thehealseekers.com

If you are looking for a book that will help build your spirituality, this is the book for you.

Though I have to warn you.

You have to be ready for it otherwise you might find it a little woo-woo.

How does that saying go? “When you are ready, the teacher will appear.”

I guess since you’ve found this article, it means you are ready, and the universe wants to introduce you to it.

This book was absolutely life-changing and life-altering for me. It enabled me to grow spiritually, and I continue to read it each year.

In this blog, I will discuss the 5 big ideas I got from it, and I believe they will be eye-opening for you too.

Now…… let’s get into these 5 big ideas.

The roommate.

Have you noticed that you have a voice inside your head that is always talking?

If not, just take a walk outside, in a new area.

This voice will start narrating the world around you; that is a tree with beautiful green leaves, that is a black car that has just passed by, and there is an old man sitting on a bench.

It does this in an attempt to keep you safe so you can feel in control; also, it doesn’t feel unbearable, right?

But, when you happen to face an existential crisis say you lose a job, your partner dumps you, and you begin to question your purpose on earth, this inner voice will start to run a mile a minute.

All kinds of incessant thoughts will pop up in your mind.

Do this, no do that, go here, no go there, how can he do this to you, you need to do something, he doesn’t respect you. It’s over!

Wow! I bet you feel exhausted just reading that.

Now imagine that you take this inner voice out of your head, give it a physical body, and make it your roommate.

Would you spend even one waking minute listening to it? Probably not.

You would probably tell people that you have a neurotic roommate, and you would always try to stay away.

Michael A. Singer termed this inner voice as the roommate.

But, since you can’t get it out of your head and give it a physical form, how would you handle it?

Simple! Just observe it.

All you have to do is keep quiet and observe the incessant chatter that’s happening in your mind.

Before you know it, because you have shined your light of awareness on it, it will dissipate.

Funny story: I have a friend who once told me that her inner voice sounds like a man’s.

This takes me to the next big idea I learned from this book.

Who are you?

If someone walked up to you and asked, “Who are you?”

You would probably say something along the lines of, “I’m Suzie, I’m 5’4 foot tall, I’m an accountant by profession, and I’m also married to a wonderful man named John B.”

“Hmm? That’s wonderful.” says the person.

“But a few years back, you were 5’3 foot tall, you were still in school, and you hadn’t yet met John B. Weren’t you Suzie then?” they ask.

You say, “yes, of course, I was still Suzie then.”

The person then proceeds to say, “Okay, do you realize that at one point you were a child running around your bedroom playing with dolls? You say, “yes, I do.”

“Weren’t you Suzie then too?” The person asks.

“Yes, of course, I was still Suzie then too.” You reply.

By now you’ve come to the awareness that you are not this self-concept that you so beautifully managed to construct.

If you are not these external things nor the thoughts you believe about yourself, who are you then?

Well…….

You are the one who sees all these things as they happen to you. You are the awareness seated in your seat of consciousness.

You are the indwelling being that saw Suzie when she was a toddler, a teenager, a young adult, and now an adult.

You have always been back there witnessing, seeing, and observing all these different life changes.

You are not the external objects out in the world nor are you the internal objects; your thoughts and emotions.

You are the one that notices them.

Now you are probably thinking wow! sounds like I’m powerful with this magical power called consciousness.

YES, YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! Let me explain how your power works.

The seat of consciousness –Your throne.

Have you ever felt so immersed in your relationships, your career, or your passion project?

That is because you concentrated your awareness – which is to say your life- on this particular aspect.

Michael A. Singer in this book gave a perfect example that explains how this happens.

He said to close your eyes and imagine random objects floating in your mind, a horse, a cup, a shoe, an abstract thought.

Now pick one particular object of your interest and zoom in on it. For example, pick the horse and zoom in on it.

What you’ll notice is that the other objects will suddenly pause, and the horse will start to move slowly into your awareness and even expand in size as you continue to concentrate on it.

If you keep this up, you will completely get immersed in the horse and you will lose sight of the other random objects.

This is usually what happens in our lives.

If you concentrate your awareness on one thing, like your relationship, you’ll completely get immersed in it and lose sight of the other aspects of your life including yourself.

What happens is that you will come down from your throne -your seat of consciousness- join the object -your relationship, and let it completely take over you as you feed it with your awareness.

You have now paused your career, your friendships, your family, and your passion project, and solely focused your awareness on your relationship.

This is what you need to do when this happens.

You have to zoom out and get out of this trance in order to see all the other objects -aspects of your life.

Instead of clinging to and getting lost in your relationship, learn to live in each moment, and then when it passes, let it go. Focus your awareness on something else.

Do the same thing when it comes to your thoughts and emotions.

Instead of feeding them with the power of your awareness -which causes them to expand- zoom out and get back in your seat of consciousness -your throne.

Look at them as the common people of the kingdom causing drama.

You don’t have to get down and join them in their folly, you stay in your seat of consciousness and just observe.

What you’ll notice is that these thoughts and emotions will go through their normal stages without your involvement, and they will dissipate.

When you stay in your seat of consciousness and just observe, you will notice that everything is transient, moments come and go. With this understanding, you’ll learn the art of letting go.

I know! This sounds esoteric.

