experiences, it is a vast field of
unlimited information. Understandably, we only have access to a very limited part of it.
However, we can align with specific aspects of this vast information based on what we direct
our attention towards, through this book for example, you are tapping into information and
energy which is related to personal transformation. The more time you spend learning a
particular subject the greater the information you can access from the collective field. Since
many people are now on a similar path towards transformation, as each one of us makes
progress, it indirectly opens the door for others. By that token, the more people who come
through and heal, the easier it will be for everyone else! Others' transformation is supportive
of yours and vice versa.

The more you heal, the more your authentic Self will shine. The more your authentic Self
shines, the happier you are. This is the core of the work. This is what I mean when I say
transformation. This is a state of being where mind, body and spirit are in harmony and as a
result life flows more effortlessly. As you have probably heard countless times, happiness is
an inside job, however this can be difficult to believe when you’re stuck in a negative state
which is further compounded by our cultures constant reinforcement that happiness is
outside of us. Your natural state is one of peace and happiness which you will hopefully
come to realize through direct experience.

Many people use unhappiness as their main motivation in life - ‘if I am unhappy, then I need
to get more x, y or z’ but that never fixes the core problem. The constant chasing for external
things never ends. You might experience some relief from your suffering when you attain
your desire but it will likely return and then you’ll go on a mad hunt for the next thing or next
accomplishment, this pattern of behaviour can go on for a lifetime. Alternatively, you can
decide to face your inner demons once and for all, heal yourself and be free to live your life
in whatever way you wish. Then everything you do will be more fulfilling as it will be coming
from your heart and not from unconscious patterns you unknowingly created to help soothe
your internal pain.

Don’t think that if you heal and overcome your suffering you won’t be motivated to change or
improve your life. The ego makes you believe you need to hang onto your suffering. It makes
you feel you need misery and unhappiness to be motivated to do and achieve things. This
again is a falsehood. In reality, when you finally heal and make peace with yourself, you’ll be
more motivated than ever to make positive changes in your life. You’ll feel worthy of the life
you want to live and because of that, these things will come to you much easier with much
less effort. They will come from a higher state of consciousness, where life flows in positive
cycles with growth and expansion occurring in all areas of life more naturally. In the lower
states however, it can feel like you’re constantly grinding and hustling to get ahead. Living a
healed higher consciousness life will effortlessly bring more joy into each and every moment
even if you’re doing something mundane. This is the power that is accessible to everyone
once healed and returned to our natural state.

Money, possessions, and relationships won’t make you happy until you’re completely happy
and at peace with yourself. If you are happy first, then anything you achieve will be the icing
on the cake but remember these external things can never be the actual cake. The icing on
its own is too sweet, it’s missing something vital. You are that vitalness, your true essence,
nothing can ever take its place. This is what I want to reconnect you with.

An important stage experienced by many people on the transformation journey is known as

the Dark Night of the Soul (DNOTS). This occurs when you're transitioning from the old ego
self towards your authentic Self. This can be an comfortable part of the transformation
process. You may experience many ups and downs at this time, accompanied with
overwhelming negative emotional states. This is the ego trying to cling on as the true Self is
coming through. The birth of the true Self creates resistance within because the ego
struggles to let go. This can be seen as an internal war which is going on beneath the
surface of your awareness. But it is also a necessary part of the journey, if you do find
yourself in this stage, use the following exercises to help you move through more smoothly.
Body Awareness

This is the first stage for initiating your transformation and it is an integral part of the journey.
It is essential for your mental health and well-being to give all your feelings free reign
throughout your conscious awareness and experience. Through this chapter you will be
learning how to do this by getting more in-tune and in touch with your emotions. Without
awareness of your inner world and feelings, healing fully is much more challenging. Think of
your body and emotions as the doorway to your growth.

Many of us are cut off from feeling and understanding our emotions. We are disconnected
from our bodies in a mind-obsessed culture. Without feeling connected to ourselves and our
bodies, we can’t fully connect with others in a positive way. The truth of who you are is
accessed through your emotions and is essential to your well-being. Its absence causes us
to lose our sense of self, our values and leaves us not knowing what we really want from life.
Trauma especially impacts our capacity for connection with others and for social
engagement. This can be even more prominent in men, who have been conditioned to
believe feeling emotions is a weakness, that they must always remain stoic and not feel
because this is what it means to be a ‘real man’. However, we now know that living in this
way can have tremendous negative implications on a person’s life and health.

When we experience trauma or suffering it can force us to suppress and deny our feelings.
This happens because our feelings are just too painful to bare, so we numb ourselves out
from feeling them. This is usually done unconsciously, when we’re children. If a child doesn’t
know how to deal with emotional discomfort, they’ll shut down their capacity to feel what's
going on in their body. It’s a short-term fix which helps them get through a difficult
experience but they often never grow out of this habit. When we don’t feel our emotions,
they don’t get the chance to run their course to completion. When this happens the energy
behind these suppressed emotions doesn’t go away. On the surface of your awareness it
may appear as though things don’t bother you much but everything that happens to us
creates an emotional response, whether we’re aware of it or not. Many of our emotional
responses occur outside of our conscious awareness, deep within our subconscious. Just
because we don’t feel them, we think an event didn’t bother us. However, you are still being
influenced by the energy of these unconscious emotions, they direct your behaviour and
thoughts from behind the scenes. This is why many of us struggle to improve our life
situation, as much as we think we want to change, we are helpless to powerful energetic
forces working against us. Our emotions are the powerhouse of our behaviour. We’re either
doing something because they inspire us too or we do things to avoid them getting the better
of us. As you raise your consciousness you become much more aware of subtle emotional
undercurrents that you were totally oblivious to before.

The goal of body awareness is so we get familiar with and accustomed to our emotions with
the aim of gaining more control over our lives. You could also call this emotional mastery,
which has been recognized as one of the main prerequisites to living a happy and fulfilling
life. You accelerate the healing process by bringing awareness to your emotional and bodily
sensations. As you do this regularly, you drop deeper and deeper into your body (the body is
the subconscious, remember) and you’ll start to experience feelings that you haven’t felt in
years. That's you getting to know a new part of yourself, another word for this is growth. As
you connect to your body and emotions more, you also develop a greater capacity for
connection with others. Gradually you'll come to understand that old uncomfortable feelings
are not harmful but offer you liberation from emotional suffering.

On many occasions we tend to repress positive emotions along with the undesirable ones.
Each emotion has two opposing opposites - fear/courage, resentment/love, sadness/joy,
blame/forgiveness etc. If you repress the emotion of fear, you’ll also lose some courage, if
you try to ignore your sadness, you’ll also lose access to joy and so on. The world we live in
is dualistic in nature - everything has an opposite. We need to embrace even the negative
emotions, so we can also experience more of the positive ones. When you start looking
inward you may realize you’ve been suppressing a lot of negative emotions and therefore
missing out on the positive counterpart. The ideal human state is of balance and peace
which resides in incorporating any opposing opposites into one, in other words to become
whole. Until we find the courage to start living in our bodies, we can’t access the pain and
hurt we are unknowingly hanging onto. As is often said, the only way out is through.

Our bodies possess innate intelligence which we are cut off from. By making the
commitment to live in your body more, not only will you get to know how you really feel about
life, yourself and others, but you’ll also access the doorway to your healing. You’ll bring
awareness to the wounded parts, the parts of your body where you repressed certain
emotions. You’ll know which chakras are problematic areas, with this greater awareness you
can do the work to begin healing these areas and re-integrating the repressed negative
emotions and energy. As awareness around your bodily and emotional sensations increases
so does your baseline level of consciousness. All of these benefits lead you towards greater
wholeness and happiness.
How do you go about practicing body awareness? It’s really quite simple. Body Awareness is
simply what it says, just take your attention into your body. Feel your inner body, your torso,
your arms, legs, throat, all of it. You can do this often throughout the day, check in with
yourself. At first it might feel unnatural to direct attention into your body, but slowly you’ll
develop it into a habit. Making it something you do habitually is the key to its effectiveness.

To help support you further you can journal and take inventory about what you’re feeling.
Eventually you’ll get comfortable experiencing most of the surface layer emotions and then
new feelings will arise, which you would have never gained access to without becoming
more aware of the surface level ones. It’s usually only during the real highs and lows of life,
that we become aware of our emotions. This is because awareness of our inner world is
relatively low, so it takes emotionally charged events to get us to take notice. But as we
expand awareness of our bodies and track what we’re feeling moment to moment, we start
to become emotional masters. I see this as a lifetime practice, until eventually you’re feeling
the deepest of your emotions, including all the subtle ones you would have usually missed.
Then you can develop the power to consciously use the energy behind them. There is no
end to how deeply you can experience your body and your feelings. Keep diving deeper and
deeper into them. This will also help you express yourself more authentically, subtle
biochemical and neuronal processes underlie your thoughts and what you subsequently say.
As you become more aware of these subtle energies, you naturally learn to express what
and how you’re truly feeling in the moment, this level of authenticity increases your capacity
for genuine relationship and intimacy.

You can make this practice even more effective by doing it when you’re in emotionally
uncomfortable situations, such as, talking to your boss or if you’re in a disagreement with
someone. Stay connected to your body while you’re in these difficult situations. What's going
on inside? Can you stay present and alert during a challenging situation? Or does your
attention get pulled away into negative thoughts or behaviours? The more awareness you
bring to your inner body and emotions at these times, the better handle you’ll gain over all
your emotions. Learning to manage the heavy turbulent feelings can turn you into an
emotional master. Then, when similar situations arise in future, you’ll respond from a place
of empowerment rather than reacting unconsciously.

Containment is a process for increasing emotional resilience. The aim is to contain powerful
emotions without letting them take you over. That means you feel strong emotions come up
throughout your entire being and yet you can contain the energy behind them. With greater
awareness and practice you learn to contain more and more of this energy until you can
channel it consciously towards something productive rather than letting the emotion take you
over. Tracking and becoming aware of your emotions, puts you more in touch with your
aliveness and vitality. You become more connected to yourself and your experience which
increases your capacity for connection with others. Being able to stay with uncomfortable
emotions increases your capacity for emotional regulation. This means you stop being run
by them but learn to manage them more effectively. Another phrase for this would be
self-soothing, which is the capacity to manage your own state. If you were raised in a
predominantly loving and positive environment, then you might have developed this skill as a
youngster. But many people don’t and instead all their old negative emotional programming
ends up running them. By becoming more aware of these patterns you move towards a
more authentic expression of who you are.

Not only will this simple practice help you get to know yourself on a deeper level but you’ll
also get a real sense of your own needs and what you genuinely want out of life. Trauma
and suffering cause us to disassociate from our bodies because we are afraid of feeling our
deepest emotional wounds. But we can undo this fear by learning to stop running from
uncomfortable feelings and instead find the courage to face them fully (more on courage
next). I can’t emphasise enough just how integral this part of the journey is, your body is the
gateway to a greater life.
 Chapter 7 - Courage and Self-Love

Courage and Self-Love are two powerful states of being which should be cultivated along the
transformation journey. The more you grow, the more courage and love you will feel. What
you’ll realize is that both states are positive and empowering. These have been pivotal in my
own journey and I believe it’s important to start living life by these principles to not only
transform but to live life from a higher perspective. Let’s look at each one starting with
unconditional self-love.

Self-Love

You have probably heard and read about the importance of self-love a countless number of
times. It is generally understood to be a foundational aspect of a healthy personality. Many
psychologists and therapists consider self-love as a necessary prerequisite of a happy
fulfilling life. Take a moment to see how you feel about it in your own life by considering the
following questions. How well do you feel you’re doing in the area of self-love? Do you love
and accept yourself as you are? Or do you dislike yourself? Are you constantly thinking
about things you want to change about yourself? Note - I tend to use self-esteem,
self-acceptance and self-love interchangeably, throughout this chapter.

A by-product of trauma and emotional suffering is a lowering of one’s self-esteem. We come

into this physical life already whole, complete and unconditionally loveable but when things
go wrong we can lose sight of this truth. Since it is such a foundational aspect of our being, if
it’s lacking, our sense of self is weakened, and we don’t develop based upon our inherent
value. Instead, the ego develops on a foundation of unworthiness which negatively impacts
every area of a person's life. Someone who accepts themselves unconditionally develops an
internal foundation of self that is strong and sturdy, regardless of whether they ‘measure up’
to social expectations or not. You may know people like this, who tend to be free, easy going
and completely comfortable with themselves. Since they possess genuine love and
acceptance for themselves, it forms the basis for how they show up in the world.

Self-esteem translates into belief in yourself, a natural sense of confidence and a can-do
attitude towards life. You trust yourself deeply. This creates positive emotions, thoughts and
behaviours which align with this basic belief. You develop positive internal self-talk, you pat
yourself on the back, you have the courage to go for what you want because you genuinely
believe that you are worthy of fulfilment. Such a person is usually without a sense of
grandiosity or arrogance but faces life from an internal feeling of knowing their inherent
worth.

The fundamental frame of a person with high self-esteem is based upon where they are
acting from. Their beingness is rooted in love so they naturally behave in alignment with that.
They may desire to improve their life situation (financially, romantically, health-wise etc) not
to prove anything to anyone else but because they feel worthy and deserving of empowering
experiences. These people usually achieve their goals easier than someone who is forcing
his or her way to success in order to prove something, because deep down they don’t feel
worthy. On the outside looking in, it may look like both are similar, with similar desires and
achievements but the place they’re coming from (emotional state and belief systems) differs.

High self-esteem can also override many seeming disadvantages one may have. A person
who accepts themselves fully, but has say, average looks and intelligence will probably live a
happier and more fulfilling life than someone who has low self-esteem but is more physically
attractive with a higher level of intelligence. The internal beliefs we have about ourselves,
override and hold much more power than surface level attributes such as physical
appearance and even intelligence. Harbouring low self-esteem, these people don’t possess
the courage or confidence to use the gifts they’ve been blessed with.

A famous quote I am fond of is - ‘The relationship you have with yourself sets the tone for all
the relationships you have in life’. As we have discussed, if reality is one, then we’re
connected to and have a relationship with everything including all the important areas of life
too. You have a relationship to your health, finances, career and emotional well-being.
Self-esteem impacts all of life by enabling you to see yourself through loving eyes.

The good news is, as you heal and grow, the degree to which you love and accept yourself
naturally increases. Oneness is essentially love, since there's no separation. So self-love
makes you feel more connected to everyone. You feel like you are returning home, coming
back to yourself. It is a by-product of effective growth. As a solid foundation of self develops,
based on love for yourself and the world, you have the basis to build a great life. At this level,
you take action out of inspiration and passion as opposed to desperation or frustration.

An indicator of how high your self-esteem currently is, is to consider the quality of your life,
right now. Again, take a moment to consider the following questions - Are you generally
happy most of the time? Are you content? Do you have positive loving relationships which
empower you? Do you possess the confidence to go for what you want? Don’t worry if you
have answered no to any of these questions because as you heal you’ll naturally start to
grow into all these areas.

