My Car Accident & Spiritual Awakening
On the way to a week-long spiritual retreat with Shakti Caterina Maggi, I was driving up Mt Madonna Rd, a very narrow gravel road that went on and on and on for miles! Many times along the way, I worried I had taken a wrong turn and was going the wrong way, since I was losing GPS access. My apprehension and anxiety level was already at a high pitch when I saw a car barreling towards me!!!
At the moment the collision happened my sense of identity as a separate person shifted or dropped away. I was shocked into a deeper state of Unity (God) Consciousness than ever before, feeling as if everything happening and everyone involved, every part of the experience, was an expression of me.
As soon as I saw his frightened face, my heart burst open with so much love and compassion for the driver, myself, our vehicles, for everyone that would be impacted in a stressful way.
I felt Love!!!
Fear-Based Conditioning Revealed
Simultaneous with the beautiful GIFT of being propelled into a deeper realization of Love and Unity, the accident brought to the surface a collection of my fear-based conditioning for transformation. Fear patterning that may never have been faced or felt in any other way. Even in the traumatic moments, as the scene was to unfold, I was aware of living through the fear-based components of myself this accident helped to transform.
These fears included: traveling alone in unfamiliar territory, breaking down on the side of the road in a remote area, being alone with male strangers in a remote area, getting into a car accident. At the bottom of all these fears was fear of the unknown and the belief, “I won’t know what to do”.
Living through those fears turned out to be nothing like I thought and worried it would!
Even though it was true that I didn’t know what to do immediately, each next step was revealed moment-by-moment. I faced my fear of not knowing what to do and discovered that in fact I do know how to respond to what is happening. I now know that, no matter what happens in the unpredictable Mystery of Life, this will always be true.
I was able to evaluate the scene of the accident, the condition of myself and the young man driving the other car, and even though my car was screeching and shaking, I was able to drive the rest of the way to the retreat!
Within 45 minutes I had checked into my room, and my roommate arrived, a woman named Pamela who I hadn’t met before. I explained what had just happened. She told me she was a “Somatic Trauma Specialist” and offered to help my body unwind from the shock right then and there. How perfectly graceful was that?! The retreat experience proceeded from there like ice cream on the cake!!!!
Your Awakening Process
For the past couple of weeks I’ve been contemplating the experiences of this accident, the retreat, and the Awakening Process itself. Here are some of the wisdom pearls I took away. These insights are offered as pointers and reminders in support of your “Awakening Process”.
- Life can be seen as a mirror to our everyday life, the path through which our “Awakening Process” unfolds. As we become more willing and able to see this, life experience will reveal our human body-mind conditioned presumptions, misunderstandings, and limitations as well our positive life affirming capacities and beliefs, providing opportunities to embody Higher Self more fully.
- With willingness to see ourselves in the mirror of Life, our joy, beauties, love and mature capacities, as well as our challenges, we learn to stop projecting blame on “the other” (person, place or circumstance) and take responsibility for our reaction patterns.
- Through self-responsibility, observation and inquiry, layer-by-layer, the body-mind empties of old patterns that hold us back, and fills with additional positive realities of Higher Self, such as unconditional love and peace that manifest as peace of mind and happiness in daily living.
- It can be uncomfortable and challenging to consciously face and feel our contractions and limitations when they are triggered. Having the perspective and recognizing we are in an “Awakening Process” can really help!!!
I wonder if you too can identify a particular series of events in your life that unexpectedly catapulted you to similar evolutionary transformations?
P.S. The driver of the car that crashed into mine was wearing a gold medallion much like the one in the banner photo on this page. For me, it was a message that the Divine is shining in and through AS everyone and everything, even car accidents.
