"Just like the lotus, we too have the ability to rise from the mud, bloom out of the darkness and radiate into the world". Consciousness coaching When a spiritual path is taken, there are times when we are challenged by existence. In addition to the many tests that present themselves in our life (do we respond from our survival patterns or our heart?), our shadow side will also arise, which we often don't recognize because we project our inner world outwards: it always depends on the other person or the circumstances that we feel the way we feel. As the heart opens more and more, the knots that are still on the heart will reveal themselves in the form of strong emotions such as jealousy, hatred, meaninglessness, betrayal, feeling unheard, injustice, etc. And it is not always easy to be with this strong tendencies. Our tendency to flee, to avoid or suppress the pain, is very strong with the result that we continue to act or not act from the ego, from the survival structure, which is based on fear and deficit. Consciousness coaching wants to assist and guide people during the transformation process from mind (thinking based on fear) to heart, to trust and inner peace. The coaching aims to bridge the gap between what has awakened in us spiritually in insights and realization and its actual embodiment in our daily life. How does it work in practice? The moment a question arises, a knot on the heart unfolds, a conflict arises that is lacking insight, tendencies from the structure (neediness, the doer or slave driver, the controller, etc.) control or dominate us, strong pulling forces keeping us trapped in certain reaction patterns, strong forces such as impotence, fear, anger etc. coming loose in us, consciousness coaching is a possibility. I know all facets of the 'awakening process' from within. Sensing and sensing ability and a sharp vision make it possible to see through the survival structure of the other, from which a different perspective, from Light, Wisdom and Love can be provided. In addition to a different perspective and challenging your structure, I support you in the presence of deep pains and breaking through deep tendencies and reaction patterns. The coaching doesn't have a fixed structure. Sometimes people come for a number of sessions, sometimes people come for a single session and I see or speak them again, for example, six months later. What is right for you unfolds on the spot. Online coaching The consultations are for free and can take place by telephone or live at my home in the Netherlands (Voorhout,area Leiden). If you are from abroad and you want a free consult, please write me an email with some background and then we will arrange a call for coaching. My emailadress is: carolineootes.nu@gmail.com Meditation Awakening is not possible without Awareness (Witness consciousness). If Awareness is not (fully) recognized yet, we keep circling in the same patterns, we remain a prisoner of the mind, we remain entangled in situations, emotions and stories, we continue to avoid pain, partly because we have not learned to be present with the pain. Without Awareness we continue to make efforts to improve ourselves or the other, with the result that we then strengthen the ego/mind; in other words, the energy is used to "change" or "become" instead of "being" and "surrender". I therefore always encourage people to practice a form of meditation through which Witness Consciousness can reveal itself. Consciousness coaching works much more powerful when Witness Consciousness opens up. Consciousness coaching doesn't want to keep people trapped in the mind by fixing all attention on problems; seeing through the ego, the psychological self is what it is all about. Who am I? What am I? And what is the ego? The only thing we really know for sure is: I am. No one can ignore that: I exist, you exist, we are. That's the one thing we know for sure is actually true: I exist. That is the foundation of who we are: I am. That realization of 'I am' arises at some point, at a young age. "I am" is the birth (seed) of self-consciousness; we become aware that we exist.A baby does not yet know this realization, because it merges with the environment. On top of this 'I am', which can be experienced as 'Pure Consciousness' (Beingness) and 'Openness', the ego arises. The ego is also called the psychological self and you could describe it as 'I am + ...' The three dots behind 'I am +' refers to identification with everything we place on those dots: I am social, honest, humanist etc. We define the original 'I am' and identify with it. And that is the birth of the ego. In other words: in the course of time an selfimage is created, a story about ourselves. And that selfimage (psychological self) gives a sense of stability, of 'this is me'. 'I am' changes to 'this is me'. Can you feel the difference in energy? If we look deeper into the 'I', we discover that 'I' consists of many selves and contradictory forces (the many voices), because the 'I am this' has no ground of existence in itself: the 'I an this' is like loose sand that is held together by feeding it with opinions, stories, concepts about that I etc. Without realizing it, it is this 'I am this' that causes deep down a feeling of separateness, emptiness and alienation, in ourselves and in relation to the other: the contact with our foundation 'I am', the openness and calmness of 'I am' is overshadowed by 'I am this'. It is not easy to see through the illusion of 'I am this', because it is also strongly reinforced by society: we also see the other and the world from this perspective (he/she is such or so; the world is like this or that). Collectively, we all live from the ego, the 'I am this'. And from this 'I am this' arises 'I want this' and 'I don't want that' (desire and aversion); we believe we are behind the wheel and in control of life (but is that really so?). It is the holding or attaching to this 'I am this' that causes so much tension, cramp and conflict. Nevertheless, we want to maintain this 'I' (we don't know any better) that by definition disappears one day…, the day you die… or wake up. Spirituality to me means seeing through the ego (the psychological self), the alleged director, the ingrained (survival) patterns and fixation on concepts or belief (I/we are right), which causes stress, contraction and war, all arising from fear and lack. Consciousness coaching leads man back to 'I am', to Pure Consciousness itself, to the calmness and openness of just 'being', 'being present', to the wisdom and love that is inherent in 'being'. What is the difference between awareness coaching and therapy? Therapy is aimed at strengthening the ego, repairing the personality, so that a positive self-image, more grip and security is experienced. Therapy is appropriate when someone is totally confused and fragmented. Consciousness coaching is not a therapy, it is aimed at dismantling the ego, seeing through the (survival)structure, but the coaching can have a therapeutic/healing effect. Consciousness coaching takes the emotional/mental/physical layer (where all conflicts occur) as a starting point and connects this layer with our essence which is free, wise and loving. A healthy ego, which is broadly stable, has the right breeding ground for a deep, essential transformation: transcending the mind. www.thehealingcircle.one LinkedIn: Caroline Ootes
