PATHWAYS TO
Mindfulness
Enhancing awareness and living mindfully is a transformative journey that will convert the heart and mind, and consequently the lifestyle of anyone who chooses to follow the path.
What is Pathways to Mindfulness?
Pathways to Mindfulness (PTM) is a spiritual development program. The process helps you to become more aware of the subconscious state of mind that you have been mostly navigating your life from, and helps you to become more aware of your authentic self, your soul-being, your true nature, the I Am that sits behind your thoughts, feelings and actions.
The process helps you learn how to observe your life, rather than being caught up in the drama of it. By learning how to step back and be the witness of your experience, free from the stream of thoughts you usually project on to any given moment, you create choice. You can choose to react habitually, and get the same outcomes as you always do, or you can choose to respond in a kinder, more loving way. It's the commitment to being mindful of this choice to be kinder to yourself, others, and the plant that results in a better quality of life.
Who Will Benefit from Pathways to Mindfulness?
When you are hurting, and everything you have tried has only brought about temporary relief, if any at all, and you have reached that place of burnout, depression, compassion fatigue, loneliness, serious illness, or even looking death in the face, it could well be that your suffering is a blessing in disguise. The reason is that now you might consider letting go of all that you previously deemed to be important, realising that it is no longer serving you.
Pathways to Mindfulness is for anyone who is experiencing:
• a general feeling of discontent or wanting more out of life
• compromised physical, mental or emotional wellbeing (depression or burnout for example)
• in an extremely painful place, and no matter what they try, cannot seem to move beyond the stressor causing their suffering
• at a cross-road in life and uncertain about how to move forward
• committed to their spiritual growth, but struggle to be free of suffering, even after investing years in development
As adults we are unconsciously having our 'strings pulled' by a child version of ourselves.
Unaware of this scenario, we engage life through a story that emerged from our childhood. It is this story that holds us back. It's as if we are the puppet and our child-self is the puppeteer.
The Root Cause of Your Suffering and Setbacks in Life
You and I each have a personal filter that distorts how we experience life. In other words, we see the world as we are, not as it is. It is generally accepted that this filter develops from the programming we received in our formative years. By the age of seven (some say as early as five), we have developed our core behaviours, beliefs and attitudes, which were modelled by our family and the society in which we were mostly exposed. As Aristotle once said, "Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man."
In Pathways to Mindfulness we refer to that programming as 'the story'. The story is the filter through which we funnel almost everything we experience in life. It is a detour that directs us away from experiencing inner stillness. A detour, that for many people, results in much suffering.
Part of this story is a personal narrative you developed about your worth. One that says 'who you are, and the way you are is not good enough, not loveable enough, not important enough,' etc. This idea you held about not being enough had you believing that you were 'worth less'. It is this narrative that has you searching outside of yourself for something that will make you 'worth more' so that you can be happy, knowing that you are finally enough.
For the majority of the Western world, we perceive the happiness we long for will be found in power, wealth, special loves (family, friends, lovers), and success. These are the four core values that we strive for, and so for most of us, our sense of self has become tied to these four values.
This it what causes your suffering. You turn up in your adult life carrying an outdated belief from your childhood. A belief that says you are not enough as you are, and that wealth, power, special love, and success are the benchmarks that establish your worth and therefor your degree of happiness.
A life of joy, peace and love will be elusive until you replace your subconscious desires for wealth, power, special love, and success, with new values.
The belief of being worth less that you carry from your childhood informs your motivations, and why you think, feel, and act the way you do as an adult. You end up spending most of your life trying to avoid poverty (lacking wealth), victimhood (lacking power), lovelessness (lacking special relationships), and failure (lacking success).
As life goes on and experiences of financial insecurity, being a victim, relationship struggles, and failure, eventually creep in, you ’spend’ your time and money on things that minimise your experience of suffering. You will either work harder and find more sophisticated ways of obtaining wealth, power, special love and success, or you will find ways to numb the pain and suffering through experiences, objects, or substances that bring you momentary pleasure (these are the things that become our addictions). Whatever strategy you use, three things eventually get in the way.
Natural justice steps in and the poor lifestyle choices that have been sustained over a long period of time result in sickness or disease. As a result of ageing, the energy needed to sustain the drive to prove your worth runs out. Or, you find yourself at the mercy of poor fortune (sever weather, Covid, a recession), things that are out of your control, that undermines everything you have done to establish your worth up until this point.
Having your progress or pain killers stripped away compounds the belief of being worth less, which typically results in some form of compromised health and wellbeing. Symptoms tend to include burnout, depression, anxiety, lifestyle diseases, or at worst, suicide.
There is happiness to be found in both awareness and ignorance. It is just that the latter has a use-by date.
Three Behaviours That Keep You Trapped in Your Suffering
In the Buddhist approach to mindfulness they teach that three things keep you trapped in a mundane and often painful existence. Buddha called them the Three Poisons because of their ability to cause sickness and disease.
Ignorance is when you live life habitually, always doing what you have always done. You are completely enmeshed with your childhood narrative, believing your thoughts and perceptions are real. The degree to which you experience happiness or suffering is purely dictated by external factors.
Avoidance is when you have become more conscious of other ways of doing things, but what it takes to change requires too much effort or it's too difficult, so you resort to maintaining your old habits. You have awareness, which means you have a choice, but you forfeit that choice and continue to do what you've always done and continue to get the same outcomes.
