The Challenge and Rewards of Ascension

Here’s a short article I submitted to the Edge magazine regarding the topic of Ascension. Please enjoy!

While meditating, a vision appeared to me: a multitude of people were climbing up the terraced steps of a pyramid-shaped mountain, covering all sides of it. They represented humanity on different levels and places in their evolutionary growth. Some were being helped up while others were turning around and pulling up someone below them as they made their way to the top. I realized this vision symbolized what we are striving to accomplish as human beings on earth…we are moving from the sleep of ignorance to the dawn of awakening of who and what we really are…our journey toward Self Realization. It could also be framed as path leading from suffering to bliss. This is a journey that we are all on whether we are aware of it or not. At this point in our human evolution, most of us are not aware in this moment that we are actually brilliantly free spiritual beings having a human experience, although that is rapidly changing along with so many other things these days.

As I journey on my own path of awakening, guiding some while being supported by others, ascension for me means becoming more fully present here and now in the body, feeling the richness of emotions as well as the myriad expressions of the senses. However, this is impossible to do for long periods of time because our thinking mind mostly operates from the past and pulls us into the future. Overcoming this dilemma of trying to maintain full presence then becomes a matter of proper identification – no longer identifying with our fluctuating emotions and thoughts, but rather with that which never goes away, the deeper sense of life and ‘beingness’ that is hidden within each one of us. Being fully present goes hand in hand with becoming more aware of who and what is always present in the body – our spiritual self.

When we only identify with our human self and the thoughts and feelings that rise and fall within us, we unconsciously operate from the conditioning and programming of our past. Frequently, painful emotions are avoided. However, the act of avoidance locks them in a repeating pattern within the body/mind system, while permitting them to be fully felt allows that emotional energy to pass through. When you know and identify yourself as the life that animates the body, when you know that as a soul you are role playing here and can never ultimately be harmed, then even painful emotions can be fully felt and understood not only as a different vibration in the body, but also as part of the rich human experience. By embracing all of our negative or painful emotions and releasing them in a healthy manner, we no longer are unconsciously influenced by them in a limiting way, and thus a filter falls away as we become clearer and lighter vessels for our soul to shine through. This process is one avenue or by-product of ascension.

After my vision, I wanted to commit it to canvas, but my artistic abilities stop at anything beyond a stick person. However, at a Christmas party, I met Laura Ungs who specializes in painting the concepts that people have in their minds. That beautiful painting now hangs in my office, a fitting place because my therapy practice focuses on guiding my clients to release and heal their limiting beliefs and emotions that were planted in the past, but continue to affect their present. Once the old programs are released or seen through, clients are no longer unconsciously governed by their limiting emotional patterns and they become freer beings. This healing then creates a ripple effect through the interactions of all their relationships.

This reminds me of a quote from Paramahansa Yogananda: “When you heal yourself, you do your part in healing the world.” As we become clearer and clearer vessels, no longer operating from our limited past programming and conditioning, the light within us, our true self, shines through our interactions with others in many ways. Ironically, the further we ascend the more beautiful and safe it becomes to be fully here and now. When we awaken and identify with our higher dimension that transcends space and time, we realize it has always been with us every step of the way…and ultimately it is who we are!