I recently spoke to an amazing group of Rewilding Guides in Angus & Rohini Ross’ Rewilding Training Program. The question that kicked off our discussion was: “Is awareness enough?”
What’s not enough to realize freedom, is awareness of some pattern or experience that still looks like “me” or “mine”. This often happens in therapy and sometimes in coaching. We see “our” habits, “our” issues, and take stock of “our” mistakes. Although there may be some benefits to this, we tend to feel worse than ever because now we’re acutely aware of a bunch of psychology that feels personal and problematic.
But awareness in the sense of seeing that life is simply happening exactly as it is…
…seeing that nothing that happens is about us or happening to us, because “me” and “us” are thoughts arising within what’s happening…
…seeing in a way that widens our aperture so we have a far larger frame of awareness, no longer simply staring at objects, language, thoughts and feelings, but seeing that there is so much more than just those “things”…
…that seems to accompany a true realization of freedom. Freedom is not something that happens, it’s something we realize, or metaphorically fall into, because it’s never not been there.
This widening of the aperture is what changes everything. It’s where we get to wake up from the thoughts, feelings, and identities we’re dreaming up. We are life itself; thoughts, identities, and feelings rise and fall within that.
Suffering ends when we dis-identify with experience, including and especially, the experience of being a separate “me”. The same habitual stuff may come and go, but we come to deeply know that it’s simply life expressing itself. There is nothing personal about it.
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If you want to support people in broadening their awareness, I highly recommend The Rewilding Training or the Change Coach Training Program.
If you’re interested in Rohini & Angus’ Rewilding Guide Training, sign up here to be notified about the next group. https://www.therewilders.org/rewilding-guide-training
If you’re interested in my Change Coach Training Program that begins in just 3 weeks, please check that out here: https://dramyjohnson.com/change-coach-training-certification/
