Living in the Light Book Summary I Shakti Gawain -

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Book – Living in the Light, (Follow your inner guidance to create a new life and a new world) (Summary)

Author – Shakti Gawain

Genre – Self -Help Book

Published in – 1985

If you have the attitude that life is something that happens to you and that all you can do is make the best of it, living in the light will change that for good.

Shakti explains the power of creative visualization, surrendering to a power greater than ourselves within us. She stumbled on to her power through a workshop called healing through intuition, which she sceptically attended after it was strongly recommended by his mother.

She explains “On this amazing human journey of ours, the strongest guiding force we have is right within us. We gain access to it through our intuitive sense, our “gut feelings” about what is right and true for us.”

About the Book –

Living in the light claims that we are energy first and physical body later. This energy (Soul) has created body and life on the physical plane. Unfortunately, we get stuck in survival mode in the physical world, ignoring the ocean of power lying unused within us.

Shakti Gawain not only highlights this power throughout the book but also encourage readers to lean into this power she calls Intuition with guided meditation and exercises for improving life in all aspect and making the most of everything life has to offer.

The book is divided into two parts – 1) The Principles 2) Living the Principles – Here are excerpts from Both Parts. At the end of every chapter, Shakti gives meditation guidance, and a few exercises to establish a relationship with higher power within us.

Part I – The Principles

1) The New Way of Life –

Old ways, the worldly ways are seeking meaning in external things, like money, material possessions, relationships, work, fame, food, drugs, and so on. Which is changing with time and we are now turning inside as we open to the higher power of the universe within us and consciously allow that creative energy to move through us.

Living in the Light is about this transformation of consciousness, within each individual and in the world. Author’s use of the term old world and new world throughout the book refers to the old way of living that we are relinquishing and the new one that we are creating.

2) The Higher Power Within Us –

The foundation for life in the new world is built on the understanding that there is a higher intelligence, a fundamental creative power or energy in the universe that is the source and substance of all existence.

Many names are given to this knowingness (Intuition), which is difficult to define. Few are god, goddess, higher power, inner guidance, source, soul, the Tao, great spirit, life force.

There is no specific way to connect to our spiritual nature; everyone’s experience is different. If this is something that you desire, ask within yourself that you be guided into an experience of your own spiritual nature.

3) Becoming a Creative Channel –

The term channeling is used by author for being in touch with and bringing through the wisdom and creativity of our own deepest source. Being a channel is being fully and freely yourself and consciously knowing that you are a vehicle for the creativity of the universe.

The more you practice trusting and following your intuition, the more consistently you will feel that sense of “flow.” At these times you may find yourself right where you want to be at every moment.

4) Spirit and Form –

Spirit is the essence of life, the energy of the universe that creates all things. Each one of us is a part of that spirit — a divine entity. The spirit usually tends toward expansiveness, risk taking, and change.

Form is our physical presence, body, personality. Our self-concept, ego/identity, name, nature, personality, achievement, work. The form often tends toward safety, security, and the status quo, because its basic task is to make sure we survive and it fears that change might mean disaster or death.

After we are born into the body, most of us forget who we are on the spiritual level and why we came here. We take on the “survival” consciousness of the physical world and we get lost in the world of form.

The first step in the process of consciously integrating form and spirit is to be able to recognize and feel both the consciousness of your spirit and the consciousness of your form. My spirit tends to race ahead, so it has to learn to go at the pace my form can handle.

The second step is to love and accept both aspects of yourself. They are both beautiful and vital parts of you. It’s important to recognize that our form has its own wisdom and the spirit can learn from the form just as the reverse is true.

5) The Male and Female Within –

The author state’s eastern philosophy and western work in explaining that all human have masculine/feminine within us and we must be able to develop both the energies to its fullest.

The Female part is intuitive self, it is the receptive aspect, the open door through which the higher intelligence of the universe can flow, the receiving end of the channel. And if we learn to listen carefully to her, moment by moment, she will guide us perfectly.

The male aspect is action — our ability to do things in the physical world — to think, to speak, to move our bodies. Again, whether you are a man or a woman, your masculine energy is your ability to act.

Part II – Living The Principles

1) Trusting Intuition –

Most of us have been taught not to trust our feeling, express ourselves truthfully and honestly. We end up accommodating others around and behave in accepted ways. If, we try to rebel, we have fear of falling in to opposite trap.

We rarely get any support for trusting ourselves, listening to our own sense of inner truth, and expressing ourselves in a direct and honest way.

2) Feelings –

Most people lose touch with their feeling, for they haven’t got enough support growing up, when they expressed their feeling.

It is important to learn to be in touch with your feelings as they arise: in this way, they can continue to move through and your channel will remain clear.

3) Relationships –

It’s important to understand that our external relationships reflect our internal relationships with ourselves. Our primary relationship is our relationship with ourselves — all others are mirror of it.

As we learn to love ourselves, we automatically receive the love and appreciation that we desire from others.

4) Money –

When we follow our inner guidance and move with the flow of energy in our lives, we find we have enough money to do the things we truly need and want to do.

There are active and receptive aspects of the process of channeling money. The masculine, or active, way of making money is to go after something. The feminine, or receptive, way of making money is to attract what you want to you.

We have to be able to do both. We need to release our outgoing energy to move towards the goal and we also need to practice nurturing ourselves, appreciating ourselves, and becoming attuned to our inner selves so that we can attract and receive what we want.

5) Health –

Our body is our primary creation. By looking at our bodies, listening to them, and feeling them, we can learn a great deal about our spiritual, mental, and emotional energy patterns.

The way to a healthy, strong, and beautiful body is to learn to trust and love yourself. You can begin this process by becoming aware of all the rules and ideas you have about how you should look and feel, what you should eat, how you should exercise, and so on.

6) Transforming the World –

The more you are willing to trust and be yourself, the more life energy will move through you. Everyone around you will benefit from your energy and begin to trust and be more themselves.

If the world is our mirror, then whatever we see our there in some way reflects what is in us. We must take responsibility for it and be willing to transform it within ourselves if we want to see it change on the outside.

I have also created video of few quotes from the book – Hope you like it. Please do subscribe to my You Tube channel – Myread4change

Conclusion –

As you finish reading Living in the light, you will be inspired to change the way you look at your circumstances and how much control you have over them. The book will inspire you to work on your inner life and let it reflect the outside world.

You may download Living in the Light Free E-Book here. If you like this book, you may also enjoy The Complete Game of Life and How to Play it.

If you love reading, do subscribe to the email list and get a book summary in your inbox every week.

Thank you for reading.

Muzammil