Attachment is when you are aware of what you need to do to change, you want to change, so you use willpower to make the changes. This becomes unsustainable and eventually sees you reverting back to your old habits. You lack the understanding of how to dissolve your attachment to 'your story' and it's associated values.
Buddha went on to say that "All evil things, and all evil destiny, are really rooted in greed, hate and ignorance; and of these three things ignorance is the chief root and the primary cause of all evil and misery in the world." This suggests that the opposite of ignorance must be the remedy, and the opposite of ignorance is awareness (gaining new knowledge and understanding).
The first four modules of Pathways to Mindfulness, are dedicated to just that - enhancing awareness. The fifth module is about how to be mindful of that new awareness in each moment.
Awareness is understanding. Mindfulness is using that understanding in a way that truely serves.
Awareness and Mindfulness are the Remedy for Suffering
Awareness is about expanding your knowledge or understanding. In Pathways to Mindfulness this includes: becoming aware of how you currently experience life mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually; becoming aware of your story and the beliefs you hold about your worth; and becoming aware of how you could experience life differently if you were no longer subject to the limitations of your childhood narrative.
These fundamental steps in awareness will help you to untangle your 'self' from the story, bringing you to a place where you can observe your experience. A place where you become aware of the 'I Am' who is the witness of your life experience. The one who can step back and observe life as it is in the moment, free from judgement brought about by the past, or fear of what might happen in the future. It is from this new state of consciousness that inner peace is experienced more consistently.
Mindfulness is about holding the new awareness as you engage life from moment to moment.
Western Mindfulness Mentors use a five-step process for helping their clients identify their story and move beyond ignorance, avoidance and attachment.
These five steps are the foundation to all of the Pathways to Mindfulness programs. To help you remember the five steps we have created an acronym using the word CHASM. A chasm is the profound difference between two things, whether it be people, viewpoints or feelings. In this case it is the difference between your current life experience and one where inner-peace prevails.
Current Reality
Module C is an awareness exercise where you practice observing the facts of your current reality, free from any judgements or perceptions. Through this process you start to become familiar with what it means to be the witness of your experience. You will become aware of how subconsciously you have lived your life up until this moment, and you will begin to understand how being unaware is directly connected to your suffering.
Holding You Back
Aristotle once said “Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man.” There is a substantial amount of scientific literature that supports the notion that during the first 5-7 years of a child’s life they are exposed to the programming that will form the filters for how they engage life. In a gentle way, Module H has you identify the programming, filters, and beliefs that are Holding You Back. We refer to this as ‘your story’.
Alternative Reality
Once you have established your current reality and how your story brought you to that place, you will then explore what a kinder, Alternative Reality might look like. This is a state of consciousness where there is little or even no suffering. The minute you begin to imagine this alternative reality, you have already begun to lay down the foundation for creating a new neural pathway.
Shifting Realities
If you are going somewhere you have never been before, it is likely that you will use a map to guide you to your destination. This is what Module S is all about. You will build a strategic map for Shifting Realities from point A (your current reality) to point B (the alternative reality). Each time you review the strategy you strengthen the neural pathway that can lead you toward the kinder, loving alternative you selected as your destination.
Mindful Not Wilful
The Western Mindfulness approach to change requires you to be Mindful Not Wilful. In this module you will be given five tools, that if embraced, will help you to pause your stream of programmed thoughts and behaviours in any given moment. It is in this space, when the mind is silent, that you will remember that the choice to be kinder to yourself, to others and to the planet exists. This is the place where change occurs.
Pathways to Mindfulness has proven to be aligned with the latest research regarding neuroplasticity and neural pathway development.
The program has been packaged in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step experiential program. The process is simple, but the impact is dynamic.
Using C.H.A.S.M as the foundation for each session, participants gain an understanding of how to make the changes that will result in a better quality of life through enhancing their awareness, and living mindfully. When kindness becomes the thing you value most, your suffering - burnout, depression, challenging relationships etc, are replaced with a more consistent state of inner-peace, joy and fulfilment.
Pathways to Mindfulness Programs
Exploring Awareness
2 Sessions
The first two sessions of the process have been designed as a stand alone booklet so that you can trial the program before committing. This can be done on your own or with a mentor. It is essential that these two sessions are completed before moving on to CHASM or the Short Course.
Each version of the program is delivered in a high quality workbook with a complementary mindfulness journal.
Be free of the thing that is holding you back.
Live the life you've always imagined!
Our clients consistently report the following benefits:
Generally happier in all aspects of life.
Restored love and connection in relationships.
Able to communicate with more clarity and confidence.
More freedom to be themselves.
Less dependant on the approval of others.
Less demanding of themselves and others.
Take the time to really hear others.
Less consumed by negative thoughts.
Listen to themselves and their own needs more often.
Prioritise looking after their needs just as much as the needs of others.
Less emotionally reactive and can now respond thoughtfully.
Experience less frustration, anxiety and anger.
Less exhausted.
More motivated to engage in life.
Increased confidence.
More inclined to make values based decisions.
Consume less alcohol and drugs.
Have found fulfilment in their work or changed employment.
Improved financial circumstances.
Improved sleep.
More committed to health and fitness.
Improved health and wellbeing.
A deeper sense of self-esteem and self-worth.