 The Art and Science of Conscious Living: Protocol & Process | Udemy Living through the simple conscious truth enables you to collaborate easily with life, liberating the mind from fear-based belief systems that build conflicts and developing a mind that takes part in witnessing consciousness. Placing yourself firmly, in full awareness, in the center of your life ... www.udemy.com
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Written By Erica Blackburn
Certified BodyTalk Practitioner & Certified Conscious Living Investigation (CLI) Agent “[God*] grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” - R. N. Are you familiar with this poem? As I consider how to share the difference between the words accept and embrace, it continues to come to me. Although the definitions for accept and embrace are not significantly different in the English language, from a consciousness-based perspective there is a significant difference. Let’s explore it! The poem above highlights that accepting is born from the mind, from fear. The part of us that believes there is separation, and because of this separation we now must modify ourself and our environment to try to get our needs met. As you read the poem, can you feel how it includes:
Consider how much effort, energy and manipulation is happening to force the mind, which is built upon fear, to “accept” - when that truly doesn’t feel safe for the mind. In fact, this behaviour of “accepting” spirals the mind into states of denial, anger and bargaining. Here is an alternative: embracing! Imagine that embracing is always happening in the heart. Our Conscious Parent (a.k.a. Universal Consciousness) is in a constant state of embracing whatever is naturally unfolding in life. Embrace includes:
If I was to re-write the poem from the consciousness-based perspective of embracing, it would simply be: “[God*], thank you, that I am already whole and unconditionally lovable as I am - always.” Can you hear and feel the wisdom in this? It wouldn’t even be said out loud, the heart simply expresses gratitude in each moment - no matter what is unfolding. Beyond the mind, true ‘embrace’ exists because there is wholeness: there is no fear, no agenda, and no attachment to what is unfolding. From a consciousness-based perspective, this looks like showing up for whatever is present in the moment and using the awareness practices of CLI and BodyTalk to collaborate with the mind and fear, so that life and ourSelf can truly be embraced! Want to experience this for yourself? Check out our calendar of events and choose how we can best support you! * The word ‘God’ can be interchanged with: Universe, Universal Consciousness, Source, Bliss, The Dao, Unmanifest, Undifferentiated Energy, All That Is, etc.  By Zack Vernon
Looking for an answer in the easiest place? When I saw this cartoon, I stopped and pondered “Who would actually do this!?” and “ why would someone spend their time looking for their lost wallet, in a place where they didn’t even lose it?” And then I realized this cartoon was alerting me to think about the ways I must do this in my life; how I look in the easiest places for something I need to find such as the answer to my “problems”. Although the cartoon is satire, I imagine his thoughts are something like “Well if I can’t see my wallet in the dark what is the point of looking there. I will look where I can easily see instead”. From the ego’s perspective the need to DO something about the missing wallet is satisfied even though it makes no sense. And our senses facilitate this “problem-solving” by filtering out and distorting the information we perceive which leads us to only considering looking in the “easy” place. My observation is that human nature is that we will always look where it’s easiest first, where we hold the least accountability and can try to blame someone else for what's happening. But something really great can come out of noticing or becoming aware that we are looking where it’s easy. The key here is to recognize the pattern! Many of us (and I’ll speak for myself here) default into looking in the easy places for the solution. This could be something as subtle as taking an extra vitamin, deciding to avoid “negative” people, trying to change a business issue with more marketing and posting on social media or noticing a part of your body is sore and seeking help only on the physical level. Recognizing the pattern is just the first step in gaining the awareness, but there is still more exploration to be done. Eventually we will have to look in the dark spots where we lost what we are looking for. Hint: it is not outside of you and it is not in what you are trying to blame. 😊 July’s Level Up Program explored the Stages of a Dying Belief System (Pages 31 & 32 in the Conscious Living Investigation manual). We investigated the stages of Denial, Anger and Bargaining. This cartoon is a great example of the more we continue to “Look under the street light”, the more our own denial continues. That is the denial that we are having a problem or that there is anything wrong in the first place and we avoid taking action. As long as we continue to deny we are not able to move through the rest of the stages progressing into Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Surrender. Looking for the answer underneath the streetlight is just our mind attempting to keep us safe by deflecting at all costs our own accountability to what we are experiencing. And although we might not find the answer under the street light, often it is necessary before we will feel inspired to dig deeper into our dis-ease or discomfort. When the problem isn’t big enough yet we will do our best to avoid it until we cannot avoid it anymore and only then will we be ready to look outside of the easy areas. By Erica Blackburn
