Imagine you are walking down a dusty road between two tall hedges and carrying a heavy load. There are many others on the road. This is the road of an ordinary life.
You notice that some people get ahead of you and some fall behind. You have struggled at times along this road to keep up, to get ahead, to connect, to find love.
You tire yourself, stop to rest, and notice a light shining through on the other side of the hedge. You can’t clearly see what lies on the other side but you are peering into a world you never knew was there. You begin to push your way through toward the light. The burden you carry becomes difficult to bring along. You eventually leave your burden behind.
More To Find On The Other Side
Since I originally wrote this article, we’ve done a great deal of work learning how to explore different degrees of consciousness. I will integrate what we’ve learned in the remainder of this article.
As we’ve begun to explore the 3 Degrees of Consciousness (safety, heart, and spaciousness), we recognize that most of our burdens come from living in safety consciousness—where we are often cautious, defensive, and fearful. There is value to being in safety consciousness—times when we need to be there—but we don’t necessarily want to live there all the time.
When we learn to navigate the 3 Degrees of Consciousness, we can let go of many of our safety issues—the old stories and limitations that we burden ourselves with—and push through to the other side. Actually “pushing” is what it feels like when we’re in safety consciousness. But once we’ve moved into heart consciousness, there is very little effort needed. Ease replaces effort.
What burden do you carry?
What do you have to give up in order to get to the other side? What is the burden you need to leave behind?
It is the way you’ve been making meaning all of your life and your attachment to the meaning you’ve made.
What will you gain if you let go of your old ways of making meaning? What awaits you on the other side?
You’ll begin living a life you love.
After giving up your old ways of making meaning based on living in safety consciousness, you’ll realize that your old stories no longer work for you. As you learn to have a new kind of conversation you become more present, more accepting of yourself, stop holding yourself back, and become more able to enjoy deeper intimacy with others.
When you learn to navigate all 3 degrees of consciousness, you’ll enjoy more enlightened conversations with yourself (in your head) and other people, and the way you make meaning of the events of your life will be radically different. You’ll stop feeling like a victim. Instead, you’ll choose to live a life you love—a life of love.
Are you trying to get to the other side?
What do you imagine you need to do to get there? (If you answer this question in the comment section below, I’ll respond to you).
For me, it required a change in direction, taking a different path, committing to something new and working at it. Live Conscious is one such path—not for everybody—but it is the safest, most practical, self-empowered path I’ve discovered.
If you’d like more information please contact me at hannah@liveconscious.com
This writing is inspired by E.M. Forster’s “The Other Side of the Hedge” (1911)
I see myself as having gotten through the Hedge and now am standing in a beautiful spacious Meadow. However, I continue to occasionally reach back into the Hedge and try to pull my burden through into the meadow. It doesn’t work I end up pulling myself back the hedge to the old dusty path. I then realize where I am and go back through the Hedge without the burden into the spacious Meadow. The burden I have to take off to get through the Hedge is that I’m not good enough as I am and that growth is difficult. I am enjoying that my trips back through the hedge are becoming rarer.