What Does Enlightenment Look Like?

What do you think when you hear the word Enlightenment? What does that actually look like? According to Wikipedia, Enlightenment is the "full comprehension of a situation".  Which basically means seeing all things as they truly are, from all aspects. This requires lots of self reflection, the ability to seek out the right answers and the ultimate power of timing, love and patience. 

The most difficult part of living as a spiritually mature human is seeing all that goes on around, but also seeing the reasons behind why people act a certain way.  Spiritual maturity requires us to see things exactly how they are and forgive those from a place of love and understanding.  This does not excuse another persons bad behavior, but Enlightenment is not about someone else, its about you.  Being able to process other emotions that come up as humans is challenging, especially if something in us is triggered by the actions of others, and lets face it it usually is.  You know the saying 'It was the straw that broke the camels back.' Sometimes you may think you have overcome old wounds and then the actions of another slams you in the heart like a sledge hammer and years of unresolved hurt comes pouring out.  How do you navigate your way through the emotional upheaval within yourself?

I can best describe my own personal spiritual journey as an analogy. I want to use a building as it is the easiest way for me to describe the Chakra system in our bodies and what we go through when we evolve from the Ground Floor to the Penthouse, the Penthouse being Enlightenment.  Imagine you are living in a high rise building and you can only get an apartment on the ground floor.  You can see the top floor from the park down the road and you long to have the views and the lifestyle that you perceive happens for those that live up there, but for now you can only see the street and the passing traffic.  There is also lots of noise on the ground floor.  Its sometimes hard to hear your own thoughts because there is so much disruption, so many people, so many voices. You tend to be part of the businesses because that's all you know, but you feel within your heart an emptiness that cannot be filled.  Then one day, just by coincidence someone from the fifth floor forgets their key. You let them into the building and you hit it off immediately.

All of a sudden something in you lights up.  Your new friend invites you to their apartment and the more time you spend with them, the less time you want to be on the ground floor.  You have a better view of life up here and although you are not living in the Penthouse, what an upgrade it would be just to get an apartment on this level.  Your new friend introduces you to their friends and before you know it the life you live on the ground floor feels less and less like the real you.  Your job suddenly feels uninspiring and repetitive, the relationship you are in is unfulfilling, your family is constantly taking advantage of you and pulling you into their daily dramas. You know you need to release all these things if you are to be in a better place so you start exploring other career options. You end the relationship and you put some firm boundaries in around your family. Its hard and it hurts and you upset people, which was your biggest fear, but you do it anyway because its whats best for you. Then what do you know! An apartment on the fifth floor becomes available and you move on up.

You love your new apartment. The air seems a little cleaner, the noise a little less and implementing small changes has made your life a little more joyful.  So for a while you are content in this place, you have your fifth floor friends and life is good.  Months go by and you start to feel a little unsettled again. Routine creeps in again, your family has tested your boundaries on several occasions which has unsettled you and made you start to reflect on your own self worth.  Your fifth floor friends become predictable, one even surprisingly betraying you and makes you question the intentions of the people you surround yourself with.  Only a handful of your fifth floor friends intend to move to the upper levels of the building, so your friendship circle grows a little smaller and once again you start searching within yourself for what needs to change, what needs releasing for a better more fulfilling life and what actions you need to take to make your way to the Penthouse.

Every time we move up a level we have more clarity, because in order to get there we have to go through a process.  Only those that have also been through this process will understand, and you will only ever attract the same like minded people around you when you have journeyed through it. The higher up you go the more you can see, hear and feel, but as you go up you will also have less people surrounding you, its just the way it works.  Not everyone want to do the work it takes to reach the summit and that's okay, but it should never hold you back from continuing the climb.  When you start to recognize patterns of bad behavior in your life you know what you have to work on.  You start to make conscious decisions about the next steps forward, having "full comprehension of a situation" before making your next move and understanding that your timing is not always what the Universe has planned for you.

So, back to my question on how you navigate your way through the emotional upheaval within yourself? EVERYTHING always needs to come back you.  Life is our Teacher and if a situation has arisen that triggers you then look at the underlying emotions connected to the trauma.  Take time to fully comprehend the situation before reacting.  Retreat if you need to, to heal those parts of yourself that have exposed themselves to you.  Put in your boundaries so that if that situation should arise again, (which it will because that's the Universes way to let us know if we are ready to level up), you will know how to respond from a place of clarity, wisdom and truth.  The most productive way to transmute the negative aspects of yourself is to listen to your shadow and work with it.  Negative emotions are there to guide us to make change.  It is far too easy to allow a niggle to become an irritation, which becomes an annoyance, grows into resentment, rises to anger and flows into rage.  I know, its happened to me and I am not proud of some actions that I have done in my past.  Feeding your shadow will only make it grow until it consumes you.

If you really want to navigate your way through the emotional turmoil, think about the summit.  Are you really prepared for the hard climb or are you just really good hiding behind a mask? Those on the ground floor might believe you, most of them are wearing masks too, and even some from the higher apartments, for a time, until they get a better view and your words become as transparent as the person you pretend to be.  You cannot go wrong when you speak from your heart, so take a moment to tune in and listen, really listen to what it is saying.  Then GO FIX YOURSELF. You will carry an integrity and wisdom about you that cannot be read or bought, and other people knowing or unknowingly feel that truth.  There is nothing more empowering that walking out the other side of a shit storm and being a better person for it.  You can pitch a flag into the mountain side and take a big deep breath before continuing to ascend. Enlightenment maybe the destination, but the power is in the climb.



Michelle Potter
Artist - Energy Worker - Wayshower
www.michellepotter.com.au