The Goddess Speaks June Dillinger

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Being aware of self makes a difference

Over the past several years I have been going through a unique life process of becoming conscious. I don't know if you've noticed a general shift in social conversation, but I have. I know Oprah sure does. Ever since "The Secret" came out, most of her topics are geared toward determining our level of consciousness and how we can make a difference in our lives and the lives of others. This is done primarily by acknowledging gratitude and practicing exercises that keep us awake.

Recently I have been comparing myself with other women around my age, looking carefully at their skin, listening to their stories about their lives, wondering what elements caused their bodies to age as they had.

I have begun to feel a level of gratitude for my mother, who told me I had to ride my bike to school every day up and down a hill like St. Louis Heights for six solid years, including summer sessions. Now I have some darn good-looking legs, and I cannot be grateful enough!

I am just now paying attention to the lines that have begun to form around my lips with rapid speed. A girlfriend recently told me it took 230,000 smiles to form a wrinkle. I wasn't sure if I felt better or worse after hearing that news! Ultimately I'd been smiling a lot, which in the end felt good to me and probably made a lot of others feel good, too. Another form of gratitude.

In the last four years I have spent a significant amount of time in powerful personal growth seminars. They have offered me enough information that I wanted to explore and discover my life, searching for a level of personal and professional awareness that would improve both my life and the lives of others.

I wanted to make a difference without being concerned with how I looked. I discovered that if I was willing to share my feelings, even those about appearance, others could connect with me in a way that felt right and good to both of us.

I know it's true that we judge people in the first five seconds of meeting them regardless of whether we are aware of it. I wanted to change this impact with my "being-ness," not by the way I looked.

Becoming consciously conscious, combined with the physical changes life presents, is a journey no one ever told me about. Or maybe I wasn't open to listening. All I know for sure is that when I pay attention to "what is," that feeling turns into an effervescence of sorts. When I share it with others, they feel it, too.

Now that's a trend worth telling others about.