Genuine love and acceptance of self is born out of the present moment. The present
moment is consciousness, which is also love. The more present you are the more loving you
become. Your being is gradually permeated with more love. When you are fully present
there is no time or space for negative self-judgement (more on presence later). Coming to
peace and acceptance right now, wherever you are in your current circumstances is where it
begins. You won’t find self-love in the future if certain things go your way, you must realize it
is here right now! This is where it can get challenging, some of us have that nagging voice in
the back of our head which tells us how can I accept myself if I am broke? Or overweight?
Or I don’t have a relationship? The list of excuses for why we can’t love ourselves is endless.
Even if some of our problems are resolved; we get out of debt or lose weight, the internal
programming and beliefs can remain, so you will simply project your lack of self-worth onto
the next object or person.

Another way to find out how you really feel about yourself is to consider your life if everything
was taken away, who would you be? Without your money? Without your partner? Without
your healthy body? Without your position of power? Or your job title? I welcome you to
deeply consider if you would still be the same person still? Or would you lose a significant
part of yourself? These are deep courageous questions to contemplate that will provide you
with a greater understanding of how you truly feel about yourself. Use body awareness to
feel what emotions and feelings arise when you ask these questions of yourself.

Ultimately you are none of the things you have outwardly identified with, these are just
‘objects’ the ego identifies with. At your essence you are simply consciousness. You have to
let go off your investment in worldly objects in order to realize this truth. This also doesn’t
mean you can’t partake and enjoy the things of this world, but you first need to separate
yourself out and find love and compassion for yourself as you are, independent of anything
external. Paradoxically, when you do discover your inherent sense of worth, all the things
you desire will come to you more effortlessly because your attachment to them has
weakened. Over-attachment to anything creates resistance.
If you’ve been a victim of negative self-talk or negative thinking in your life, upon creating
deep changes, you’ll develop a positive loving inner voice in its place, one that will talk you
up! It will tell you that you can do things. That you are capable and that you are good
enough. At first it might only be a whisper in the background that you barely hear, but
gradually it’ll start to take centre stage. Positive thinking and self-talk is a result of our
deepest beliefs. If you suffer from negative thoughts, then you must change the negative
programming. The most sustainable way to make your default thinking more positive is to
heal and resolve your negative emotions and programming. In the next chapter we’ll look at
how to do this.

This section on self-love, should help guide you on this inner journey. When you are truly
changing and growing, you will feel more love and acceptance for yourself and others which
will manifest as you being more content and in better control of your life. Your external reality
will gradually shift to reflect your internal changes. Remember everything is consciousness,
so any significant changes in your state of consciousness will show up as positive changes
throughout your life.

Courage

‘You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind
next to honour’​ - Aristotle

Dealing with fear is an increasing problem in our modern-day world. Many people today
suffer at the hands of irrational fears and anxieties which really make life more challenging.
We often hear about the importance of courage, especially in reference to fear. One of my
favorite quotes from Mark Twain says, ‘Courage is not the absence of fear, but the mastery
of it’. This tells us that, we can’t ignore fear but by facing it we can learn to manage its
effects more productively. Being totally ‘fearless’ is an almost impossible state to reach,
since our minds are evolutionarily programmed to fear as a necessary survival mechanism.
Therefore, we will always experience fear in one form or another, but that doesn’t mean we
have to let it run our lives.

The question is, would you rather have fear run your life and limit your options or would you
rather learn to conquer it? I hope you said the latter. If you remember the scale of
consciousness I shared earlier in this book, courage resonates at level 200 which is the
tipping point between the lower states and the higher states of consciousness. Courage can
be considered the gateway to higher states of consciousness and therefore the first level of
real transformation, it has the power to take you from a negative state into a positive one.

When we live courageously, we literally change the way our mind and body functions. When
we are courageous it alters the way we process and interpret information. During negative
emotional states (fear, resentment, anger etc), the brain’s initial response is to emotionalize
our experience first. Everything that occurs is seen through the lens of how it makes me feel,
this is a lower state of consciousness that makes us victims to our unconscious emotional
reactions to reality. The brain's second response is to then consider what actually happened,
what are the facts of the situation? We do this with our intellect and conscious awareness,
however by this point it is usually too late. We’re already off to the races, the initial emotional
reaction can be powerful enough to drag our attention down into lower survival states and
their accompanying thoughts and feelings. This is how most people live.

On the other hand, some of us get triggered but don’t react, instead we try to ignore or fight
against what we feel or want to do. Suppressing emotions is harmful to your health and
mental well-being, especially when you consider just how much raw emotional energy is
behind your triggers. This energy needs an outlet, otherwise it’ll be suppressed in mind and
body creating havoc within.

The life changing impact of reaching the level of Courage Consciousness is that it changes
the way we interpret information from our reality. Instead of emotionalizing an experience
first, we interpret it via awareness and intellect (which is the secondary response when we’re
in a negative emotional state). This is a drastic shift that changes the way we function
throughout life, instead of negative emotions being triggered immediately following an
incident, we consider what happened intellectually first and the emotional interpretation
becomes a secondary response. This one effect can have huge implications on how you
function day to day. One of the biggest issues many of us have, is that we are triggered too
easily. When we react unconsciously in this way, we might do something out of character
and make a situation worse, but by then it’s usually too late.

Actively practicing courage therefore will rewire you to interpret information in a new way.
Your mind will work productively and help you to be empowered rather than a victim of your
emotions and circumstances. What if you didn’t lose yourself every time something didn’t go
your way? But instead, you stayed calm and took everything in and consciously chose your
response? Your mind would be working from a higher level of consciousness and you would
have time to process what happens, you would stop reacting unconsciously and gain the
capacity to respond consciously. Think about how that would make you feel more in control.
This subtle shift would have a huge impact on the quality of your life and relationships. Other
benefits that come from living more courageously are fairly obvious, greater confidence,
higher rewards, higher accomplishments, a more exciting life and many other improvements
across all of life because you would feel more in control and trust that you can face whatever
comes your way.

You may wonder then, why do so many people play it safe? The answer? We have been
programmed to play it safe. Doing scary stuff is, well, scary. Many of us are not taught that
we can handle taking calculated risks and we’re capable of doing things that scare us, so we
never develop courage. Being scared or fearful is not pleasant. It doesn’t feel good. One of
the downsides of modern westernized life, is that we have become too comfortable, most of
our basic needs are met. We don’t really have to get uncomfortable to survive, many of us
have never really experienced physical hardship, we have food, warmth, shelter, clothing
and hot water. We tend to take comfort for granted which can have the downside effect of
making us feel like everything should be provided and given to us. This isn’t our fault; it is
just how society has evolved. On the whole it’s a good thing, but something is missing. In my
opinion this is one of the reasons why so many struggle to live a life of true meaning and
fulfilment, we unconsciously expect everything to be handed to us, if our basic needs are
met so easily, why can’t everything be easy? It is a blessing that we get our basic needs met
without much struggle and this should free us up to live with more freedom because we don’t
need to waste time and energy on meeting these needs. Modern day life is therefore ideally
set up, so we can direct our vital energies to live up to our potential and thrive which starts
by cultivating more courage.

