I was sitting in a recovery meeting this morning, listening to people share their experiences. There was much talk of acceptance, and what that means. It occurred to me that the most foundational acceptance of any experience is that all we have purview over is the decision over HOW to experience it. Everything else just happens, and is well beyond our control. Knowing that a desire for control is always born of fear, why should we want/try to control it in the first place?
By removing the “I” from any experience, you are allowing the removal of one layer of distortion, one matrix of separation, one cloudy lens of self-centeredness from the actuality of your place as a participant in that moment. Even the words “I want…” are a claim of control/fear, as it implies a lack, and will taint your higher understanding of the experience itself.
Try it simply today. Consciously remove yourself from the moment unfolding before you. Look at the situation with the eyes of an objective observer, stepping above any personal desires for outcome. You will feel the energy of expectation and fear lift. Any fear (well, a large portion of it anyway) will vanish and, to cop a recovery phrase, you will intuitively know how to handle a situation which used to baffle you. You have effectively removed several filters from the lens of your perception, and will notice yourself with the openness and willingness to see so much more of the moment enfolding you. As a result, many more opportunities to learn beyond fear are now open to you.
Taking this a step further, your only true responsibility is to the level of consciousness you bring to any situation. You will call to yourself, from any circumstance, the precise requirements for your own learning at the level of awareness that you are claiming. If you claim in fear, “I am afraid,” then you will be met with fear to learn through — it is a decision to learn from fear. If you claim a situation in anger, you are deciding to learn through anger. It is always a decision…
By reclaiming the divinity that is both your birthright and your truest, undistorted experience of self at that time, you are choosing to learn through the experience of that Truth. In this state of unadulterated beingness, you Know what you must do, what you must attend to, and the “what if…” thinking of a claim made in fear is simply not present.
Try it out yourself today. You needn’t do so aloud (although it would be some pretty serious fearlessness to do so at a grocery store). Claim yourself in your Truest manifestation — the claim of who you really are — “I am fearless/objective/joyful/truthful/love” — followed by an announcement of your purview, “and I am here.”
Notice how this feels in your body and in your mind. Notice your experience of the experience as you shift. Many feel this as a lifting (I personally do), some feel a tingling or a cooling. This is your energy changing and releasing. You will, no matter the physical sensation (or lack thereof), experience a lifting of your perception, consciousness, awareness to the level you have claimed yourself in. With practice, this becomes easier, then almost second nature, then the most natural thing in the world.
At last, you will realize this these higher states are who you truly are, and who you always have been. Everything else was simply a decision to learn through fear.
Note: While this draws on personal experience and many, many teachers from my past and present, I’d like to give particular nods to the 12 Steps and to Paul Selig. I encourage everyone having a human experience to require both for their own learning.