February 2022

Dear Blessed One,

I was working with someone the other day and she was touching into a deep, old trauma. She began to experience intense fear, borderline panic as she was feeling the wound surfacing. Like a monster chasing you in a nightmare, her mind kept telling her it was too big to feel and as she resisted, the monster only got bigger.

I was supporting her and reminding her to trust her body and to allow herself to fully feel what was arising. While holding her hand and gently guiding her to surrender and dissolve totally into the feeling, in a short while, she began to breathe normally again, and then to giggle. All of a sudden, she could see it was the mind that was feeding fear and as soon as she dropped into the feeling without listening to the mind, fear dissolved. There was more work for us to do but this was a big piece for her to understand... being at the mercy of the run-amok mind will never free you.

For a good thirty-or-so years, I carried the heaviness of anger, resentment, blame, and hatred towards my father for the abuse I experienced as a child. The mind would tell me that forgiveness would let him off the hook for his crimes, that I was forever damaged-goods, that I had to cover the pain and keep it buried deep, and a multitude of other things that kept me locked in victim-mode.

After getting sober in 1997 and beginning somatic work, eventually I discovered that listening to the mind-chatter was not helpful and was a choice. I had a lot of deeply stuffed feelings to feel and at first it seemed that the swamp was endless. Continuing to drop into the body and fully experience my feelings not only eventually cleared the muck but was also a key piece for me in awakening.

These are just a couple of examples of the many people who have witnessed the folly and drama of the mind. Rather than run in fear from the giant tar-baby that is chasing you in a nightmare, when you run towards it, the monster-like creature turns into a raisin on the ground.

The byproduct of no longer listening to, following, or arguing with the mind is presence. Here, now, in this moment, life is showing me something, guiding me somewhere, and I am not able to receive it through the static of the mind.

This life experience is not to make us happy, or prosperous, or successful, or anything else of the conditioned mind or world. Life is designed to make us conscious, and it does that through many means, most often pain and difficulties, which pushes us to awaken.

Breathe. Be the breath. Listen deeply to the stillness within. It is a magical realm where wisdom, peace, and your true nature reside.

Much Love and Blessings to You!
shellee rae

"The quieter you become, the more you can hear." ~ Ram Dass