One of the most effective ways to begin developing courage is by doing things that are
frightening and get you out of your comfort zone. This also activates the solar plexus chakra
which contains your power and aggressive impulses but if you don’t consciously use these,
they will use you by subjecting you to negative states of being. Aggression is a powerful
energy and if it isn’t harnessed and channelled towards life, it will unconsciously be directed
inward on ourselves. This can lead to conditions such as depression and anxiety, as you are
literally attacking yourself. As we have discussed, the energy behind our emotions is
powerful, we can consciously choose to use this energy by doing something uncomfortable
or have it use us. Powerful emotions will always find an outlet. Therefore, doing things that
make you uncomfortable is a great way to channel your energy towards something
productive and inadvertently develop more confidence. This is one of the keys to getting out
of a downward spiral and to start accelerating your transformation. The next time you feel
anxious, afraid or depressed go and do something that scares you and forces you to be
courageous. You’ll tap into your aggressive impulses which will make you feel stronger and
more confident.

For me personally, I was spending many hours of my spare time meditating, reading books,
journaling and doing other self-development exercises in the safety of my own home and all
these things helped. However, when it came to actually facing my fears it was daunting as I
knew it would bring up a lot of discomfort. I gradually started doing more things that scared
me then I discovered the growth and change that would come from getting out of my comfort
zone, it accelerated my development. Doing scary things is one of the best investments of
your time if you’re serious about changing as quickly as possible. I understand it isn’t always
easy to do uncomfortable things because we’ve been emotionally and psychologically
conditioned to avoid our fears for years. But we can all start by taking small risks and then
work to gradually stretch ourselves more and more.

What do I suggest you do? First of all, I am not suggesting you go all out and do crazy life
risking activities. Getting out of your comfort zone doesn’t need to involve anything that puts
your survival at risk, but if you really want to jump out of an aeroplane, then by all means
give it a go. I am sure it would be a liberating experience. What I am essentially talking about
here is to take psychological risks, things that are a risk to your ego. What are the activities
that you would love to do but make you emotionally uncomfortable? Find something that
makes you challenge an irrational fear you hold. There also has to be a positive pay-off
otherwise you won’t be able to sustain the new behaviour. Will taking a certain risk make you
more money? Or help you meet new people? Maybe it’ll help you develop more confidence?
Pinpoint the pay-off you seek and it will sustain your motivation and keep you going.

I recommend seeking out activities you’re interested in or passionate about but have been
apprehensive about doing. To give you some examples, you could start public speaking on a
regular basis or doing stand-up comedy. Perhaps you could set yourself a challenge to go
out and talk to 2-3 strangers each day for a month? Or maybe you could put yourself out
there on social media talking about things that you’re interested in? You could pursue a
passion of yours? Or perhaps talk to someone you find attractive? These are just a few
examples, to give you an idea of the types of things you can do to develop courage. As you
can see, none of these are essentially dangerous but they do pose a psychological risk - a
possible rejection from others. The fear of other people's opinions is a powerful motivator
that controls so much of our behaviour. Overcoming this fear will allow you to live with more
freedom. This is the necessary psychological risk which is needed to help you grow by
overcoming limited egoic programming, but this is also what stops many from taking action.
If the risk feels too great, start small, do things which make you a little uncomfortable and
gradually expand from there. Consistency is the key.

As you begin to put yourself in uncomfortable situations, you’ll slowly develop the courage to
drop your guard, to be open and vulnerable, which is the only way to show your true Self.
Eventually you’ll get comfortable without the mask, without the ego. Only when you drop the
mask, do you find what we’re really made of. The simplest (but not always easy) way to gain
access to your true power is by putting yourself into challenging situations and learning how
to be comfortable there. Our minds are well equipped to deal with the known, but when
entering unknown new experiences, your safety net (egoic mind programming) doesn’t know
what to do or expect. This allows the veil to drop and opens the door for your true Self to
shine through. I cannot overemphasize the importance of doing things that make you
uncomfortable on a regular basis, it is a real game changer.

I understand many people will have resistance to this, maybe you’ll say, ‘I’ll do all the other
exercises but not this one’. I believe without doing this piece, your transformation might take
twice or even three times as long. It is that important and I am not exaggerating it. I
experienced my biggest shifts when I finally took the plunge and started doing stuff that
scared me. It was a big momentum builder. Obviously, all the methods in this book are
important but this one is at least 33% of your transformation work. That is because we are
using reality directly as a teacher and as a means for growth. Your fears are showing you
the internal blocks you have to living a happy expansive life. When you make the decision to
face your fears you’ll grow rapidly. Your fears will always lead you back to your truth. So
move towards them and you’ll learn how to overcome them, no-one else can do it for you.

Ask yourself what fears do you have that you’d love to conquer? Whatever it is, I want you to
bring it out and make a commitment to conquer it once and for all. Irrational fears are
ego-based. You might squirm at the thought of doing some of these things but there is no
real harm to you, other than to your ego. Your speech may not be well received or that
attractive person you spoke to wasn’t interested. But so what? The emotional discomfort you
experience is your old self beginning to let go. With persistence, you’ll start breaking out of
the limited egoic programming that you’ve been stuck in for years. What we are intentionally
doing here, is softening and breaking the ego down. It will also bring limiting negative
emotions up to the surface. All those emotions which have been holding you back from the
life you want need to be faced and there's no better way to get acquainted then doing
something uncomfortable. Use body awareness to dive into any emotional discomfort as it
arises, be there with your feelings non-judgmentally and gradually the discomfort will start to
dissolve. This will inevitably lead you to greater self-discovery and empowerment.

Gradually you’ll start to develop serious self-belief. You’ll have evidence that you can go into
uncomfortable situations and survive. You may even learn to thrive in them, you can’t get
this type of boost any other way. Consider how far playing it safe has got you in life? If you’re
not happy with the answer, then give my suggestion a serious attempt.

I also recommend you keep pushing the envelope. After doing something uncomfortable
consistently, you’ll develop a new comfort zone. You have broken through old limitations and
you have a new limit. Your consciousness will have expanded. When you reach this point,
find something else that keeps pushing you further out of your newly defined comfort zone.
Feel the burn of them old feelings, let them rise to the surface of your awareness, the more
you do this the more comfortable you’ll get with them until they’ll fizzle out completely. In a
later chapter I will share the ‘’Letting Go” exercise which is perfect for working with these
negative emotions when they arise.
 Chapter 8 - Reprogramming Yourself

Now we’re moving onto the practical exercises, these will help you create the dramatic shifts
you’ve been seeking. I would suggest committing to mastering these exercises in order to
get the most out of them. Make the commitment to practice each technique for at least one
month. Repetition is one of the keys to mastery - the more you do something, the better you
get at it. The better you get at it, the better results you achieve. These exercises are
designed to help you gain greater control of your inner world and emotional states,
commitment and discipline are a prerequisite for all of them.

Embodying Positive Emotional States

We know that our predominant emotional states are a reflection of our subconscious
programming and beliefs. If you experience mostly lower negative states such as fear,
anxiety or sadness, then your programming and beliefs will be a reflection of these emotional
states. Our most commonly felt underlying emotions literally manifest into the thoughts we
think. Fear creates fearful thoughts. Sadness creates depressing thoughts and so on. Every
unconscious thought or behaviour has an emotional undercurrent. One of the keys to long
lasting transformation therefore lies in working with the emotions.

Many of us are unaware of the emotional blocks we have to happiness, connection and
fulfilment, which developed in reaction to earlier nervous system dysregulation (NSD). When
NSD occurs, we take on false negative identifications about ourselves (ego) which are
reinforced and programmed into us emotionally and psychologically. But you are not your
emotions or thoughts, therefore you have the power to change them. When you learn to
change on the level of emotions, you’re reverse engineering your transformation to align you
with the person who were meant to be.