CLI Agent & BodyTalk Practitioner Do you remember this scene from the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s? It is near the end of the film, Holly is sitting in the back of a taxi, ready to flee New York to escape the emotional and mental pain she is experiencing, which she believes is due to events and relationships in her life. Paul, her love interest, standing in the pouring rain, looks at Holly through the open taxi door and says: “No matter where you run, you end up running into yourself.” Originally, I selected this topic for the Show The Hell Up summer newsletter because there is a tendency to “get out of town”, travel and seek a different location to be in during the summer months – whether it is a cottage, a beach or a new city! This topic was chosen before the experience of Covid-19. Now, the desire to have a “getaway” may be highlighted even more so because of the long periods of isolation and restrictions on travel. From a consciousness-based perspective there is an opportunity here! Rather than exploring or changing your “external” environment, Conscious Living Investigation (CLI) allows you to explore your inner environment – your mind! It is your mind that creates belief systems, conditions, judgements, opinions - based on fear - to protect you. To keep you safe. It is your mind that creates the projections you see surrounding you! What if instead of changing your external environment, you explored your mind? This is what we do in CLI and it’s why one of the fundamental principles of CLI is the statement: “everywhere you go – there you are!” Often, the underlying reason for traveling, moving, changing location, or a relationship of any kind – home, work, life – is to cope and manage. There is a pain that is being denied inside, and you may believe that exerting effort to “fix” your outer world will be the solution. In theory, this is a brilliant strategy. In reality, you may recall your own experiences whereby trying to change something in your environment: relationships, jobs, houses, cities, countries, etc. only led to that very same thing you were avoiding popping up in your new: relationship, job, home, etc. The reason “everywhere you go – there you are” is because as your mind creates belief systems, conditions, judgements, and opinions they become filters on your senses. These lenses you are seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching through are distorted by your mind. This helps the mind stay safe through rules, making meaning and creating shortcuts. The information your brain receives from your senses is thus incomplete, but the mind (falsely) believes it has the whole picture! Imagine all the effort, energy and time you may put toward changing what is “outside” of you, when the root of what needs to be loved, embraced and become whole is on the inside – your mind. As belief systems, conditions, judgements, and opinions are resolved, they become wisdom in your heart. Because of this inner alchemy you may notice there is no longer a need to change, fix, escape or travel from the very moment you are in. The present moment. As the mind experiences wholeness, all possibilities are then available and equal. Energy is undifferentiated and your experience simply unfolds. This may look many different ways. And the whole mind does not judge it at all. If you are interested in loving all of you through consciousness-based practices with us, please check out our website for classes, events and to contact our team: www.showthehellup.com Remember this saying from when we were kids? A brilliant retort to being called out! Anyone calls me a cry baby, or a meanie, or chicken shit we just simply have to reply “It takes one to know one!” and no one could ever say anything back! What are they going to say to that? A brilliant fear-based defense mechanism designed to keep us safe in that moment. In this moment there has been a recognition of pain that both kids share and two becomes one. In fact, its what they have in common although its not that obvious at first.
We can directly apply “Takes one to know one” to the double iceberg. If someone calls me out for openly acting out a crybaby and my reaction is to say "takes one to know one!", then that would simply imply that deep down I already know on some level this is true about me as I am using cry baby openly to get what I want. Now on the other hand, it takes a crybaby to recognize a crybaby! So the person who felt the need to call me a cry baby is hiding their own cry baby! The original experience of crybaby is judged as painful, so in that original moment the mind has two choices, hide it or show it. And all in a desperate attempt to protect themselves from ever experiencing this again. The person who is hiding the cry baby needs others to act this behaviour out openly as they are not willing because it is too dangerous to their survival. The time may come for me to work through my need to either attach to or reject this. I will manifest another who will mirror back this judgement of myself. This may not always feel like an opportunity, but it doesn’t mean its not! The opportunity has presented itself for me to be able to become aware of the reflection that I have rejected, understand that I have a judgement (safe/dangerous) and that in that moment the whole strategy is flexible enough in the mind, for my heart to be able to embrace the whole thing and store the wisdom, without the need to change, fix, replace anything, as there was nothing truly wrong in the first place. Yes, our minds have some trust issues! But by being willing and open to recognizing the truth of Takes one to Know one, the mind begins to soften as the hearts reply to the minds fear is always the same. I love you!!! Whether the behavior is suppressed or whether its being outwardly shown, both sides of this hold a judgment. For one it may be safe to wear the mask of crybaby, in this case the mask helps me to get what I need in order to feel safe. For some it’s safer to suppress it, so that no one will ever find out that I am secretly crying all the time. Either way when the two meet and a conflict arises, it’s a opportunity for both sides to reach a internal understanding that the judgment of crybaby as safe or dangerous is the only conflict. One will wear the mask (safe to show) and the other will hide the bottom (never ever show it), both are strategies for safety. For example, If I am the one saying “you’re a crybaby!” I am clearing hiding my own crybaby. If I am the one replying “takes one to know one” I have just reinforced the mask of crybaby. Both of us need each other in order to work through both sides of the judgement. As we move into adulthood, we still secretly apply this defense as a secret way out. Every judgment, condition and the need to blame is a rejection of a part of me that I hide because to the mind it’s dangerous if anyone would ever know this about me. Although we don’t say “takes one to know one anymore” we have just adapted a new language around the same defense. Perhaps now we may say things like “oh ya? just go look in the mirror!” and perhaps even a F@!