I would say that the thrust of my life has been initially about getting free, and then realizing that my freedom is not independent of everybody else. Then I am arriving at that circle where one works on oneself as a gift to other people so that one doesn’t create more suffering. I help people as I work on myself and I work on myself to help people.

Ram Dass

We are coming to understand that as one of us comes into greater alignment and more fully manifests the heart’s desire, that all of us benefit. We are peering into the vista where the happiness of others adds to our happiness. We are standing at the edge of our old understanding of self. It appears we have used it up. It is done. A new opening has revealed itself – and now what?

Selfishness

Your life transforms at the exact moment when you awaken to the notion that the greatest gift you can give to others is to become “selfishly” focused on your own alignment. In that pivotal awareness, three major shifts take place in the landscape of your consciousness:

1. You get a break from your harsh inner critic. In fact, that inner judge that has habitually cut you down, gets so disoriented by the view from this newly cut window, that it becomes completely silent.

2. You acquire the permission you think you need to follow your heart.

3. Your action toward your own joy becomes fueled with the enormous energy of spirit.

Selflessness

Your transformation further deepens as you come to the next logical conclusion:

If my alignment contributes to you, then your alignment and the fulfillment of your heart’s desire, benefits me. And so, as I develop my skill at sensing your true desire and sincerely serving your alignment and the desires of your heart, my life improves.

As this perspective of service sheds its crusty outer coating of morality and becomes as real to you as your own personal desires, you become a new person. You become energized by every opportunity you have to serve others. Your senses become heightened and you can sniff out what a person truly wants and find ways to assist them in its fulfillment. And you get indescribably happy in the process.

Restorative Blur

What we are doing looks just like taking a camera completely out of focus. We are so blurring the definition between you and me, us and them, him and her, that it becomes almost impossible to distinguish what is self and what is other.

This new blurriness helps us to see more accurately. It brings into view the otherwise invisible mingling of our little selves in the big body, the big mind, the big self, the one within which we all abide. It restores our awareness of our deep relationship with each other.

Laser Sharp Focus

As we blur the boundaries between self and other, the boundary between “selfishness” and “selflessness” spontaneously dissolves. It becomes a meaningless and useless construct.

Now that we have accomplished this restorative blur, we are free to bring ourselves into focus in a way that draws benefit to self and others (whatever these words now mean to us).

The focus now becomes our own alignment.

Don’t you want your liver to magnificently express liverness? Don’t you want your heart to fully be heart? The greater body wants you to fully be yourself in the purest and most joyful expression of your specific “self.”

Now that we have finished our blurring activity, you are empowered to get keenly focused on what your heart desires and to come into ever evolving harmony with its essence.

Try this:

1. Close your eyes and sit comfortably upright. Find a balanced way of sitting that communicates independence to your inner awareness. Sit in a way that feels self-sufficient.

2. Consider the possibility that for the next few moments, everyone else is fine. The whole world is at ease and all people, everywhere around the world, are happy and satisfied. There is no need for you to do or be or focus upon anything other than what makes you happy.

3. Imagine that any strings that were tied around you and were pulling you this way or that become lax, loose and untie themselves and drift away. You are free to follow your own inner inclinations. Everyone else is taken care of.

4. Shift your body around and re-find your postural alignment in this freer inner environment. Feel the possibility of a new alignment in your consciousness based on your soul’s true magnetism.

5. Allow this process to be incomplete and ever evolving. Allow your ongoing discovery of your inner alignment to become your new occupation.

By playing with your focus in this way, intentionally blurring and precisely focusing, you are erasing old patterns of restriction. As you move into your daily life, old habitual tendencies that were not serving you have less and less hold. They become insignificant players in the decisions you make. Your life becomes the glistening garment of your soul.

©2006 Rebbie Straubing

Dr. Rebbie Straubing, developer of The Yoga of Alignment (YOFA), is a workshop leader, Abraham Coach and spiritual writer. Her free e-course, 7 Secrets for Manifesting Your Heart’s Desire available at www.YOFA.net