Whether it was the love-hate relationship with kids on the playground, not knowing where I stood with my parents depending on their mood or stress level, or how people I knew responded to my desire to dive into my spiritual journey, I have always had an awareness of an invisible force carrying and guiding me along, no matter the roles anyone outside of me seemed to play. I wouldn’t have put these pieces
together until I was an adult, but looking back, I was always aware of the existence of well-being within me. For some reason, it never caused me to assume anything outside of me would make me feel well or even better. Instead, I was just as attached to personal outcome as anyone else, but instead of remaining attached to the hope of greater pleasure, I was hoping to avoid more pain.
This inherent awareness of well-being also created a rather unique entry point into following the impulse of my spiritual aspirations. Strangely, I wasn’t on a spiritual path to discover well-being or chase away my pain. The indisputable calling of inner exploration was answered by one burning lifelong desire—to know and be one with God. From my earliest Sunday school learnings, I immediately felt a gravitational pull in this direction, much like a calling received to enter a seminary.
I remember sitting in Sunday school, listening to interpretations of what God is, while thinking: “That’s not it at all.” It felt more like a mystical Santa Claus sitting on a cloud, watching to determine which list your name goes on. As a child, I found this uninspired and almost silly, while captivated by a deeper inner yearning to know the deepest truth.
I remember the day that yearning for truth would be satisfied. I was in fifth grade at the time. It was one of those special school days in December where the afternoon was spent at a school assembly listening to the choir sing holiday songs. All of a sudden, I heard the most breathtakingly holy song I had ever heard: “Do you hear what I hear?” It literally felt like the ceiling had opened up with heaven’s kingdom inviting me home. I literally was seconds away from a volcanic level emotional outburst. I had never in my life felt that emotionally moved and inspired—outside of my out of body experience I had a few year’s prior. I remember thinking, “Everyone will look at me and laugh if I let this feeling out.” With all my might, I stuffed this feeling down and moved as quickly as I could to go outside. As I made my way out of the auditorium, tears streamed down my face, just not with the initial intensity that wanted to be expressed. I wasn’t sure why I was crying, but I wasn’t hurt or in pain. Just coming unglued by the celestial hymns of a holiday song. After a few moments, it all settled down as I returned to the holiday assembly.
At the time I didn’t know what it meant, but I knew something big had occurred. Looking back, it was the inherent well-being of my true nature beginning to awaken within me. A process that would ramp up in adulthood, where the well-being of Universal Truth would buff out each hiding spot of fear and reconstruct everything within me, so nothing but this heavenly potential would remain. My deepest desire was to know and be one with the will of God. In fifth grade on that fateful day, I was auspiciously informed that my prayer had been received.
No matter the reason you’ve been called inward to uncover your unique place in the Universe, it is the regular discovery of well-being that awakens life’s highest potential, no matter the circumstances or stresses that fill your life. This is why the fifth Golden Rule reminds you: “Well-being is a signal that you are ready to embody your potential.” The more often you recognize the presence of well-being within you, you are saying to the Universe, “I am aware of what is already right, perfect, and whole inside of me.” If we can become aware of what is right, perfect, and whole inside of us, we begin to see what is right, perfect, and whole in the Universe, even throughout a human play of gain, loss, erosion, and renewal.
No matter the evidence in sight, you are already perfect, whole, and complete because the well-being you are free to notice acts as your proof. When you affirm that perfection and well-being is within you, it tells the Universe that you have the worthiness and emotional availability to receive more blessings in your life.
Well-being is the spray of the waterfall, and the waterfall is a cascading fountain of light or Source Energy. When you get close to the Divine fountain of light, well-being is what soaks you. There is another name for this fountain of light that might be more recognizable. It exists as living proof that well-being and perfection are always alive and active inside you. It is none other than the very breath you breathe.
As you breathe in, you are taking in the light of existence, cleansing, purifying, and nourishing all aspects of your being. With each out-breath, all the light you’ve taken in goes out into the world for the healing, awakening, and well-being of every heart.
Whether you’re aware of it or not, you’re always breathing this light in and out. The question is, why don’t you always feel the well-being if that’s what well-being is? It is because your breath is only giving you the experience of your awareness of what breath is. If you think breath is just the very thing that keeps you alive, then that becomes the extent of your breathing experience. The more you become aware of what the breath actually is, as the living evidence of light within you, the more every single breath provides you with the well-being that becomes the contribution of expansion the world is destined to receive.
When you are aware of your breath as the infinite light of Source energy, every breath is given permission to heal your being. When you are aware of the breath at that level, you are more aligned with it on a regular basis. When you’re more aligned with your breath, your thoughts become manifestations of aligned breathing, creating viewpoints, perceptions, and inspired ideas as harmonious, clear, and positive as the light you breathe. When you are aligned with breath, the words you speak become the gifts—no matter how unconscious anyone seems to be. The actions you choose, whether from a depth of nobility or a reaction of fear, are simply determined by how aligned your breathing has become. Of course, what creates alignment with your breath is knowing what the breath is. As you are beginning to see, the breath is the living evidence of well-being. It is the one eternal reality, flowing like a cascading fountain of eternal light. It is the very seed of Source energy. It is the remembrance of heaven’s kingdom. It is your true self, as you’ve been and shall always be.