The first step of this process is to train your awareness (you’ll learn how to do this in the final
chapter) so you become like a solid sturdy tree, rooted deeply in the ground. Imagine
negative emotions are like a storm which comes and goes but as long as you remain strong
like the tree, they will always pass without dragging you with them. This is what it feels like to
be grounded and centred.
We know negative emotional states create suffering and disease, could that mean positive
states produce happiness and well-being? How do we get to higher positive states when we
are so accustomed to being in lower states most of the time? One simple and effective way
is to practice embodying the positive state we want to experience more of. We can embody
a higher emotion consciously, by holding and feeling it within our entire body and being. The
more we practice feeling a positive emotion and the deeper we feel it throughout our
awareness, the easier it is to experience more often. At the beginning it can be challenging,
especially if you’re used to experiencing strong negative states.

This exercise is built upon the foundation of the body awareness chapter. The more
connected you are to your body and emotions, the more effective you’ll be at changing your
state. To make this truly effective you must be able to tune into your body and emotions fully
which is accessible through practicing body awareness regularly.

The key to success with this technique is to practice embodying positive emotions
consistently with repetition over time long periods of time. With regular practice and
commitment, you’ll begin to lay down neurological pathways in mind and body to carry this
new emotional feeling, making them easier to experience more often. These positive
emotional pathways can take time to develop, especially if they’ve barely been used.
Imagine emotional pathways in your body are like individual roads split into positive and
negative. If you are used to feeling negative most of the time, that is the road your mind
(consciousness) is accustomed to travelling along, so this is what you experience. Whereas
the roads for positive higher states are barely used and so these pathways get worn away
and covered with debris until they can barely even be recognized as a pathway anymore.
This practice is about clearing the positive emotional pathways by consciously using them
more often. Therefore, the longer we practice embodying positive emotions, the more these
pathways are cleared and strengthened through repetition, until eventually it becomes easier
for us to hold the new positive state for longer and longer. You have given your mind and
body another option instead of always following the default negative programming and
emotion.

A further benefit of embodying positive emotional states is that it begins to re-regulate the
dysregulated nervous system, it pulls it out of the sympathetic stress response (fight or flight)
and moves it into the parasympathetic branch (rest and digest). The sympathetic branch is
generally related to the lower emotions, whereas the parasympathetic branch is associated
with higher emotions. The key to moving beyond your past is to not to get caught up in lower
states but choose higher positive emotions to experience instead. Focusing on the positive
things in life increases the capacity for emotional regulation. By taking control of how you
feel you move into homeostasis where you feel safer in your body. While the opposite is also
true, focusing on problems and negative states increases dysregulation and hyperarousal
making you feel unsafe and overwhelmed.

The better you get at this, the more natural it will become for you to default to a positive
feeling. It can however, take time to override the old emotional programs. That’s why this
practice requires patience and commitment. Start by focusing on embodying just 1 or 2 new
positive emotions, not 3 or 4. Keep it simple to begin with. You can choose anything you
want to experience more of - gratitude, love, courage, joy, confidence etc. Anything that
uplifts your state is taking you to a higher level of consciousness which will naturally start to
pull you out of the lower levels. You’re learning how to self-regulate and master your
emotions. The reason this exercise can be difficult for some people, is because they are so
dysregulated, that their default state (negative emotions) is too powerful for them to override
but with consistent practice it is possible. This is why raising your awareness is also key. The
higher you expand your consciousness and become more aware, the better you will be at
holding higher emotional states and not be dragged into downward spirals of negativity. Your
awareness will eventually reach a point where you can contain negative states without being
overwhelmed by them. You may even learn how to channel the energy behind them into
your life and work. As you get comfortable feeling and embodying positive states it’ll be
easier for you to hop from a negative emotion to a more empowering one. You’re
channelling your energy in a different direction simply by using conscious intent.

If you’re struggling to decide on one new positive emotion, I suggest picking one which is the
opposite of your most predominant negative emotional state. For instance, if you struggle
with fear the opposite emotion could be courage. Or you could embody love as the opposite
to feelings of resentment or kindness as an opposite to anger. Try to identify which emotion
is troubling you the most and choose the opposing one. It might feel like the opposite
emotion is too far away from the negative one, but as explained earlier, opposing states are
more closely related than you would think, they’re like opposite sides of the same coin. If you
choose to feel courageous when you’re afraid, then what happens to your fear? If you
choose to feel love when you’re stuck in resentment, what happens to the hate? A positive
emotional state is a higher, more empowering level of consciousness and therefore has
more power than the lower states because it is more in alignment with the highest truths of
oneness and love.
This is also an effective technique for trauma survivors to bring themselves back to
homeostasis. Trauma can leave a person in a hypervigilant state feeling undertreat and
unsafe. This state can be very comfortable to live from day in and day out and increases the
prevalence of anxiety and depression. If the traumatizing events from your past are over and
you’re now not under any threat, tell your body you are safe by feeling and holding onto the
experience emotionally. What does it feel like to be safe in your body? Embody this state
often and you will begin to reorganize and regulate your traumatized system. As you begin to
feel safe, you’ll experience expansion within your body and therefore start to act more like
your true Self.

When is a good time to do this exercise? You can practice embodying positive emotions
whenever you remember, it’s something you can do anywhere. I would also suggest
practicing them in meditation, at a time when you’re in a calmer state of mind. At these times
your brain waves slow down as you go deeper, and you can access the subconscious which
will help program these new emotional states at a deeper level.

An important point I'd like to make is not to get frustrated if you find it difficult and just do
your best. Some of your negative emotional states have been running you unconsciously for
years or even decades, so it can take time before you get comfortable choosing a new
positive empowering emotion over the familiarity of the old default one. Remember your old
programming evolved to keep you safe, so trying to change it can feel threatening and
uncomfortable. At times you may feel like you’re expanding and growing and other times you
might feel like you are contracting and going backwards, remember this is a natural part of
this journey.

As you get better at this, you’ll start to feel different. Gradually the positive emotional states
will begin to rewire your mind with new belief systems which will be a reflection of your new
state of being. For example, the emotion of courage, could create new beliefs which make
you believe you’re more confident. Even if it feels challenging at first, understand you have
the power to change how you feel. Once your new feelings are more aligned with higher
consciousness states, such as oneness and love, then the foundation is laid for a new
character and personality to be built upon which is more in alignment with who you really
are. Gradually you’ll start seeing and experiencing yourself as the person you were always
meant to be.
Letting go

‘When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be’​ - Lao Tzu

Letting go has become a popular technique for moving past negativity and limitation. This
method is founded on the basic understanding that you are not a limited human being. All
the things that have happened in your life, don’t mean anything but the meaning you have
given them. Whatever you perceive yourself to be, a certain gender, age, body type,
socio-economic background etc none of this is really you. It's through our attachment to the
external world and the roles we play that steal our vital energy. Everything you’re identified
with is robbing you of energy. You will have numerous labels that you define yourself by and
many stories which reinforce them. Essentially what we are attempting to do with the
exercise of ‘Letting go’ is to start releasing our attachments. These include all the stories,
beliefs, painful emotions, thoughts and memories that you’ve been carrying your entire life
but don’t serve your highest good. These contain our suffering. Therefore, the more we let
go of these, the more we move into alignment with our truest Self. Who you truly are is
unlimited. The only limitation on each of us, are the limitations we have unknowingly placed
on ourselves and it’s time to let them go. Paradoxically, you become your best Self by letting
go of all attachments and not by adding more things to yourself.

