Imagine what it would be like to live holistically and enjoy calmness, composure and grace.
And imagine if you no longer had to ride the roller coaster of life that takes you on top of the world one day (hour or minute) and drops you into discomfort, resentfulness or victimhood the next.
Living a holistic lifestyle is the key. And Synchronicity’s 5-Fold Process is the pathway that can help get you there.
Let’s take a closer look.
Your Daily Peaks
We call the first step of the 5-Fold Process the “Peak” in recognition of how it makes you feel.
You may recall having a big peak experience when a major event shook you up and helped you see your true potential. Or maybe it pulled you out of a dark place and let you see new possibilities.
While that kind of peak is great, don’t overlook the small peaks you experience every day.
To understand these peaks, recall how you feel after a meditation or when you’re just sitting quietly on your deck enjoying the sky on a starry night. You may feel calmer, more relaxed and like you have expanded beyond your normal boundaries. Or that the people around you seem different in some subtle way.
Now when you walk through the woods you may notice that the leaves seem greener and the cardinals’ feathers more intensely red. Or perhaps the air feels fresher and cleaner and you breathe deeply, and enjoy a new burst of energy.
These experiences are also peaks as are an unexpected encounter with a loved one or a Zoom call with an old friend in the midst of a chaotic day when you desperately need someone to talk to.
A peak could even be an experience as minor as making a green light at a crowded intersection and mentally high-fiving yourself knowing you won’t be late for an appointment.
The essence of these experiences is that they grab your attention, if just for a few seconds, and bring you into the moment.
During that moment you stop stressing about how you forgot to stop at the grocery store, or didn’t complete a job on schedule or just learned you have to attend a meeting when you expected to have a relaxing evening at home.
Instead, for a few seconds, you just are. And perhaps along with that comes the flash of understanding that you are more than your obligations and expectations.
While difficult to sustain, or even to recognize, these brief encounters with wholeness give meaning to your life.
They don’t change the fact that you still have to go to the grocery store, complete unfinished projects and meet life’s challenges. But they may change how you feel about these activities, especially if you view them in the context of the 5-Fold Process.
After the Peak: Evolution
The changes that happen after a small peak may be almost too subtle to notice. If you were aware of them when they happened you may not understand their significance. Yet, if you pay attention, the impact may be more dramatic than you think.
For example, maybe you are more intentional about noticing your surroundings next time you go for a walk.
You may feel the wind blowing through the trees. And when you pause for just a moment you feel more grounded as if you have roots extending down from the soles of your feet and into the earth.
Long term this new groundedness can have a big impact as it promotes the balance you need to live more holistically.
Someday, when you look back, you may recognize that your desire to walk may actually have been your body’s way of gently urging you to embrace a more holistic lifestyle.
These small changes in response to daily peaks are Step Two in the 5-Fold Process.
Called Evolution, they are the recognition that, at a deep (even subconscious) level, these small changes will bring you into closer alignment with a holistic lifestyle.
And with this greater awareness comes the gradual release of thoughts, emotions and habits that are out of sync with who you are becoming.
While this evolutionary process could happen in a dramatic way, usually it is just a sequence of tiny shifts in the daily progression of your life.
Shifts that lead you to greater balance and wholeness.
Beyond Evolution: Illumination
When was the last time you faced a challenge?
It might have been something big, but could also have been one of life’s small irritations.
Like when your spouse forgets (again) to take out the trash or your friend is never on time for lunch meetings or even forgets about your plans all together.
You wonder what to do about it, maybe feeling increasingly irritated whenever you think about it. Then seemingly out of nowhere something happens that sheds a whole new light on these challenges. Someone loans you a book that has the perfect answer or the obvious solution just pops into your head.
These are examples of Illumination, also known as “aha moments.”
As you become more aligned with the greater wholeness brought on by stages one and two of the 5-Fold Process you may experience these “aha moments” more frequently.
New thoughts, ideas and ways of being flood your mind and you start to see things differently.
But unless you have fully integrated your new experiences, your former self, which is the product of previous habits, thoughts and emotions, can pull you back into old ways of being.
Remember that walk in the woods that filled you with oxygen and the energy to try something new? Or the yoga class that left you feeling calm and content?
At the time you noticed how wonderful you felt and told yourself: “That was great. I’m going to do yoga (or go for a walk) every morning.”
But, by the next day, the high from the yoga class is gone, and when the alarm rings earlier than usual, you roll over and go back to sleep.
No worries.
This is part of the process. Be kind to yourself and recognize it may take some time to fully integrate these new concepts and make them part of you as they must work their way through all the levels of your multi-dimensional experience: physical, emotional, mental and subtle.
As your process evolves, you will continue to experience the bliss of accomplishment along with the discomfort that always comes with change.
Because not only does change let you experience something new, it also forces you to release old, comfortable ways of being.
After Illumination: Processing (Also Known As “Clearing” or “Catharsis”)
Processing results from the letting go that must happen as you take on new, more holistic ways of living.
While Peak, Evolution and Illumination can be fun, even exciting, Processing may be more challenging.
Did you ever have a cold that seemed to come out of nowhere? Or a sudden pain in your back? Maybe you’ve experienced restlessness, headaches or discomfort from an old knee injury that starts to act up again for no reason.
Any of these (and other like symptoms) can be signs of clearing via your physical body,
Emotionally your process may feel like mood swings, bursts of happiness or sadness that seem to come out of nowhere.
Or perhaps you are more irritable or suffer from incidences of anger or jealousy. You may also experience anxiety as you worry about the loss of old familiar ways of being and the stress of replacing them with new less familiar ones.
In the mental dimension the stress of change may appear as “mind chatter,” agitation, dullness, fogginess or just plain “blanking out” for no reason.
When you recognize these symptoms for what they are you have two choices. You can choose to stay stuck in your process. And you can keep reliving the negative thoughts and emotions, and experiencing the colds, headaches and other physical symptoms.
Or you can view them for what they are and choose to move through them.
If you choose the second option, we recommend the following:
- Remain aware and observe whatever is happening. Don’t attempt to analyze or compare your experience to that of anyone else.
- Request assistance. A good mentor can help you understand how recognizing and moving through your process is a valuable and important aspect of your journey to wholeness. In fact, your clearing process is confirmation that you are on track.
- If you feel confused or like you can’t handle your processing on your own, contact a facilitator at Synchronicity Sanctuary for assistance.
Bringing it All Together: Integration
Once you work through your process and clear away the old out of sync data, it's time to integrate your new experiences through all of your dimensions.
As you do so you will experience a new energetic state, one in which you more often enjoy the calmer, more productive and peaceful life you have imagined.
With that, you may notice greater self awareness and increased freedom from frustration, stress and tension. Your mind and emotions are calmer and you are more relaxed and energized.
You may sleep better and enjoy improved digestion and fewer headaches or episodes of other kinds of physical pain.
The 5-Fold Process: A Model for Living Life Consciously
By adopting the 5-Fold Process, you can become skilled at recognizing and acknowledging where you are in this process day-to-day. This knowledge empowers you to enjoy a lifestyle that brings greater freedom and vitality with peace of mind.
Now you are directing the show of your life rather than being unconsciously buffeted about by circumstances and experiences.
After you work your way through the five steps from Peak to Evolution, Illumination, Processing and Integration, the process will begin again.
It is never ending, an experience that continuously moves you along to greater wholeness and fulfillment on the pathway to a more holistic lifestyle.