Step into any big box retailer over the past week and the smell of sharpened pencils and pumpkin spice candles probably hit you square in the face. I smiled this week as I noticed an array of pool noodles right next to Halloween candy. You too may feel the mismatch of seeing Fall arrive in a display aisle while wearing flip flops and shorts! This commercialized shift from Summer to Fall hits us well before Fall is actually here with cooler temps and crisp mornings.

Our outer world and inner world can often seem mismatched, like the outer world announcing of the start of Fall in displays of orange decor, while our inner world may still be in the gentle swing and ease of lazy summer days. At Common Awakening, we call this sensation “offness” and we often notice it when our inner and outer worlds feel mismatched.

Our world has been through a big season of “offness” as we found our way through the pandemic. Students graduated without a graduation ceremony. Weddings occurred without a wedding party. Rites of passage went on with a live congregation. Vacations were planned and canceled and rebooked without knowing exactly when they might occur. We have lived (and even thrived!) through a season of offness and mismatch.

It’s easy to succumb to the soothing sensation that life is returning to normal and our days of mismatch are over. In reality, it is our inner state that creates our outer reality, whether we face a pandemic, a changing world, personal challenges, difficulties we didn’t expect. The mismatch is not due to our circumstances. The offness we feel is always a siren call to intuitively access a solid place within and watch our perspective change.

We talk a lot about state (your inner position) at Common Awakening because it is the solution to offness and mismatch. We can rearrange our external circumstances constantly like puzzle pieces. When we take our place in our state that is our higher, wiser, intuitive, knowing position, the outer world takes on new shape and form. Our perspective changes permanently.

As the great Dalai Lama says, “We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace within ourselves.”

Start this week with noticing when you feel a sense of mismatch or being “off”. Stop and spread your arms out wide like an eagle, in full wingspan. Slowly bring your hand in, palm over palm, and place your hands over your heart. Focus within. Even look down at your hands placed over your heart. Notice what it feels like to step out of your circumstances and back into a steadier state. You are stepping back into you! If you want to see how this practice is done, make sure to watch the video!

State change does not promise an easy life. It delivers a better one, though. It’s what we most need. It is pure freedom to know that from our power state, our world, from the arrival of school supplies to navigating sticky situations, no longer have the same hold. They are not reflections of what we truly are, and that is the answer we seek.

With love,

Annie 

P.S. Do you feel “off” and don’t know why? We have a few spots left in our upcoming Healing Sessions, and they will help you feel better, find clarity and improve circumstances. You will find your state that is your answer. These sessions are natural and intuitive, and healing isn’t hard. You bring a general life situation or question forward (where you feel “off”) and we hold a supercharged state of Fullness that will shift you without effort and hard work. You don’t have to have “big stuff” to heal to benefit from the power of holding our questions, life circumstances, daily difficulties in the energy of a state of Fullness. The state does all the work. We invite you to join us!