Stages in MINDFULNESS practice

When we first decide to meditate and turn our awareness inside, we will probably find quite a chaotic bundle of different impulses:

• PHYSICAL: all kind of bodily sensations, some pleasant and some not
• EMOTIONS: big scale of different emotions, good and difficult ones  
• THOUGHTS: stream of thoughts going from past to future, pulling our awareness away from the now

At first glance, this seems to be what we are! And actually, because we know so little about all these 3 levels of our being, we are constantly tense. We might believe, that we are tense because we don't know and can't control how others/world/life will treat us. And yes, that is also true. At this level of our human development, we (still) have parts of animal brain and act like animals watching for the danger, that could appear any time. But there is also another truth - it is not "the other" by itself, that makes us feel good or bad. It is our own reaction to the inner or outer source, it is a reaction of that "3-level-bundle", that might be pleasant or unpleasant and so making us relaxed or tense. 

So if we wish to get to know ourselves and make our lives easier, we first need to get to know these 3 levels of our being. When we know something and get familiar with it, when we embrace it with compassion and self-love, it belongs to us. It stops being an unknown "bag" we are carrying around all our lives, it stops being  that certain "me" that we know so less about and whose reactions we can not estimate. Not knowing "me" makes us tense and amplifies our fear of fully living our lives. Once we know it better, we owe it and don't identify with it automatically. We have it, instead of it having us.

With Mindfulness practice we develop a capacity of being present and kind with the full spectrum of our experiences. We learn to contain and handle deep grief, fear or loss, and also ecstatic happiness and openess. We learn to recognize our thoughts and not identify with them. We learn to embrace and handle uncomfortable bodily states or pain. This big capacity brings us new freedom.

The 3 levels of our being - body, emotions, thoughts - are our form in this human life. Body has a physical form. Emotions and thoughts can be found as forms of energy at auric levels. Also every cell or organ of our body has its energy field, which has a certain form. This is how our formless essence gets expressed in form in this lifetime.

A good support on this level are all single sessions, to work on the issues of the content of life - whichever theme is occupying you right now. Very helpful are also Self-Love workshop and online course. Self-Love and compassion are the basis of this work. We can't move futher if we don't develop a good heart towards ourselves. Out of that good heart, almost automatically a more loving presence and relationships are established with the world. 

After making a friendly acquaintance with the content, the forms of our being, we move to the next level. Here we strengthen our wisdom by witnessing the very nature of life. We will notice that the content always changes, that life is always changing. We can be sure, that after each happy day sooner or later another sad day will come. And after a sad day, another happy day will come. We will notice that the stream of thoughts is not possible to stop and that we can't control rising of our emotions . We understand that our clingling to happiness does not makes us happy. And that sorrow also passes away. We accept the ever-changing nature of life. We recognize that when we follow life really present, moment-to-moment, it is a constant transformation, it is a dance! So we learn to see the content for that what it is and not to identify with each little "wave" on the surface (otherwise we get seasick!). We learn to surf on the waves.

At this stage we learn to see beauty in every phase of our life and also life in general. We become wise by accepting all four seasons in a year and in our lives with the same loving attitude, because we understand their deep meaning. 

As a powerful help on this level of development I am offering a few special sessions and/or workshops:

• Loss and Grief: accepting our impermanence - workshop
• Nature as Teacher: directly experiencing the everchanging nature of life by being in the forest - group
• Relationships: witnessing coming and going of relationships in our life - life coaching and counseling

The next stage is moving our focus even further, to the pure awareness, that is witnessing all our experiences. You can notice, that when you experience something, you know that you have experiened it, because there is an inner "eye" watching you, the one awareness that can tell about it. If you would be totally immerged into the experience, becoming the experience, there would be no one to tell about it, no one who knows you have had it. So there is an inner instance, that is all the time there and that witnesses what is going on inside you, without being totally immerged.

We learn to identify with this spaceous awareness, this silent and vast witnessing consciousness. This is the level of Essence and it has no form. It is not connected to the chakras, who have their forms and flows. Pure Essence is more like space and it feels empty and full at the same time. Actually it is impossible to describe it cause it is beyond words.  

Meditation practices speak of
witnessing, noticing,
following the breath ...
but in just sitting
it's even more simple.
Silence bears it all.
~ Gangaji ~

Once you deeply touch your soul and your essence, your purpose in this life time will start to unfold. The birth of this process is unique for everyone. Sometimes it needs a long time of stillness, of riping and rooting, before the first steps can be done. Mindfulness practice helps us to follow and allow the process to unfold in its own time.

The power and the longing of the soul has to be taken seriously. I have noticed, that if a soul carries a huge longing for manifestation, the urge of the soul can even turn into distruction, if you don't listen to it. The inner diamond can turn into the inner demon, which can take shape of illness, stress, rage or chaos - only to influence us to have a closer look and finally take care of the embodyment of our mission.  

The loving action, that comes out of your core, has a taste of service to mankind, coloured by your unique colors. You might start your Soul Business or any other way of service. The conciousness, that you bring into it, will come from beyond. And a creative power of your impact will be pure Life's creation, manifested throught the vessel of your unique human existance.

My firther offers, that can support you at this point, are:

• Your Soul Business - single coaching and online course
• Authentic Design - single coaching and workshops
• SoulWork Questionnaire - my free gift for your inquiry around SoulBusiness and Authentic Design