The Science Behind the Law of Attraction Magazine December, 2017 | Page 23

mouth. As you gradually exhale, feel the steady wind created by your breath. This wind breath connects you to the
moving air in the atmosphere that circumnavigates the globe every few days. During the course of its existence, the
energy and molecules of your wind breath will subtly touch every other living being on the planet? plants, animals,
people, and even rocks.
Full-scale awakening can take many years. In general, waking up occurs in three stages: first there is self-awareness
awakening, which is followed by spiritual awakening, and then radical awakening.
SELF-AWARENESS AWAKENING:LIFE FLOWS LIKE THE WIND
In childhood, I developed obsessive tendencies while waiting hours for my estranged father to arrive for a visit. To
soothe myself, I would repeat nonsensical phrases and count the cars that drove by. At age 30, these types of
compulsive coping skills were sabotaging my career as a
chef. Every morning I would pace back and forth in front of
the small restaurant I owned, waiting for my most loyal
employee to arrive, and then proceed to remind him of his
shortcomings. My controlling behavior gradually pushed him
and all my other staff toward the exit door. For five years,
my restaurant?s reputation had flourished even as I slowly
died inside. Running it demanded a level of business
acumen I did not yet possess. There were bills to pay, meals
to prepare, staff to manage, and customers to wow. What the
patrons could not see beneath the perfectly presented
plates of food I served them was brewing anger, selfishness,
and a growing despondency.
My father then died abruptly, ending our difficult
relationship. The winds of spirit motivated me to take action. I visited several doctors, wellness practitioners, and
psychics, and attended 12-step meetings to deal with my issues with substance abuse. During the first raw days of
sobriety, it was as if a tornado ravaged my inner landscape. The winds were so intense that eventually I decided to
spend two weeks recuperating in a mental hospital.
During one of our regular walks, the hospital psychiatrist suggested that finding answers to my problems required
reconciliation with my past. It was good advice, but I was not ready for it. His words left me feeling stranded. I could
not move forward because I was unable to forgive others or myself for events of long ago.
Eight years later, while driving along a country road, the
wind inside me shifted. I was driving with a friend in her
gray 1969 Datsun convertible under a wind-tempered sun,
along the back roads of Route 20. It was the perfect central
New York day for a top-down excursion. Black-spotted dairy
cows ambled across the fields. I lifted my head toward the
heavens and felt the warmth on my skin. Suddenly, a
glimmering wind exploded in the center of my being and
illuminated my consciousness. In that moment, I saw
billowing clouds moving apart and revealing the cerulean
blue of a clear sky. For the first time in my life, I knew that I
did not want to engage in
self-destructive addictive
behaviors anymore. It was
as if a fog that had been
blinding my vision of who I ?could be? was instantly lifted.
This moment of clarity was so intense that it served as the catalyst for a 25-year
adventure to heighten my consciousness further.
For most of us, the urge to ?wake up? is evoked by an experience that profoundly
disturbs us or interferes with the progress of our lives. Longing for deeper
connection creates an opportunity for us to change and do things differently or move
in a new direction. Because we must be willing to change, experiencing the self as
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