I attended my first “consciousness raising” seminar in 1976, (not a typo) the est training in Denver Colorado. It rocked my world.  Woke me up and changed every aspect of my life. Colors were brighter. Food tasted better. People were wonderful. I was a new person. I felt like I could accomplish anything. I was invincible.

For about a month and a half.

Then, slowly, but oh so steadily, aided by the environment of husband, children, job, etc. the “old me” became dominant once again. Solution? Take another seminar and read a self-help book. It worked. For about a month and a half. (Repeat the previous sentence ad nauseam)

After about nine years in that maze, I became one of the things people did after the epiphanies and aha’s from their seminars and books wore off. I became a Life Coach. I was, and still am, really good at it. Working with me, people produce results in their lives. They increase their awareness and become more of who they want to be the whole time we’re working together. They literally form new habits of being that translate into tangible results in their lives. 

Twenty five years later, I had literally helped hundreds and hundreds of people ‘wake up.’ And I watched them fall asleep again, just like me. So, as a matter of personal integrity, I had to ask myself, “What is it that would have all of the insights and power and awareness we accumulate actually STICK in our lives? What’s going to have it be right here available to us when we’re arguing with our spouse or worried about money?  Is there something that could make those wonderful changes our own----part of who we are----as opposed to something we have to remember, practice, or work at?”

Asking that question, I realized two things. One, that the aspects of my life that are working have a “daily” component. Brushing my teeth.  Moving my muscles.  Meditation. They have become part of me. I don’t think about, work at, or strive to floss my teeth. I just do it. And two, only those things that I literally discovered on my own through trial and error stuck with me. Those awarenesses are like a hormone precursor.  They unlock and open the door for all appropriate words and actions to show up.

What if human happiness, power, and effectiveness works the same way as oral hygiene couple with trial and error?

What if we flossed our brain every day? What if each morning we simply expanded our awareness by experimenting? Questioned a belief system? Didn’t try to solve a problem or change ourselves, or integrate some dogma. What if we just started looking into stuff ourselves, asking questions, paying attention to our own individual answers? Would we become awake, so that the natural, innate, exuberance for life we are born with could flourish?

I called twenty former clients. I told them I was going to start calling them each morning as a “wake up call.”  They said great. And so the experiment began. As we approached our own thinking and beliefs as a scientist would, we discovered for ourselves our own unique abilities to accomplish and love and create and enjoy. We got really good at lighting up our frontal lobe (where all creation and innovation begins) on purpose. We’re brain athletes. Surprising results occurred. And we’re having a ball! Laughing first thing every morning shifts the vibration for the entire day.

The other aspect of wake up calls, I hadn’t considered when I began the experiment, is the exponential effect speaking our insights and listening to others’ have on our ability to expand our own awareness. Affirmations or reading or listening to a radio show all have the potential to increase our understanding. Yet not in the same way that finding out everyone’s insights are different and valid has.   

We are each different in many ways.  What’s the same about us is that once we discover something on our own it stays with us. It IS us. We’re not believing it, learning it from someone else’s experience, or needing it to be true. It’s like when a baby becomes aware of their hands for the first time.  All of a sudden they have expanded themselves in a way that is irreversible. Self induced awareness never goes away.