Here's an analogy to help you further understand this, imagine you’re in a cinema watching a
movie. Early on in the movie an attractive person appears on screen and catches your
attention. This person only has a small role and eventually the film moves on and the
attractive person has no more part in it. However, you haven’t been able to let go of your
fascination with them and because of this you’re distracted from what's happening currently
and you’re now missing the rest of the movie. You’re essentially distracted by something that
occurred in the earlier part of the movie (in the past). This is how we get attached to past
experiences. They are no longer present, but we still cling to them and because of this we
miss life, we miss what is occurring right now. Only by learning to let go of the things we’re
attached to, from our pasts, can we begin to reside more in the present. We tend to get
easily attached to highly charged emotional events. Ask yourself now, what are the things
from your past that you’re still clinging to?

Letting go of these attachments can feel scary, you might feel as though you’ll ‘lose yourself’.
We have become overly attached to our suffering and pain because it’s been with us for so
long and now we can’t see ourselves as we are truly meant to be. We have many
identifications and roles we play, that we literally wouldn’t know who we were without them.
Letting these go can therefore bring up a tremendous amount of fear. As we have discussed
the ego loves the known, so it will cling to everything known with all its might. By
continuously letting go you stepping into the unknown, this is where you’ll have to learn to
become comfortable without the security of the ego and the known. Ego cannot know the
unknown. The life you dream of can only be found in the unknown. It can’t make it to you in
your current experience as the person you are right now, if it could, it would have already.

By letting go more and more, we start to experience radical shifts in our lives and our
experience. The only thing you truly lose is the stories you’ve been carrying along with the
pain and suffering that come with them. Once you’re free of these, you experience a new
level of freedom which serves as a powerful foundation to create a much more meaningful
life upon. The question is, who are you behind the mask? Who are you behind the roles you
play? Who are you without the stories and conditioning from the past? The letting go
technique will give you all of these answers and more.

The practical aspect of letting go is very simple to do and that's what makes it so effective.
The best way of learning how to use this method is when you’re faced with an uncomfortable
emotion or thought. The first step is to recognise what you want to let go of. Working with a
strong negative emotion or thought is an easy starting point because they can be hard to
ignore. By consciously looking for things to let go of, you’ll gradually train your awareness to
‘catch’ negative thoughts and emotions as they come up. Sometimes we can be
unconscious of negative emotions and thoughts when they arise and before we know it we
are reacting to them. Training your awareness (see RAS section) to recognize them is the
first step to overcoming them. Initially it will require a degree of discipline and patience, since
these negative states tend to have a strong pull. They can pull our awareness away and
before we know it we are feeling bad or are caught up in a negative thinking/feeling cycle.
Start by becoming aware every time an undesirable thought or emotion comes over you. It
can even help to make a quick note in your phone or journal of the date, time and place a
negative emotion or thought arose. When you record each negative emotion or thought you
increase your awareness around them, so they barely ever go past without being recognized
by you. This level of awareness around what you’re thinking and feeling, moment to
moment, will accelerate the transformation of your consciousness.
The second step is to simply let it go. As you start seeing negative thoughts and feelings
arise, you’ll have a choice right then in that moment. You can make the conscious decision
to let it go immediately. The thought or feeling will beg for your attention. It will plead for you
to identify with it and thus give it life (energize it) but learn to remain strong and disciplined at
that moment.

The letting go process involves you feeling the energy behind a negative thought or emotion
but not identifying with it. There is always an energetic component to negativity, by feeling it
in your body and then choosing to let it run itself out, you’re letting it go. Another way of
saying this, is you must surrender to even the most painful emotions. Don’t resist the energy
of the emotional response you’re having. Open up and relax the whole body including your
shoulders, back, jaw, face, arms and torso. This will allow the energy behind the thought or
emotion to move through more smoothly. When the energy behind the thought or feeling is
strong it might feel like it’s kicking and screaming for you to identify with it. It wants you to get
caught up in its story, but as soon as you do that, you’ve fallen, and the ego has won. Stay
with the energy you experience, but don’t label it as bad, just be with it, watch it, witness it.
You can even say quietly to yourself, ‘I choose to let this go’.

This is one of the most powerful yet simple techniques for spiritual transformation, but it also
needs to be mastered. In the beginning you might struggle letting go of even small stuff but
after months and years of practice you’ll eventually get to the point where you can let go of
anything that doesn’t serve you and you’ll be able to do it in a heartbeat. That is true power!

The key to mastery is to lean into any discomfort and resistance, such as negative emotions
and undesirable thought patterns. Naturally we want to move away from and avoid these.
We've been conditioned to seek pleasure and avoid pain. However, the journey of
self-discovery is not necessarily logical. The trick is to understand that your suffering is
showing you the way to your freedom. Follow the uncomfortable thoughts and feelings, for
they will lead you to your truth. They are constant reminders of where your greatest growth
lies, just like a powerful fire breathing dragon which is hiding a valuable treasure. This is not
necessarily easy at first and it will require faith and courage but as you do this and continue
to let go into deeper and deeper levels of resistance, you'll start creating more freedom in
your life. Facing those things, you’ve been avoiding for a long time is one of the keys to
making this a successful journey. Keep welcoming any discomfort and surrendering to
whatever you find there.
As you perfect this technique, you’ll begin to reclaim the energy which had been lost in
attachments to old stories and identifications. As you reclaim your energy, you grow in
awareness and you stop feeling limited. Your consciousness expands and you move up the
scale from negative to positive. You literally have more energy to direct your life in the
direction you wish. You stop being a victim to old programming, instead you start to become
the master of your life.

Transformative Breathwork

The breath is a powerful tool that has been used for many years for spiritual and
self-development work. In this section I will teach you a breathwork that will help you
transcend the energy of old traumas and stuck negative emotions. Before we get to the
practical exercise, I’d like to briefly explain the role the breath plays in relation to trauma and
emotional pain.

Trauma can be defined as anything that creates a lasting disturbance in mind and body as a
result of accidents, emotional or physical abuse, assaults, witnessing horrific acts etc.
Traumatic events can stop us from breathing momentarily. When this happens, the energetic
response of trauma and its associated emotions (usually negative) can get trapped in the
body. By holding our breath in such moments, we also ‘hold’ onto trauma energy and their
associated emotions. Fearful moments affect our rate of breathing since we tend to hold our
breath or breathe more shallowly. We then get stuck connected to the emotional energy of
the event when the trauma occurred. The breath therefore is a powerful way to reset
ourselves by getting trapped energy moving without the need for digging up or reliving old
traumatic events.

This breathing exercise will help you transcend any stuck energy and its associated negative
emotions by working with energy that is trapped in the lower chakras. Since these first three
chakras are associated with survival, fearful events tend to cause consciousness and energy
to remain stuck at this level. This limits our consciousness and is the reason we can’t get
beyond something that happened a long time ago. The body stays frozen in the same state
as when the trauma occurred.

The goal of this breathing exercise is to get this trapped energy moving upwards into the
higher chakras. We are attempting to transmute negative energy into higher levels of
positive energy. Research has shown that when this breathwork is carried out successfully, it
can increase amplitudes of energy in the brain by over 100 times. When you begin
increasing the levels of energy in your brain, you begin to raise your level of consciousness,
which as we know has a powerful transformative effect on the individual.

This exercise will involve you learning how to tighten and contract certain muscles in your
body. The first muscle is the perineum, this sits at the base of the torso (root chakra) behind
the sexual organs. This is the muscle which is used to hold back your pee. You might be
familiar with an exercise called kegels which uses the same muscle. Get comfortable with
contracting this muscle and holding as tightly as you can for at least 10 seconds.