# off! These are both of clues that I am still using the line, “takes one to know one” as a defense. In any stressful situation, there is a condition within my own mind that isn’t being met in that moment. A safety issue that’s being challenged. As children we don’t have a better way, the minds brilliant genius takes over in fear to help me adapt to my environments. From the child’s perspective most are life or death situations. As an adult I can understand that there is never any need to blame or shame this brilliant part of me, and in fact there is an opportunity to give the mind a chance to work through the safety conditions with unconditional love and gratitude for it always. This part of us goes to great lengths and works tirelessly with fierce loyalty and the need to protect and serve you. NO other person would ever go to such great lengths for YOU! What’s not to love! Takes one to know one is the truest of true statements! This is an opportunity to breed compassion and love for all parts of you, especially the YOU you haven’t met yet. Krista Hurton CBP/BAT/Agent of Showthehellup www.innerarchitect.ca SHOWTHEHELLUP! Weekly Podcast Check out Podcast #1 and watch our instructors Krista Hurton, Zack Vernon and Erica Blackburn discuss a section from our manual that delves into selfish, selfless and In service to Self and how it relates to COVID-19. Head over to our STHU! YouTube channel to view more Podcasts. Don't forget to subscribe! When trying to explain/justify/sell to myself or others the consciousness perspective I have come to know through ShowtheHellUp! classes and workshops, it has come to my attention that there is a view beyond the benefits that my human nature wants to share with others.
One part of the view is a perspective of and from my mind, the part of me that is obsessed with validating my choices and working hard to keep me safe in the world. My mind is attached to these benefits as justification to continue doing the work, attending class and investigating my surroundings and my mind likes to arrange them this way: I am experiencing physical benefits such as less aches and pain, less headaches, more restful sleep, nice skin, and a quicker recovery from illness and/or sore muscles. Mentally I am experiencing a less active hamster on the wheel of my mind, and I find myself moving through mental blocks to make decisions with ease. And probably most beneficial is that once I have an awareness of the environment I have unconsciously created for myself, I have some amazing tools to consciously investigate how my thoughts became these things! Emotionally, I am growing to appreciate and experience ALL of my emotions. My opinions of anger, joy, grief, worry and fear are changing and as a result I don’t avoid or try to hide my fear or anger or joy. Instead I recognize they are here to help me work through something that no longer serves me. I must admit it isn’t always pleasant in the midst but slowly I am embracing the ebb and flow and this place of unconditional love that I am experiencing as a “result”. Spiritually, I am experiencing glimpses of knowing a human experience where I no longer judge who I think I am. I know that my life had to and was always going to enfold the way it has and will. This knowledge also includes how everything in my awareness is projection of me and for me and my purpose is to become aware. That’s it. To become aware. So, my view could stop there, couldn’t it? My mind is quite satisfied with the list of results, benefits, improvements, and changes associated with a consciousness perspective. It seems like a well-rounded list. But what was brought to my attention is that there's a more whole view. A view that is harder to name because it doesn’t need a label or justification or reward. This view doesn’t need to be categorized like I have above because it is a great universal ocean where everything and anything exists simultaneously and without a need for outcomes. For now, I will call this the Whole View and describe it as a state of grace in my heart where my mind is so calm it doesn’t interfere or need a result. This is a view from the heart which includes it all and is all. This view comes from before my mind was formed and although not always felt, it is accessible to me at any time. And although hard to describe, I am going to try anyway because, well, I am human. The Whole View is a place where physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aches or stresses are information. A place where there is no need for the mind to judge and where the heart simply observes. Here the view is one of rest and relax and not the fear responses fight, flight, fear or faint. This is a place where there is no risk to expressing who I think I am and how I feel because the Whole View sees it all and understands the lesson and at the same time has no need to solve or change. Today, March 26, 2020 I am seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and touching a global pandemic. My mental state has moments of frazzle and disbelief and my emotions flip from sadness, fear, anger and worry and then back to sadness all within five minutes. Physically, my arse is numb from sitting in on more video calls than ever before. My mind/fear instinct is to set up schedules or make new routines and have a goal for all of this. However, within that there is a grace, one that you and I have had since before we were born, one that we will always have access to and one we continue to cultivate together by showing the hell up. COVID-19 is inviting us into its unfolding and providing you and me an opportunity to be in our hearts and to do what is in front of us because just as in the times before, what else is there to do? Hello Friends,