In order to embody the wisdom of Golden Rule #5, take as many moments as you need to align with your breath to allow the greater miracles of life to unfold on your behalf. No matter what kind of life you lead, if you want to improve the possibilities of your reality—deepen your relationship with breath. You are a co-creator of reality. It is co-created by the power of your breath. The more aligned you are with breath, the better and the safer the world is to inhabit. When your breath is the very evidence of well-being, you are cultivating the attribute of focus.
Without focus, life lacks the depth and meaning that reveals the connectedness of love existing at the heart of every experience. When focused, you are able to develop harmonious relationships with others. With great focus, the left and right hemispheres of your brain work interdependently, instead of colliding in a battle of independence. From this space, the inner relationships between body and mind allow the heart to remain naturally open as the soul takes the place of the integrating ego. Since the deepening of inner and outer relationships occurs through the cultivation of focus, such focus can be developed along a heart-centered path when focusing on the two most important factors of the new spiritual paradigm.
The two most important factors are self-love and alignment with breath. In the new spiritual paradigm, you love yourself enough to be worthy of receiving your breath, while becoming one with your breath to deepen your worthiness to give and receive love. When these two factors are in focus, your inner and outer relationships blossom from the harmony of well-being, which signals to the Universe that you are ready to embody more of your infinite potential.
Please read silently or repeat out loud the following words:
My breath is the living presence of well-being. The more mindfully I breathe, the more alive I feel.
EXERCISE: Anchoring to Your Breath
To further anchor the wisdom of this mantra, please read the following words either silently or repeated out loud:
My mind is a manifestation of breath.
The more aligned with breath I am,
the clearer my mind becomes.
My body is a manifestation of breath.
The more aligned with breath I am,
the more vibrant and open my body becomes.
My emotions are a manifestation of breath.
The more aligned with breath I am,
the more harmonious my emotions shall be.
My world is a manifestation of breath.
The more aligned with breath I am,
the more fulfilling my relationships shall be.
Every aspect of reality
is a manifestation of breath.
The more aligned with breath I am,
the more real I shall be.
Instead of living
in the reality of my ego’s fantasy
I shall dwell in the reality of my soul’s eternal light,
where I can simply abide with my breath
as an announcer of well-being,
becoming aware that within me as my breath,
well-being and perfection are always existing.
And to signal to the Universe
that in recognizing my breath
as evidence of perfection
I am ready, willing, and able
to receive more perfection.
And to receive it with worthiness and joy
as a gift for myself
and for those
who don’t know the worthiness
of their own eternal light,
allowing my happiness
to be a service to all.
And so I’m free.
There is a recurring fantasy throughout the spiritual journey. It stems from human beings’ fascination with the ever-expanding nature of reality, and it remains natural and instinctive to want to process your discoveries with others to ensure you’re not alone in the way life is seen. Sadly, if you’re not with a partner who resonates or isn’t acclimated to such perspectives, you are likely to pull away from the one who may be the most grounding and supportive person to help you integrate your most miraculous findings.
I have personally seen many seekers throw their old lives away in pursuit of groups or communities of like-minded individuals. With people of like mind, you are spared no relief from the same relationship patterns of a non-spiritual world. The same jealousies, lies, deception, projections, judgments, and hurt are spun, this time with spiritual ideologies as justification for unconscious behavior.
The need to be around like-minded people is how cults get created. The avoidance of cult activity occurs in communities of independent thinkers, who respect the uniqueness and contributions of others for the joint purpose of collective harmony. The notion that the grass is greener on the spiritual side of reality is only a belief one holds to be true prior to exploring the truth for themselves. Upon such an exploration, you will find that whether someone wears a religious robe, a pageant crown, or spends all their time meditating, the patterns of ego and expressions of the soul are equally present and uniquely expressed for every person. The belief that a group of people saying the same things, doing the same practices, and living the same way is better remains a dream to chase when the current terms and conditions of your reality give your ego no room to breathe.
Using the wisdom of Golden Rule #5, your desire to be around those who embody their highest potential is not something to pursue, but a reality to attract by noticing the presence of well-being within you. As this occurs by spending more time with your breath, you are able to call forward members of your soul tribe without having to move around to all corners of the globe. In essence, instead of seeking out others of like mind, it is far more useful to attract those of like breath. When the inner harmony of one is breathed into awareness by the inner harmony of another, the gift of true intimacy is brought to life. It’s quite natural to want others to confirm the gravity of your newfound freedom and expanded perspectives. And yet life surrounds you with people of varying levels of consciousness so you are able to cultivate compassion and mindfulness for everyone’s relative standpoint, instead of being steeped in a community of similar thinking that tends to create the density of righteous belief.
Life is already an intentional community filled with infinite uniqueness honoring our one eternal truth masquerading in form. Some will see your light. Others will overlook it to the equal degree they see past the divinity within themselves. You don’t need others to think like you in order to breathe into tangible form the most miraculous qualities, talents, and achievements only you were created to convey.