The next part involves contracting the lower and upper abdominals, which relate to the
sacral and solar plexus chakras, respectively. Practice this by tightly contracting and drawing
your abdominal muscles inward with a focus on the lower and upper abdominals. Squeeze
these muscles as tightly as you can. When you are comfortable contracting the abdominal
muscles, the next step is to combine contracting the abdominals with the perineum muscle
simultaneously. Practice contracting these muscles at the same time until you feel you can
hold the contraction for at least 10 seconds.

The next step is to introduce the breath. Before you breathe in, close your eyes and look
upward. Keep your eyeballs locked in this upward position. Along with this, place the tip of
your tongue to the roof of your mouth. You will be holding your tongue and eyes in these
positions throughout the breathwork. Next breathe in forcefully and deeply through the nose
while contracting these three lower centres simultaneously (perineum and abdominals).
Keep hold of the breath while contracting these muscles tightly. Hold your breath and the
contraction for at least 10 seconds. Really squeeze these lower chakras. Be mindful of them
while holding a strong intention that you are pulling old negative energy out of these areas
and up into your head. Then take your awareness to the top of your head as this is where
you are aiming to send this energy. Keep squeezing tightly to get that old trauma energy
moving.

After holding for at least 10 seconds exhale slowly. Here you can go straight into another
cycle but if this is your first time, maybe take a few moments and a few normal breaths
before going again. This is a fairly advanced breathwork, so it may feel unnatural at first as
there are a number of elements which require your focus and attention but with time and
patience, you’ll learn to master it. It is very important that you hold a strong intention of why
you’re doing this. It should feel like work, as though you are exerting effort, it is not a passive
exercise.

In terms of frequency I like to do 7-10 cycles of this breath per session. I also prefer to do it
first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. Since it involves a tight contraction of the
abdominals, I feel that having an empty stomach helps me to tighten the contraction even
more. I would also suggest doing it for 3-5 sessions per week depending on how you feel
afterwards and in the following days. You may sense a different sensation in your head, this
shows you have been doing the exercise correctly. This feeling in your head is a reflection of
the increased levels of energy you have been sending upward into this area. You should
also feel lighter and a sense of expansion, as you’re reliving old negative energy and
creating space within your body. This will allow you to embody higher levels of
consciousness.

Remember to be patient, hold a strong intention and make the commitment to master the
technique. If you do these things, I assure you that you’ll experience significant shifts in a
short period of time. Continue to use this breathwork for as long as you feel it is helping.
 Chapter 9 - Becoming Unlimited Consciousness

‘The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our
awareness’​ – Lao Tzu

The final chapter of this book will help empower you to live through a higher consciousness
mindset. Here your understanding of consciousness will deepen, and you will hopefully
acknowledge why it is the beginning and the end of the journey. This is where true
long-lasting continuous transformation is mastered. These last two sections are based on
long-term practices which should be honed throughout life to continually aid greater growth
and expansion.

Residing as Awareness

As the emotional and psychological ‘gunk’ from your past is cleared away, through mastering
the exercises from previous chapters, you get closer to your natural state. This natural state
is complete consciousness which is also known as your true Self (see chapter on
consciousness). Most of us are not aware of it due to the emotional energies and
psychological programming which take us over and distract us from our true nature.
However, once you get beyond the unconscious patterns of mind and ego, you begin
tapping into the powerful state of pure consciousness.

Consciousness is inherently loving, peaceful and positive. It is the ultimate highest truth of
oneness and unconditional love. When you uncover it, this state begins to permeate your
entire being and self. By residing here for longer periods of time, your body and mind are
reset to the truth of who you are. Old psychological programs and painful emotions are
washed away at even deeper levels.

The more you remain conscious of consciousness, the more you begin to identify with it as
your truest Self and realize that the ego was never really you, you were identifying with the
wrong aspect all along. As this realization is acknowledged and experienced at deeper and
deeper levels, false identifications are naturally released and dissolved until the limited egoic
self is completely released. Once this state is accessible, residing in and being aware of
consciousness becomes the main exercise one needs to do. Each time you manage to
connect to the field of unlimited consciousness, you return renewed. It’s like being washed in
the deepest most loving energy of the Universe. Consciousness has depth, and once you
become aware of it you can start to explore this depth. This exploration will reveal the
mysteries of life to you. Everything that exists, everything that has ever existed and that will
ever exist will do so through consciousness. When you genuinely get to know your true
nature (consciousness), you begin to understand all of creation. This level of awareness will
have profound implications for your life.

You can deepen and speed up this process by practicing a method called ‘being aware of
being aware’ or residing in awareness. The aim here is to go back to the source. This is the
beginning and the end of the spiritual journey. Realizing this, however, can be challenging if
we are still over-identified with the content of our minds. If you do find it difficult to quieten
your mind, I recommend spending time on raising your baseline level of awareness which
can be achieved through the exercises in earlier chapters.

Residing in awareness, is a relatively simple practice which involves paying attention to who
is having the current experience and holding your awareness on that. This analogy may
help, imagine a torch, this torch shines a light on whatever it is pointed toward. The light of
the torch is like your awareness. We tend to direct our awareness (light) to the outside world
or toward our inner world of thoughts and feelings. But what happens when you switch off
the torch? Then it’s just a torch with no light. In exactly the same way, when you stop
directing your attention towards anything, what remains? What is the source of your
attention? Go there and stay there for as long as you can. Rather than focusing your
attention on ‘something’, relax it, allow your attention to sink back into its source. Let go and
fall into your truth.

Don’t label or think about this intellectually, as soon as you do that you have brought mind
into the equation. Mind cannot know something that has no objective qualities. There are
very few words or thoughts which will help you to understand this experience. The best that
thoughts and words can do is simply direct you toward the experience. Even these words
here are simply pointers.

This awareness is always present, you’re experiencing it right now as you read these words.
Become familiar with that. What’s the medium you witness every single experience through?
Get curious about that. We overlook it because it’s so glaringly obvious but it’s always there.
You can use powerful questions to help guide you, such as ‘Who am I?’ and look for the
answer through experience not through words or mental concepts. Contemplate this
question often. Use it in meditation and slowly you’ll begin to make progress. Don’t get
frustrated if you struggle to realize what I am saying, it’s because you have never spent time
practicing this. But the more you practice it and the more committed you are, slowly this truth
will be revealed to you. You’ll then realize it’s always been here; you had just overlooked it.

As you practice this regularly and get better at it, the more you will be cleared of old negative
emotions and traumas. This is because higher states of consciousness reside on a different
frequency to the negative states. As you explore the depths of consciousness the old
negative stuff will bubble up to the surface of your awareness where you can work to
integrate its newly released energy.

Your life is a reflection of your current level of consciousness, if you’re stuck in unhappiness,
or any negative state, your level of consciousness is at that level. By recognizing
consciousness and putting your attention on it, its level begins to increase because you’re
energizing it - where attention goes, energy flows. As your consciousness expands and
increases it resonates with higher emotional states. A by-product of this shift is that the old
negative states cannot survive at the new higher frequency of consciousness, simply
because it’s a different energetic frequency.

Therefore, how rapidly you transform depends on how deeply you can let go into
consciousness. Paradoxically, however, it is not always easy to go to the deeper levels
immediately, you will need to persist without getting impatient. Your ego may still hold you
back. In most instances, deeper traumas can only be released and integrated little by little, if
they all came up at once, it could potentially retraumatize you. You have to remember some
of this old negative stuff you’ve been holding on to has been with you for decades, it has
compounded, it has grown in energy. There can be a lot of emotional pain attached to these
old states. What you’ll find is that as you go deeper, you’ll reach a point which is ‘far enough’
and it is ok for you to stay here for a period of time. If you go too deeply, too quickly, you
may experience too many overwhelming and painful emotions from your past. This can be
retraumatizing and can set your growth back. Be mindful of this and trust your intuition.

