Sidra Jafri - Awareness Is Key

THE THIRD PRINCIPLE

Awareness Is The Key

Sidra Jafri

This edition published in the UK and USA in 2015 by

Watkins, an imprint of Watkins Media Limited

19 Cecil Court, London WC2N 4EZ

Text copyright Sidra Jafri 2015

Sidra Jafri has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior permission in writing from the Publishers.

ISBN: 978-1-78028-850-5

www.watkinspublishing.com

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.

Albert Einstein

The Awakening is calling you, as it once called me, to create the change you want. In the third of the Nine Principles of Awakening, youll uncover any unhelpful beliefs that are keeping you stuck, and so take the next step in building the life you desire. In this process youll discover that the Awakening is about going inward and waking up to the truth of who you are. I look forward to being your guide.

If this is your first experience of the Awakening, I invite you now to read through the (at the end of the book), in order to make the most of your journey through the third principle.

Your awareness is your reality; it is everything you know. Awareness Is The Key is the next truth to absorb on your Awakening journey. Expanding your awareness, and therefore your consciousness, will bring you closer to your own truth. Your awareness determines how you show up in life: whether you fulfil your purpose in life or dont. The truth of who we really are is usually hidden beneath our conditioning and programming, so we need to spend some time infusing it with energy that is more aligned with our true self. In other words, you might think you are a businessperson just like your dad, but deep down inside there is a musician that hasnt been given an opportunity to shine yet.

When you delve beneath the surface and look at whats really going on, the things you did before out of habit, you will now do out of choice. When you become truly aware of what youre doing and why, you have a choice to follow through with that action or pick a different one. You cant be what you are not aware of, and you may even spend your entire life being what you are not!

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There was once a farmer who diligently worked his land, day in, day out. It was a hard and lonely life. One fine day he was seized by a desire to climb the mountain that overshadowed his farm and see what he could see. So he downed tools and began to climb. Up, up, up he went. As he pulled himself onto a ledge just below the summit, his hand brushed a pile of twigs. A nest and it was full of eggs! He knew at once that they were eagles eggs. Delighted at his find, he very gently took one of the eggs and carried it all the way back down the mountain to his farm. For safekeeping he put the egg under one of his hens, who happened to be sitting on a clutch of eggs.

The mother hen was proud of this egg that was so much larger than any other egg on the farm and she looked after it as if it had been her own. In due course the egg cracked open and an eagle chick emerged. Even as a baby, the eagle had the piercing eyes and proud beak of its kind. It looked quite different to the fluffy yellow chicks, but the kind farm animals had no fear of this magnificent creature and the little eagle was treated just like all the chickens. Its foster mother taught it all about the farms pecking order, and showed it how to cluck and scratch.

The eagle grew old believing itself to be a chicken. Then one day, as it was pulling a worm out of the earth, a shadow fell over the ground and the eagle looked up. High above, a majestic eagle soared, gliding effortlessly on the wind. What a wonderful creature! exclaimed the eagle. Never in all his life had he seen anything so regal and graceful.

Just keep digging, said a hen. Those eagles dont have anything to do with us. Were only chickens and our wings are for taking dust baths, not flying.

Hearing that, the eagle took his eyes off the soaring bird and turned his attention back to the dusty farmyard. He believed himself to be a chicken and thats all he would ever be.

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Just like the old eagle in the story above, we decide whether to continue behaving in a certain way or not, whether to think differently or to react in a particular manner. And if we still decide to act in the way we did before, we do it with full awareness. This is conscious living.

Knowing why you do something makes you responsible for your choices and means any repressed or subconscious feelings will no longer pop up and hijack your intentions or your behaviours. Things that were previously invisible, unavailable or that you just did not know about will become obvious. So if you have been struggling with a particular issue but have no idea why, expanding your awareness of whats happening on a deeper level will bring other matters to the fore. Perhaps youll realize that your issues dont actually belong to you but are an echo of another family members feelings on the subject. You might discover that you have fear or guilt issues around it. For example, people who experienced scarcity in childhood often subconsciously feel ashamed or unable to enjoy their success because they remember the pain money caused their parents.

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During a very cold winter David, a very wealthy man in his eighties, was found unconscious is his unheated house suffering from hypothermia. After he was hospitalized his daughter, Maria, was very worried about him and pleaded with him to spend some money on heating. When he ignored her wishes Maria knew her father was deep in denial about how close he had come to losing his life and persuaded her father to come and see me.

David described how when he was a young boy during World War II his father was killed in battle overseas and his mother was left to bring up David and his two brothers on a meagre widows pension. Although David remembered little of his childhood, he always felt very close to his mother and respected her immensely for managing to bring up the family in such harsh conditions. He said nothing was ever wasted in their house. Everything was used until it fell to bits. His mother was incredibly resourceful and hated seeing anything go to waste.

He vowed to himself that he would never live like that again and consequently became a huge success in the printing industry. Deep down he hoped his success would make his mother feel better. He tried to make her accept some gifts but she found it difficult, saying he shouldnt waste his money on her. He was a rich man but couldnt enjoy a penny he earned. Despite losing his mother nearly 40 years before, he continued to carry her feelings about scarcity into his old age.

A couple of months after his session, Maria got in touch to say that her father had decided to take her and his granddaughter on a trip of a lifetime, to enjoy some of his money while he was still fit and able. She said that after our meeting he had grieved for his mother properly for the first time. He had been holding onto the money as tightly as he could because letting go meant letting go of her. But now he felt strong enough to stop punishing himself and live his last few years truly enjoying the fruits of what he had worked so hard for all his life.

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Many children who are raised in a poor economic environment inherit their parents fears of lack of abundance or resources. Ive met hoarders whose houses were so filled with junk that they couldnt find their beds. Once they become aware that their fear of scarcity was handed down from their parents, they were finally able to make space for themselves. I have also met people who cannot bear to let go of anything because they are living out their unexpressed grief and have never truly let go of the person they lost.