Don’t worry, let me explain how to do this in the next big idea.

The heart energy center –The heart Chakra.

I want you to imagine that your partner has just broken up with you.

If you are like the rest of the human species, you will go through a series of stages to get over the heartbreak.

Let’s talk about my least favorite stage – The depression stage.

Here is when you don’t have the energy to do anything; all you want to do is ruminate about the relationship, stay in bed, and be left alone.

This lethargy will cause you to abandon your self-care routine, your family, your friends, and to some degree, your work.

Now here’s where it gets interesting.

Imagine that your partner calls and says they miss you, they made a mistake, and would like a chance to talk.

Suddenly, you’ll get the energy to get out of bed, take a shower, do the dishes, and call a friend for advice on what you should say.

Um! Okay, wow! I thought you had no energy. Where did all this energy come from?

You’re probably wondering the same thing.

Michael A. Singer in the book says that we have a constant flow of energy that is always coursing through us.

This energy is called source energy.

Everyone has access to it regardless of age and gender.

That is why you might find an 80-year-old man working with the energy of a teenager.

The reason why you didn’t have this energy when you were dumped is that you closed your heart.

Therefore, the energy couldn’t pass through you. It was blocked.

But when your ex called wanting to apologize, you opened your heart again which allowed the energy to flow.

You see when we experience a traumatic situation, it leaves an impression on us.

Since the impression is painful, we don’t process it. Instead, we suppress it, and it forms a blockage in our heart which blocks source energy from flowing through.

This is how the heart’s energy center gets blocked.

The Yogis call this blockage, unprocessed energy, impression whatever you want to call it a samskara.

All the impressions that were created throughout your life were stored in your heart center as samskaras.

You only notice that they exist when they are triggered.

Let me explain.

Imagine that even when you had a conversation with your partner, nothing was resolved, and you both decided to break up for good.

Years pass by and one day you are driving in your car with your new partner, talking, laughing, and having fun.

You are watching the trees, buildings, and people as you pass them by and as soon as they get your attention, they are immediately processed by your mind, and you forget about them.

Then something happens, as you are driving, you notice a familiar car as it passes by.

You manage to steal a glimpse of the people in the car, and you notice it is your ex with someone and yes, it looked like they were hugging.

Interestingly, even after you have long passed them, this particular moment does not get processed by your mind, it lingers.

Before, whatever you saw passed through your mind and was processed easily.

But now all you can think about is your ex. And the feelings you felt when you broke up all those years ago start to stir back up.

This is because samskaras store all the thoughts and emotions you had when that impression was first created.

Seeing your ex triggered blocked energy that you didn’t even know you had.

Don’t worry, this is not a bad thing, in fact, this moment is giving you a great opportunity to process the blocked energy and finally let it go.

You let it go by observing the feeling, opening your heart, and allowing that energy to get processed and leave you.

Smile, release, and let go.

Sometimes, great things happen to us as well.

For example, you get a promotion at work, you fall in love, or you get married.

These situations also create impressions –positive ones. But instead of closing, this time you cling.

Clinging causes this positive energy to be kept and stored in your heart, which causes a positive samskara.

Although it sounds good, it actually isn’t because this positive samskara is blocking energy from flowing through you.

Learn to enjoy each moment as it comes and when it passes, let go.

Letting go.

Have you ever held on to an idea, an emotion, or a thought, and refused to let it go, only to realize later that you created a monster with it?

Well, this is what happens when you don’t let go.

Imagine you get a thought that your partner might be cheating on you.

Instead of having a conversation about your worries with them, you decide to hold on to this negative thought.

You let it eat you up inside, and it causes you to act in passive-aggressive ways toward your partner.

Finally, you involve your partner and accuse them of cheating.

Before you know it, you have created a situation that you would have avoided entirely if you had just let go of these negative thoughts when they first cropped up in your mind.

Remember your inner voice is neurotic, melodramatic, and borderline schizophrenic.

Refer back to idea one.

Now that you have involved another person’s mind and heart in a false idea that was initially just a thought, this causes the drama to expand, and there is no turning back.

Your seat of consciousness might drift by once in a while but at this point, it is hard to get back in it.

Even if you manage to get back in it, you don’t stay in it for long; the drama sucks you back in.

You are awareness, pure consciousness and because you fed the mind drama with your awareness – which is you, you became the drama, and the drama became you.

You are now completely lost.

Here is how you avoid this whole ordeal.

Say you were cheated on in the past and this left a negative impression in your heart.

When you notice your partner acting weird and suspicious, this will cause your heart to heat up due to the blocked energy being triggered.

If you don’t have any proof of your partner cheating, immediately relax your heart, and let go before your mind gets involved and becomes hyperactive.

This takes practice but with time and consistency, letting go will become like second nature to you.

You will then become who you were truly meant to be: An untethered soul.

Conclusion

Michael A. Singer in this book did an incredible job of explaining how you can free yourself by realizing that you are not your thoughts, emotions, or the external objects in your world.

You are the one who sees it all; the indwelling being in your seat of consciousness.

The way I see it, you are a queen, you don’t have to come down from your throne and partake in the drama of your thoughts, emotions, or the external madness in your world.

All you have to do is sit and observe.

The Untethered Soul is a truly remarkable book and I give it a 5-star rating.