The ego is… an incredible and intricate survival system. Nothing more complex has ever emerged in the past 4 billion years of life on this planet. It is what gives you a sense of personhood, enables you to respond to threats, set goals and accomplish them. Yet with that ego can also come a sense of importance and sensitivity to not reaching those very goals or living the life you dream.

When I found bliss — an expansive and joyful awareness — I had been afflicted by a sense of striving, needing to act, needing to carry out my goals. This left me personally quite serious, most of the time. Stressed out. Trying to manage a daily grind of details and finding only partial success amid big goals. I was trapped by what I felt I needed to do. When awareness unfolded, I could clearly see the difference between it and the ego – between the unbound and the bound. I laughed at everything I thought I knew about myself, about my failures and successes, about my persona, about my likes and dislikes. Though nothing external in my life had changed, I experienced freedom.

Awareness, that part of you that sees, feels, and observes, is unbound. At its root, your awareness contains the seeds of freedom. To unfold this awareness, begin to bring the world inside your heart. First yourself, as a small image, and then others. Shift your perspective to look through their eyes, and resonate with their awareness. Laugh at your ego, your own persona. Know that there is a deeper part of you that is beautiful, content, complete and whole.