You Are Not Alone

There are so many challenges in our lives and in the world today, and struggling with these challenges often makes us feel all alone. Yet what we forget is that we are not alone. Life is orchestrated by what I call “Intelligence” and this Intelligence is constantly unfolding all of the amazing facets of Life within and around you. 

This Intelligence is always with you. It breathes you, heals the cuts on your skin, and digests your food. It keeps the planets spinning as they do, bringing spring forth out of winter and night into day. Some people call it “God,” but so much violence has been done in the name of God that I prefer to use the word Intelligence. I like what author and spiritual teacher, Stephen Levine, says,“I have no idea what God is, but there is nowhere that I don’t see it.” So, use whatever word resonates with you – God, Spirit, Soul, Buddha, Nature, etc. – and know that whatever word you use, it is referring to this intelligent field that permeates absolutely everything.

I have been reading Eben Alexander’s new book, The Map of Heaven.  Eben is a neuroscientist from Harvard who contracted spinal meningitis and was in a coma for 7 days. During his time out of his body, he discovered that Life is so much more than he thought it was and that he is not alone. In his first book, Proof of Heaven, when asked to put into words what he experienced, he said it was impossible to narrow it down into words, but the closest he could come was this: “Love is, without a doubt, the basis of everything. Not some abstract, hard-to-fathom kind of love but the day-to-day kind that everyone knows—the kind of love we feel when we look at our spouse and our children, or even our animals. In its purest and most powerful form, this love is not jealous or selfish, but unconditional. This is the reality of realities, the incomprehensibly glorious truth of truths that lives and breathes at the core of everything that exists or will ever exist, and no remotely accurate understanding of who and what we are can be achieved by anyone who does not know it, and embody it in all of their actions.”

So how do you begin to open to all of the support and love that is inherent in this field of Intelligence? One of the most powerful ways I have discovered is to ask for help through asking questions of Life without looking for an answer. When you ask and don’t go immediately to your head to find the answer, you create a vacuum in the universe that will be filled with the answer to your question. You will live the answer rather than trying to figure it out. You can ask questions like “What is the way through this?” or “What is asking to be seen?” or “What I am ready to see here?”  Don’t expect the answer to come in your time.  It will come in Life’s time and Life’s way at the exact moment you are ready to receive it. 

It is pretty amazing when you realize that you, like most people, got caught in the illusion that you are the one who is in charge of your life – that you are the one that has to figure it all out, and not only do it, but do it right. It is also amazing to observe that when you are challenged by Life, the last thing you usually do is ask Life for help! And yet this field of Intelligence is always with you, open to any and all of your requests.

I love Pema Chödrön’s definition of enlightenment: “Relaxing into Life!” It helps me to realize how important it is to take a few moments each day to relax and quiet the busy storyteller in my head. The other thing I do that is helpful is to physically relax my body. For example, I might choose to focus on my breath, relax my belly, let my arms hang freely from my shoulder sockets, unclench my jaw and even let the tension in my feet soften. Physically relaxing your body will actually help you to relax your busy mind so you can be more fully present to what you are experiencing. 

When I am deeply challenged and want to quiet my mind, I often sing a song that my mother taught me many years ago. Over the years the words have changed, so it points more clearly to the phenomenal power of simply “Letting Go and Letting Life.”

Relax, let go, and ground here now.
Relax, let go, and trust what is.
Place all your trust in life, place all of your trust in the flow.
Relax, let go, and open now.
Relax, let go, it’s all okay.
Place all your trust in life, the living flow,
Come home to your heart.

Right now, as you are reading, allow yourself to take some long deep out-breaths. And with every out-breath, allow your whole body to relax. If you are carrying a lot of tension, tighten every muscle on your in-breath and then very slowly release all of your muscles on the out-breath.  Relax, open, soften into Life and discover that you are not alone, for all of the support you long for is always with you right here, right now. 

Image – Portland Map Painting by Artist Rachel Austin  rachelannaustin.com  rachelaustin.etsy.com