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We've been so deeply conditioned that most of us can't even remember our natural expression anymore. Do you remember when you were a child and you were totally connected to the joy of life? You didn't care what anybody thought about you. You just followed your own natural flow. How would we express ourselves now as adults if we reconnected to that state and freed ourselves from a lifetime of conditioning? A fun way to explore this is to self-reflect with radical honesty every time a movement towards action arises in us. The key question to ask yourself is "what energy is underlying this movement?" So you might feel an impulse to call someone. Ask yourself the question. Maybe you'll discover that you're actually feeling lonely and trying to escape the feeling by interacting with that person. You might feel an impulse to eat a cookie. Ask yourself the question. Maybe you'll discover that there's an underlying feeling of sadness that you're trying to numb. You might feel an impulse to post a selfie on social media. Ask yourself the question. Maybe you'll discover that you're feeling needy of attention. Of course you may also discover that there is no underlying, unconscious motive and it's really true for you to do whatever the impulse moves you towards, and that's wonderful. But if you do find that the movement is not coming from Truth, this is an exciting opportunity to align with Truth. When you discover an unconscious underlying motive, first of all celebrate. Your consciousness literally just expanded. The mind tends to be negatively oriented so it can try to use this opportunity as a way to invite for self-criticism and loathing. Don't go there. Stay with feeling gratitude for the seeing and the fact that you're currently releasing unconscious, destructive behaviours and opening more deeply to your True self. Now, open to gently meeting and exploring the emotion. Bring your attention fully present into this moment and follow your breath. Drop your attention into the body and open to feeling. If you look closely, the emotion will present itself as a sensation somewhere in the body. Move your awareness into that sensation and open to fully feeling it. Don't judge it or attach any interpretation to it, just purely feel as you remain present. You may notice the sensation moving or changing. That's ok, the energy has its own intelligence and will release when it's ready. You simply rest as the perceiver and allow. Now as you are totally at one with the feeling, with no agenda to get rid of the emotion or change it in any way, complete this sentence... I feel........... because................ Be radically honest and allow whatever wants to come to come. You may find very old feelings and beliefs arising from your childhood. Explore whatever arises with gentle, non-judgemental, honest curiosity and enquire if the beliefs that arise are really true. If you remain fully present during the exploration, and consciously include the sensations in the body, whatever old emotional baggage is ready to release will release and whatever unconscious beliefs are ready to be seen will be seen. This process may be challenging at first because it means that we have to become aware of the darkness, distortions and pain which are alive in us, but with practice it gets easier, especially when we don't take the darkness to mean anything about us. This practice is incredibly rewarding and literally transforms us from the inside out. We become discerning, authentic and once we see where we're moving through life out of alignment we don't need to act that way anymore. The unconscious behaviours become conscious and we make the shift to flowing through life in alignment with Truth. If you're interested in this kind of exploration, you can find more information about Open to Truth events here. Photo by Robert Collins 
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