Stage One: Being asleep
The ‘blur’ stage! You are looking outwards, you are blaming others, you are in victim mode, you think it’s happening to you, you feel helpless, powerless.
Typical situations – you get sick and blame the weather (!), your relationship issues are all the other person’s fault, you try to fix something from the outside in – change your job/car/condo/country/boyfriend.
Most of the world we live in today is fast asleep.
Stage Two: We realize we are dreaming
After enough pain, and changes you realize it doesn’t matter what you try – its not working. This can take a loooong time for many and we have different rates of realisations depending on what the issue is – some things we may catch very quickly, others will take us a lifetime to realize. When we realise we are dreaming, we are still asleep but we begin to see that our actions and our thinking is what is directing the dream, the dream itself is not the problem – the problem is within us.
This is a massive shift in awareness when many of us begin to seek out alternative healing, Reiki, methods of self-empowerment. We begin to explore the ‘cause and effect’ spectrum of creation – we realize that when we think or feel something – there is a positive or negative effect; the action is related to our thinking. We realize our negative issues are caused by what we are thinking or doing – it is not only the other person’s fault, we have some responsibility in this as well.
In this stage many of us become ‘seekers’ as we start to look for alternative answers both in therapies, and within ourselves. This stage can be incredibly freeing and growing as we make rapid progress and feel much lighter, more in control and happier.
Stage Three: Preparing to Wake up
After some seeking we realize what needs to happen – we need to change, we need to let go of many things, we need to change the job/car/condo/country/boyfriend but not for another job/car/condo/country/boyfriend we are now aware that changing the external is not the answer, we need to change the entire dimension – step into an entirely new paradigm – let go of the old. So instead of changing from one job in insurance to another, we want to change the entire career. A quantum leap is about to occur and we can often suffer a feeling of set-back or fear when looking over the edge.
Preparing to wake up is a huge leap of faith, we know we are sleeping, we know there is more, we know we are right to make this leap – and yet our logical, cognitive mind is going crazy – “how do you know?”
The rest of the world is still asleep. Maybe they are all right, and you are the crazy one? But in your heart of hearts, you know the leap has to be done, in fact you know its happening anyway so do you struggle and resist the fall, or do you take it with a deep breath and jump, with joy in your heart?
At this stage it is common to think you are going backwards, to feel an increase in fear and insecurity. This is natural and a sure sign you are preparing for the leap! But the fear can keep us at this stage for a very very long time.
Stage Four: Being Awake
You leap. You fall. You learn to fly.
But flying is not a natural state – not in the beginning anyway. When we first awaken the light is so bright, the noise is so loud, the people are so alienating, we are disorientated (think Matrix, the movie), have we made a terrible mistake? Isn’t it better to be asleep?
Like anything learned – we have to practice. Now we are back at toddler stage – learning to walk. You’ve done this all before, you learned to walk, to run, to eat, to go to the toilet – its all just learning to do something new and different. Though in this case you may be doing it without the adoration of your parents smiling and coaxing you on – this time you may be going against your loved ones. They are still asleep and scared for you, they don’t understand why you are doing what you are doing, they are fearful they are going to loose you, or have to follow you. You may hit huge resistance at this stage and wish you’d never started. So its important to find your support group, the people who understand and are with you, the teachers who are able to act as guides. When you awaken, it’s a whole new world, and you need to find the people already there to help you practice your flight.
Once you learn, once you are flying, you experience the joy of being home, of being in your true state. The resistance and struggles you’ve experienced in the past begin to drop away and the world feels absolutely, perfectly right. When challenges arise, which of course they do, you respond differently – because you are awake. You know the challenges are all in the dream. You may even fall asleep now and again, but you don’t stay there long, you know you’re dreaming, and you always find your way back home.