Presence & The Present Moment

‘Always say “yes” to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to
create inner resistance to what already is? What could be more insane than to oppose life
itself, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is. Say “yes” to life — and see how
​ Eckhart Tolle
life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.’ –

In the final section of this book I’d like to talk about the Power of Presence. Presence is a
powerful state of being which also dissolves ego. It is very closely related to the last section
of ‘residing as awareness’.

All the exercises in this book are related to softening the ego. Being present is one of the
most popular methods for doing this. This is because of the power which is accessible in a
state of complete presence. I am not going to explain too much about the ‘how to’ be more
present, as there are many popular books written on this subject already. I am more
concerned with explaining challenges you might experience to being more present and the
transformative power that is available to you in your own presence.

When we first hear about living in the present moment, we might realize that we have been
living in an auto-pilot unconscious mode for most of our lives. This almost instantaneously
brings in a higher degree of awareness, as we become aware of our unconsciousness. This
is the first step towards living more fully in the present moment. Upon realizing this, we may
then try to force ourselves to be more present and this might help initially but gradually over
time it becomes more challenging to keep yourself there. It requires a tremendous amount of
willpower to keep ourselves present through discipline alone. Infact, you can’t force yourself
to be ‘more present’ simply because you are always present. You can’t become more of
something that you are already fully are!

What you’re essentially trying to do when you force being present, is you’re attempting to
block out your egoic mind with force. You might feel you need to use force to be present
because your mind programming is constantly distracting you from the present moment. As
stated, you are always present, this state is always accessible to you. It isn’t somewhere you
have to get to, instead simply experience what is occurring in each moment with no
judgement. Forcing yourself into the present moment by blocking out unwanted thoughts is
not productive because you’re creating friction and resistance.

The ego is naturally repelled by presence. The two cannot co-exist. When you’re reacting
from an unconscious pattern of behaviour, then you’re not conscious of presence. But if you
can remain fully present and aware in the midst of an unconscious reaction then you’re
being fully present with whatever discomfort is occurring in that moment. True presence is
not about trying to force yourself into the present moment, but accepting whatever is arising
in it, even if it doesn’t feel good. As you stop resisting the discomfort of negative feelings,
they run out of steam. Unconscious patterns and negative emotions need your resistance to
them, to energize them and keep them alive. Once the resistance is replaced with complete
acceptance, they fall. They can’t feed off your energy anymore. The ego is allergic to the
present moment. This is also why it’s difficult to remain consciously present all of the time,
the ego will eventually be triggered strongly enough to push you out of the moment. A trigger
enables the ego to access a hit of emotional energy which strengthens its hold. When you
stop reacting to triggers, you stop feeding your ego.

As we have discussed in this book, traumatized people carry the scars of their pasts in their
dysregulated and disorganized nervous systems. For these people especially, it’s more
difficult to remain present as an aspect of their consciousness is still trapped in the past.
Therefore, body and mind can easily be triggered into an old negative state. Be aware of this
and don’t be too hard on yourself if you find being present is too challenging.

As your awareness increases through transformation work, then higher levels of

consciousness are accessible which helps you remain centred and present in the midst of
old egoic patterns. You can then let yourself go even deeper into the present moment where
you’ll experience even higher levels of consciousness. If you master this correctly, it
becomes a positive reinforcing cycle, where higher awareness increases your degree of
presence and vice versa. Each part is reinforcing the other until you’re in a non-stop upward
cycle of incredible growth and transformation.

The deeper you can go, the higher the energy and frequency you will experience. These
deep levels of presence are toxic to the ego. Since the ego is made up of negative
programming from the past, it is repelled by higher levels of conscious presence because
you’re moving closer to unconditional love. The ego does not want to experience oneness
(love) and presence because that is the end of the ego since it is built on a foundation of
separation. In order to sustain itself, ego will fight and keep distracting you from being
present. In everyday life this can look like you getting easily distracted or wasting time on
things which don’t serve your highest good.

Use the Present Moment as a measuring stick for your level of growth and development.
The more aware and present you are, the more you’re progressing and growing. The more
present you are, the less ego you are carrying. A major side effect of all transformation and
healing work is increased presence. If what you’re doing is truly working you will start to
experience more states of oneness and presence occurring naturally. It won’t be something
you have to force yourself into.

However, we can help aid our capacity for presence through regular meditation. Develop a
consistent meditation practice where you spend time remaining as present as possible and
going as deeply into the moment as you can. Experience whatever arises non-judgmentally
and you will begin melting your ego away. Presence is only now, that means no past or
future. When you remove past and future, you remove ego. So try not to get caught up in
stressing about things that happened in the past or may happen in the future. Maintain a
sense of detachment by simply watching and feeling whatever you experience in each
moment.

As you master the art of presence, you begin to rewire mind and body to reflect higher states
of love. This further softens old egoic patterns and deepens your capacity for even more
presence. Complete presence draws you closer into unlimited consciousness, which is a
field of unconditional love. Therefore, the more presence you experience, the more you’re
connecting to this field which permeates your entire body and mind. These experiences
activate new neural pathways and brain cells to wire together in mind and body which makes
it easier for you to access these states more often. If you had negative beliefs about yourself
and life, naturally they will change to reflect more loving and positive beliefs and emotions.
Therefore, once you experience a new level of consciousness, you can’t go back, you are
literally rewired to a new level of reality and experience.
 Conclusion

To conclude, I would like to offer you some words of inspiration to keep you focused on the
journey ahead.

The road to authentic transformation will require your commitment, awareness, courage and
trust. It will probably be one of the greatest challenges you face in your life. Sometimes
you’re going to feel like quitting, like you can’t go on. Sometimes you will question if it is even
worth it. It’s at exactly those times you’re making the most progress and your ego is fighting
back by making you feel low. If you can tough it out at those times, you’ll progress more
quickly. If you allow the tough times to frustrate you then the journey will be harder. This path
will develop a tremendous inner strength within, that you will need in order to build the life of
your dreams. This is why the inner transformation is necessary, it is equipping you with all
the tools you need to create your dream life.

If you truly wish to transform as rapidly as possible, I welcome you to move towards internal
discomfort while staying mindful, aware and non-judgemental. Go where you fear going and
keep going there until you eventually break through. If you’re more content on taking things
slower that’s fine too. Most importantly, trust your path and your inner knowing. Your intuition
will naturally grow stronger the further along you come. You’ll intuitively know where to go
next and what to work on. You won’t need any guidance from anyone. Once you reach that
stage you’re well on your way.

If it helps, find others who can support your growth. Maybe a coach, a group or a friend who
are on a similar journey. When you see others changing and transforming their lives, be
happy for them. The more appreciation you feel for others accomplishments, the more you
welcome the same changes into your own life. Reality is one after all. Remember also to
work with your body, get comfortable and at peace in your body this is the access point to an
empowering life. As you do this more and more, you’ll develop a greater resilience to handle
the ups and downs of life. You’ll become centred and strong without being swayed by your
emotions and thoughts but instead you’ll make decisions from your deepest truth.

You will feel yourself changing when you sense a coming back to yourself. It will feel
peaceful and pleasant. By now you will have shed the aspects which weren’t really you and
you’ll be letting go of the mask that had always limited you. It can feel like you’re falling back
into yourself and naturally aligning with your truth. So, let yourself fall and trust that whatever
catches you, is what you've been seeking your whole life.
 References

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