The Align Your Purpose Program
STEP FOURTEEN: WAKE UPLEAVE THE DREAM; REALIZE A NEW SELF
Fiery Dance
Copyright © Vladimir Kush
A L IGN YOUR PUR POSE P ROGRAM - S T E P FOURTEEN : WAKE UP
Copyright © 2013 Choice Point with Jaime Mintun - www.choicepointmovement.com
3
IN THIS LESSON:
• Waking Up is Hard To Do• A Great Wake Up Call
Our truest life is when we are indreams awake.“
”Henry David Thoreau
As we begin Step 14: Wake Up, we see another vital reason for humility and solidarity as we move through
our Choice Points...
People will always encounter Choice Points often in their lives. However many never harness them because
they often don’t realize the opportunity until it’s too late. They do not recognize the chance for change—
or if they do, they do not know how to seize it.
When we approach our world (and others in it) from a place of humble solidarity we soften our walls to
other perspectives and hence to other Truths. It becomes easier to wake up to a new reality because we
have not dug our heels into the dream of reality we had in our past.
So in this lesson we are going to look at Choice Points from the perspective of your level of awareness, and
your willingness to integrate all you’ve gained by Understanding Your World... so that you may step forward
into rebirth and a truly new pattern.
Copyright © Alice Popkorn
A L IGN YOUR PUR POSE P ROGRAM - S T E P FOURTEEN : WAKE UP
Copyright © 2013 Choice Point with Jaime Mintun - www.choicepointmovement.com
5
Holding clarity and awareness during a Choice
Point isn’t always easy. That’s why most people
remain oblivious to the choices available to them or
to the ways they can alter their lives. Not because
they don’t know how to do things differently... but
because the level of awareness required to create
true change can be scary. It can even be
downright painful.
In fact, you can almost always be sure you’re in a
big Choice Point when you find yourself in crisis.
Waking up means you see things for what they are,
but if you’re seeing them through the lens of your
past, or your personal story, what you see might
make you feel depressed, desperate, angry,
frustrated or sad.
Also understand that the first part of waking up is
simply to see things as they are – to glimpse the
truth. It doesn’t mean you necessarily know yet
what to do about that truth or how to fix the
situation. And so this can lead to a sense of
hopelessness and powerlessness.
If you’ve ever felt like that please know that there is
always hope and you are never truly powerless. Your
power stems from within you; it is always yours – and
no one can ever take it from you.
Yes, we will often accidentally give our power away:
to people, to objects, to the past or future, to beliefs
or laws or principles. But even if we do it
unconsciously, it is we who do it. And that means it
is always within our ability to call our own power
back. How?
Neutral awareness and a focus on filling yourself up
with your own power and energy is one effective
way to call your power back, which we taught in an
earlier lesson.
Another effective method is by making conscious
choices, which we are teaching throughout this
entire course.
Don’t worry if you’re not ready to make the big
choices yet, or you’re not sure what the right choice
is for you. For now, just practice on little seemingly
inconsequential choices.
For example, choose what you wear each day with
intention. Use your clothing to set the tone for what
you want to express or experience that day. Choose
to do your chores or errands with elegance and
excellence—finish each task to completion and
with conscious awareness of what you’re doing as
you do it.
This helps create a sense of confidence and builds
your intention muscle as well as your decision
making muscles. Just as we must use and stretch our
physical muscles to build and strengthen them – so
too must we use and stretch our abilities to build
and strengthen them!
WAK ING UP I S HARD TO DO
Alice Popkorn
A L IGN YOUR PUR POSE P ROGRAM - S T E P FOURTEEN : WAKE UP
Copyright © 2013 Choice Point with Jaime Mintun - www.choicepointmovement.com
7
What we here at Choice Point call “waking up” is
really a transition from the old you and your old way
of life into a new you and life – via a powerful
realization or rebirth. You can have many of these
in your lifetime and they can vary in intensity.
During a “wake up” episode who you are and how
you perceive your world is irrevocably shifted.
There’s no turning back. And when you face
forward, you face a new truth.
Most people don’t actually try to wake up on their
own. Instead, they unconsciously plant little “wake
up alarms” into their lives via drama and
‘ticking-clock’ relationships. In other words, they will
unconsciously create situations that will eventually
spiral into crisis or confrontation, forcing them to
wake up via a dramatic and disturbing alarm.
Such episodes will often lead to a new level of
awareness and some people even come to be
grateful for those moments that blasted them
awake.
Yet what if you could wake yourself up without the
crisis?
It is far easier and less painful that way – and the
awareness is still just as sweet.
HERE IS A POTENT WAY TO WAKE UPWITHOUT THE CRISIS ALARMS!
We all have parts of ourselves we’d rather not shine
a spotlight on. Perhaps somewhere along the way
someone told us it was wrong or inappropriate. Or
we were laughed at because of it... or punished.
By the time we cross over into puberty each of us
has a rich history of events and experiences that
divided and fractured us: into the personality that is
acceptable... and our shadow-side we’ve been
taught to hide.
Most people tend to believe their shadow is actually
evil or wrong – a weakness or wickedness within
them that they must be rid of or at least fight tooth
and nail. But except in rare and extreme cases, your
shadow holds as much treasure and goodness as
the rest of you. You just had experiences that taught
you otherwise.
And keeping parts of yourself hushed away in the
corners of your being, covered and in the dark, will
inevitably create both inner and outer
confrontation. Our shadow, just like any other part
of us, craves healthy expression.
When those parts of us don’t get expressed they will
manipulate and sabotage us from the shadows –
hidden blocks and 2X4s that seem to come out of
nowhere to knock us down or stop us in our tracks.
In fact, 9 times out of 10, if there’s an explosive
confrontation between two people... it’s their two
shadows battling it out.
The reason why is that any part of you that goes
unexpressed has a stuck energy that has no release
valve. It keeps building and building until the lid
blows off of it and you have a volcanic eruption of
shadow energy.
Your shadow is largely responsible for the crises in
your life. But not because it’s bad. It is simply causing
strife because you’ve kept it hidden and
unexpressed. The solution is not to get rid of your
shadow, but rather to integrate it and bring it into
the light, i.e. into your conscious awareness.
A GREAT WAKE -U P CA L L
A L IGN YOUR PUR POSE P ROGRAM - S T E P FOURTEEN : WAKE UP
Copyright © 2013 Choice Point with Jaime Mintun - www.choicepointmovement.com
8
Ways to healthily express and integrate your
shadow include art, journaling, deep self-reflection
where you are honest and open with yourself and
also accepting and compassionate.
You also heal a lot of your shadow side as you
forgive and complete past wounds and painful
memories, which we touched on in Lessons 3 and 4.
To wake up without the shadow alarm, I
recommend having a conversation with a friend
that I call, No Holding Back About What Holds You
Back.
Select a friend or family member you greatly trust
(and trust yourself not to get defensive with). You
can speak with them in person or by phone.
Before you meet with them, take some time to
center and ground yourself so that you feel
peaceful and calm. Meditate or take a relaxing
walk, or maybe just stand outside in nature with your
bare feet on the sand, soil or stone.
This will help physically ground and relax you.
The guidelines I recommend for this conversation
are the following:
• Write down or record everything your friend tells
you during this conversation. If taking notes, try to
be as thorough as possible. But doesn’t have to be
every word.
• After you ask your initial question, try to remain
silent and simply let your friend share. Let him or her
know they are in a safe space to be honest with you
and remind them that you would like constructive
criticism—nothing hurtful or judgmental. Ask them to
share observations and try to stick to facts.
• Though it may be hard, refrain from responding to
each item your friend gives you. Don’t explain why
you did or didn’t do something, and don’t give the
story behind what was going on.
You’re not trying to dispel what they tell you. You’re
trying to really hear it so that you can transform.
You’re trying to bring these blind spots (usually
having to do with the shadow parts of you) into your
conscious awareness now so that they have healthy
expression (through being discussed and
acknowledged) and don’t explode later on to
cause a crisis.
When you speak to your friend, begin with
something like this:
“I would like you to help me identify and explore my
blind spots – you know, those things I’m doing or
living with that are perhaps harming me, but are
beyond my awareness... the places where I’m stuck
or perhaps holding myself back that I can’t see. I’m
giving you permission to be honest with me about
your observations—what would you say has been
holding me back or keeping me stuck?”
Invite your friend to include ways you hold yourself
back, or perhaps people in your life, environments,
your selection of job or home or romantic partner.
This is not a license for them to judge you or to tell
you how to live your life. And you can take anything
they say with a grain of salt.
However if it strikes a chord with you and angers you
or sets you off in any way (“How dare she say I do
that!”) consider once you’ve calmed down that
what has a charge on it usually has some truth to it
as well, and that’s okay...
Be sure to select someone who can honor this
sacred space of honesty and who will not abuse it
or belittle you during this conversation. It can be a
very difficult conversation to have, without you also
feeling judged or abused in the process.
I also recommend that if this conversation brings up
a lot of unresolved wounds or emotions that you
consider visiting a professional counselor or therapist
to help you work through the material that came up
for you.
A L IGN YOUR PUR POSE P ROGRAM - S T E P FOURTEEN : WAKE UP
Copyright © 2013 Choice Point with Jaime Mintun - www.choicepointmovement.com
9
Just keep in mind that the point of this exercise is to
acknowledge and accept your shadow – not to
label it or make it wrong.
So utilize any therapeutic sessions to help you reach
acceptance and forgiveness... not to find out
what’s wrong with you and how to fix it. In my
opinion it doesn’t quite work that way. ☺
Now, you might be thinking that waiting for a crisis
wake-up call is far better than inviting this kind of
illuminating conversation. I mean, it’s literally lighting
up everything you ever didn’t want to know about
yourself and your life.
Yet I promise you, knowledge is power and ignoring
something will never make it go away. It’s the things
we refuse to see that can hold us back. We can only
limit ourselves by what we edit out of our awareness.
When you have the whole picture now you know
how to navigate it, and better yet you know how to
change it.
All you have to do is be willing to wake up. ☺
Alice Popkorn
Cameron Gray
NOTES
www.choicepointmovement.com