Our world is changing at a rapid, almost hourly rate these last few weeks, as the dis-ease COVID-19 spreads across the world. This means we are all embarking on a totally new way to view life that may seem difficult at the moment. Our planet Earth is undergoing a very natural evolution and we have a choice to either support her or fight her. Our Showthehellup Team is ready to support our changing earth and YOU! Your perspective is the biggest investment you ever make in life. Your brain, out of fear, builds it, modifies it, defends it, proves it, copes with it, etc., all in the name of safety. This becomes your truth and the lens through which you live life. The world view through the perspective of FEAR and panic is ‘TO ME’. There is another perspective of gratitude, openness and ‘FOR ME’ through the lens of Downward Causation model that embraces the holographic universe and quantum theories. It is my awareness that my perspective can be my biggest asset or my scariest liability! Safety first! We say this a lot in class and today we really mean it! We are being advised to self-isolate to keep ourselves, our neighbors, and the planet safe to flatten the curve of COVID-19. I am taking this very seriously and I hope you are too. I can do this from fear and anger, or I can self- isolate from a place of strength and love in service to myself, and everything else. We have shared with you so many tools to foster heart opening in service to self and strength in self-esteem, so let me remind you of these now: Cortices Access CLI 5-step process (looking at small things to get a big AHHA!) Reread the CLI guide Get involved in our online MMW conversations and classes Remember, how you do one thing is how you do everything! You can count on us to find new and creative ways to consciously collaborate in a heart led fashion. At Showthehellup we are working hard this week to creatively revise how we deliver classes in the short and long term. For now, our in-person classes everywhere except Namaste Esperanza Retreat in Nova Scotia will be postponed and rescheduled for later this year. New exciting and interactive online class formats are going to be offered to you before the end of this month for a future filled with fun new ways to explore a conscious life with our team. Please remember that all of our Showthehellup Team offer private sessions and online classes. More options will be added so there is something for everyone to meet you where you are, whether you are a newbie or a veteran in this work. We know the integral reciprocity in all of us needs to heal together with our planet. We look forward to working together with each and every one of you as collaborative conscious stakeholders in our future. Stay tuned! Namaste, Kelley and the Showthehellup Team Recently, our team at Show The Hell Up took a deep dive into the discussion of mental illness, mental health and what may be beyond both of these two experiences. We discovered there is a possibility for a new experience, that we like to call “mental wealth”!
If we trace the development of the mind back to its origin, before birth, it becomes clear that the mind forms and simultaneously fear is born. It is this fear-based thinking that leads to fear-based living. When this fear grows it develops into dis-ease or illness experienced through the lens of the mind and projected into the energetic body, physical body and your environment (home, job, car, relationships, etc.). When we attach ourselves to the dis-eases of the mind (i.e. judgements, opinions and limiting beliefs) we may start to believe we are these dis-eases. For example, I would catch myself saying “my anxiety makes me… feel this way, do this thing…”, etc. When I personalized it in this way it meant my mind identified with it and I moved further away from who I really am at my core (my essence, the deepest part of my being). When your brain is in shock (fight, flight, faint, freeze), and your body is living from its sympathetic nervous system, there is little to no opportunity for your inborn wisdom to shine through and bring your body back to balance and harmony. Anything you do from this place of shock will not be of service to you. The reason for this is because fear is a filter through which all of your senses and your brain take in information. Your senses and brain cannot take in anything new or provide a new experience for you to have. You may try to cope and manage your symptoms (believe me, I tried them all! I was like the metaphorical chicken with her head cut off trying this and that to be well!) but that will only create a downward spiral into fixing and changing – yet the pain and fear grows bigger! Enter consciousness-based and awareness-based practices! Here is where mental wealth has an opportunity to flourish! When you engage in basic consciousness/awareness-based activities like: BodyTalk’s Cortices, BodyTalk Access, a BodyTalk session, and Conscious Living Investigation, you shift yourself into your parasympathetic nervous system (rest, digest, repair). Now, anything you do, from this place of “wealth” will be of greater service to you! You can access your fullest potential – all possibilities! Reach out to us and we can support you to open up your Mental Wealth! You are already wealthy! It lives inside of you! If you have any questions about this video or article, you can contact me at: ericalynnblackburn@gmail.com or www.ericablackburn.com |