Welcome to my underlying framework for experience.
There are large parts of you that are blind spots, shut down or in shadow. Here, I am opening a door for you to get in touch with every aspect of yourself from a very heart-centred approach.
This way of presenting the framework retains its sense of nebulosity; it presents things in a way that is very immediate and explorative, all of which are qualities of being present in the heart. If you prefer a more logical and structured approach, you may want to check out the awakening course, which presents things from a more mind-first perspective.
The purpose of my framework is to support you to deepen your practice, to reflect on the different aspects of your being and to open up possibilities for you to awaken new parts of you.
It will also help you discover the full spectrum of experience, free from dogma and fixed ideas about what awakening means, and allow you to navigate which aspects you want to cultivate and connect to in your experience.
On this page you will find:
- An introduction to the ethos of the framework
- The underlying framework and model
- A quiz for identifying which aspect of experience you are most drawn to awakening
- Details about the holistic nature of this approach
- A self-review resource for engaging more deeply with the framework
I also created a map, which is designed to complement the heart-centred approach and give some more detail about the different layers and elements of experience.
The Ethos – Joy & Embodied Presence
By taking a heart-centred approach this framework moves away from the idea of fixed goals and towards the intention to include more aspects of experience. This process of inclusion allows you to get in touch with your innate capacity for goodness, wellness, truth and mystical connection, amongst other things.
Rather than trying to bypass reality, I am inviting you to connect with the most deeply personal aspects of experience; to get intimately in touch with the true nature of what it is to be a being in this Universe.
One of the fastest, most direct and most honest ways to do this is to meet your resistances with a sense of courage, compassion and joy. The more courage and generosity you can bring to your practice and life, the deeper it will take you.
With this approach, you are connecting with your eros, energy, creativity and whole-heartedness. You’re finding ways to become full and inclusive expressions of your being and life-force. As well as seeing the true nature of reality.
You are becoming more present in your life and with the full depth of yourself and the cosmos. You are bringing yourself to life by being willing to embrace all experience and not turn away from it, to welcome it into your experience whole-heartedly.
To be able to work in the heart-centred way, you first need to be able to connect to experience from your core. In order to do this, one of the key areas to awaken is an intimate connection with your inner world. The video below is a short ten minute introduction to the four senses of the inner world. Understanding and getting a felt sense of these senses in your experience is an important key to unlocking the depths of this framework.
You can also see an illustrated version of some the things that connecting more deeply to your inner world might look like in this inforgraphic.
The Framework
The framework describes a rich eco-system of practice around each of the elements of the body, the heart, the mind and the soul.
The purpose is to cultivate the meta-states of presence in the body, openness in the heart, emptiness in the mind and flow with the soul realm. Each of these meta-states is related to being present in a heart-centred way.
You can explore each of the elements here. There is also a map to help you orient your practice and experience around.
The Model
Below is one depiction of the model, shown in layers, which demonstrates how the different parts can build on each other to create a full spectrum experience of awakening.
Start Exploring
You can work your way through the different parts, or start by taking this quiz to discover which area would be most exciting and beneficial for you to focus on.
Holistic Approach
This approach considers people and their practice to be an embodied, alive eco-system. Due to its heart-centred approach it avoids focusing on reified tick boxes or attainments. Rather than fixed goals, this framework focuses on people shifting towards different attractor points over time.
An example of an attractor point would be becoming more open-hearted over time. Shifting towards attractor points over time will affect people’s behaviour, sense-making structures and ways of experiencing the world; ultimately opening up new paradigms and ways of being.
I encourage you to be ambitious with what can be achieved – the changes can be quite radical and life-changing – while also recognise that everything is a journey and you will never arrive anywhere final. You are cultivating change from the inside, rather than moving towards an external goal.
The diagrams below depict the present moment. They show how this way of practicing relates to present moment experience in quite a different way compared to a lot of more traditional meditation approaches.
Practicing from a heart-centred place, you are connecting to the present moment and moving from the inside out. You start with the understanding that you will need to uncover and unpack your subconscious beliefs and emotions to uncover what experience lays beneath.
It is through connecting with all the different aspects of your experience that you are able to come into a healthier, more balanced, more alive and more aware version of your being.
Self-Review
Here is a resource for working with the framework; it’s an exploration into the different aspects of experience and how you incorporate them into your practice or teaching.
It’s very simple, but I’ve received feedback that filling it in helps people recognise:
- Why using a holistic approach is important
- The depth and breadth of wisdom that already exists in people’s practice and/or teaching
If you are interested in recognising the gaps in your knowledge or understanding how your practice fits into a wider eco-system, you may want to explore my awakening course.
Explore Your Whole Being
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