The Path of Awakening

Keywords

Resilience - Poetry - Meditation - Mindfulness - Awakening - Flow States - Zen

In this episode of Resilience Unravelled Henry Shukman, a widely published poet, author, meditation teacher and Zen master of the Sanbo Zen lineage, shares his personal story. Henry grew up in Oxford, UK, where his parents were professors and his early love of poetry led to an interest in Chinese Zen poetry, and ultimately to him becoming a writer and poet.

Henry suffered from severe eczema from infancy into his 20’s, along with associated psychological problems, and meditation was a key element in a long journey of healing. He travelled extensively, eventually settling in New Mexico where he became fascinated by the indigenous culture's deep connection to the earth and where he was introduced to meditation and Zen, which in turn influenced his writing.

Main topics

•  The meditative quality of poetry and how it can bring one back to the present moment

• Using poetry in meditation to create a serene atmosphere.

• The differences between various forms of meditation

• The concept of awakening

• The connection between meditation and mindfulness

• The transformative power of poetry and its potential to enrich one's life

• The concept of original sin and its influence on Western culture

• The idea of karma and its physical consequences

• The concepts of mindfulness, support and absorption

• The concept of flow states and how they can be achieved through complete absorption in a task, leading to enhanced performance and increased happiness

• How flow is not limited to specific professions or activities and can be accessed through simple practices like meditation

• The relationship between meditation and religion and the practical and philosophical significance of meditation.

Action items

Henry's book is "Original Love: The 4 Ends on the Path of Awakening" and it has an accompanying meditation app, "The Way."

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions.   

A journey of awakening.

Beth Bell spent over fifteen years in strategic brand management in the pharmaceutical industry and which took her around the world. Eventually though she realised she wanted to do something more with her life. She loved her job but knew there was a bigger mission so she left her corporate life behind and moved to Bali, originally thinking she’d be there for three months but ending up being there for five and half years.

In total she spent seven and a half years in Asia and returned to the US in 2018 where she did her own shows ‘Pollenate the planet with love’ and  ‘Empowering peer love and purpose’.  She has now launched a book to on how we can stop the suffering of the mind by giving in to our souls plan and living the bliss that is our abundance and birthright.

Big pharma does not seem to be a place of great purpose and meaning. A lot of people get feelings that there is more so what was happening to you? What was going on in your head?

Beth is not really a disgruntled corporate person, but there is a soul seeking aspect of working for any big company. She always had the idea that there was something more that I’m here to do, something more that I want to contribute. After going though a tumultuous divorce which was also one of the biggest spiritual awakening moments in her life she just walked up the stairs of her corporate life and realised things had to change because she really wanted to do something different. She didn't really know what it was or where she should go but the idea of moving to Costa Rica came to mind. Within one week she had five people tell her she should go to Costa Rica and she took that as a sign. She started looking at the airfares and told herself that if the ticket was cheap enough she would go. It was and she took that as the last validation sign so bought the ticket and then realised she would have to quit her job.

Beth’s employer’s offered her a three-month sabbatical but after one month she realised she want to go back any time soon. She didn't want to leave her team without a leader so she decided to give them notice and not take the three months. She kept travelling and this started to accelerate her spiritual journey. She ended up going back to the corporate world after two years which turned out to be a great opportunity with many more things unfolding from there. Beth feels she was divinely guided to leave her corporate life, to return to it and finally leave it for good many years down the road.

You had an idea but you acted on it. lots of people don't act on. You de-risked it but there is a difference between people who act and those that don't. What is it that makes you take action?

Beth feels that she developed intuitive risk taking. It was a risk to leave her corporate life and pay check and it did take a lot to make the jump but intuitively she knew she wanted to follow her heart and didn't want to be a person who said woulda shoulda coulda. She wanted to be the person that lived her life to its fullest and not in fear. She read a book called ‘A Course on Miracles’ which told her that life is either based on love or fear. She choose love and that meant she was going to go where her heart said she should go. To Beth intuitively doesn’t mean doing something on a whim rather it means listening to the feeling in your gut and then finding some validation points to make it make sense.

Beth’s divorce was painful. She fell in love with someone who was a great companion and had a lot of things in common with. She also fell prey to the white picket fence fairytale of romantic love. They both had different ideas about who they were as people and what they wanted to represent. She spent a lot of time enjoying her marriage but ended up lying to herself, not intentionally because didn't know she was lying to herself but she was not seeing the relationship for what it really was and how it was holding it back. She doesn't think her ex wanted to intentionally hold her back but we all have fear in relationships and in love. We want to protect ourselves and we all have ideas of want a relationship should be.

They started to part but then Beth hadwhat she refers to as an awakening kiss at 30,000 feet. Someone woke her up and she realised that she wanted more and that she could be in a relationship that gave her more. It was an awakening kiss because it wasn't a relationship that then was heavily pursued, it was an awakening to say there is so much more in a relationship that she was capable of. It was difficult because she had been with her husband for ten years and it wasn't something he wanted. It created a challenge and it took five to six years to settle the divorce.

Beth is still very grateful for the relationship because it was good in a lot of ways and taught her a lot of things. It was a challenge to get of though and she spent a lot years going under every rock, nook and cranny to make sure she healed from all the things that had come about from the relationship.

Beth’s new book is called Angels, Herpes and Psychedelics. She was encouraged by many people to change the title but she feels the title was spirited to her.  She breaks it down by explaining that Angels are always around to guide us. They appear in many forms but surround us everywhere. Everyone is an angel and we need to be open to the people in our lives so we can listen to the lesson they are here to help us with. Herpes refers to the different traumas that appear in life. Beth feels that viruses of the mind are the biggest trauma in life. These mean different things for people but we need to unravel the storyline of our mind to stop suffering.

Beth always had an absolute no go drug policy with just an occasional use of alcohol but she now feels that after twenty years of building her spiritual toolbox, psychedelics have helped her to completely embody the intellectual concepts she had with all her spiritual learning in a completely new way.

Beth came to psychedelics because at one point she was a flower whisperer. In her corporate world she could not meditate so she started photographing flowers and fell in love with the vibration and energy of flowers and this became her meditation. This led her into her being more interested in plant based medicine because she understood the power of flowers and plants. Coming from big pharma she finds it interesting that there are no over 250 pharmaceutical psychedelics companies all studying different molecules. A number of them are featured on the New York Stock Exchange so are seen as legitimate companies and it is likely that approvals for some psychedelics will be given in 2023.

There is lots of research and testing of psychedelics and the early results on their effect on trauma, anxiety and performance enhancement shows great promise. Conventional medicine is often reluctant and slow to take up new ideas so it’s often at the boundaries where you find advancements. However, the use of psychedelics is to be taken very seriously.

Beth feels it provides a great ability to help you work through trauma to expand your consciousness and that in an appropriate setting you can have an experience where you can understand the way that the universe works and who you really are and also unravel all the storylines in your mind that you don’t know are there. These can be ancestral or programmed from your parents, community or media and they can cause suffering.

Until you get into the depths of unraveling them to know who you really are, you will experience suffering. Psychedelics have the ability to give you a northern star that shows you where you’re headed, where you want to go and what your souls plan is.  

You can find out more about Beth at BethBell.me or her new book Angels, Herpes and Psychedelics, shares her journey of awakening and provides a spiritual toolbox others can learn from.

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions.