Awakening Now

The Journey To Spiritual Awakening Beyond Thinking With Christina Guimond

• Ilona Ciunaite • Episode 63

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The journey to Spiritual Awakening beyond thinking may take years and many realisations. Step by step illusions are seen, and the whole picture comes to full view. Listen to the awakening story of Christina Guimond. She is an awakening to non-duality guide, and TRE (trauma releasing exercises) facilitator and perhaps her story will inspire you to greater dedication and focus on yourself. From seeing that thoughts are empty to finding Anatta, no self, Christina’s journey is a story of dedication. 

Christina shares her experiences about silent retreats, working with Gary Weber and Angelo Dilullo, yoga and finding TRE to work on trauma stored in the body. 

To find out more about Christina and her services go to her website
https://christinaguimond.com/


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http://www.IlonaCiunaite.com I’ll be happy to help. 

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Liberation Unleashed book is available on Amazon. 
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Music by Valdi Sabev, Visit his channel for more calm and relaxed music 
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I knew there was more there was something more to this Awakening but I didn't know what and I felt like I'm not going to look at any more books I'm not going to look at YouTube videos I'm not going to try to find the answer somewhere else and what happened is the what started to come into a into view for me was pretty pretty astounding and that was about the senses the sense Gates I didn't know this senses started to kind of like really come into the Forefront and then I realized ah like because I didn't understand this but I realized I can't separate awareness from any of those Sense gates I went through them all Consciousness was then you know constructing a world out there all the quote unquote knowledge I ever thought I had was was really being constructed in the mind and the whole interface upon which all this information had been gathered I was I was just like astounded I was like how how is it possible that I could go through my whole life and the interface itself has been overlooked so great to meet you Chris oh beautiful to meet you too Ilona yeah um hi everyone today I'm speaking to Chris Guimond and here we are I don't know much about you but I know you are a non Duality teacher or facilitator I don't know how you even call yourself so yeah I think Awakening guide non-dual facilitator sweet so the The podcast is called Awakening now so we can talk all things about Awakening and to start with I would like to find out your definition of Awakening what is Awakening Awakening from Awakening to what's the whole thing how do you see it I know this world means different things for different people yeah and I I think I might answer it different you know depending on which day you catch me maybe I would start by saying ultimately it's about coming out of suffering and I think the central part of it is solving the identity problem uhuh and when I say identity I mean like how it feels to be you what you take to be you and we can't really separate out what that means in relation to what this is what the world is I think they they go

together I found myself thinking a few weeks ago I don't know it just kind of came to me me thinking about very young babies you know like let's say maybe the first I don't know maybe 6 months to 12 months something like in that time frame you know and I really got thinking about thinking about how there really isn't that subject to object split yet and they're just so so present to their experience all the sensations The Sounds the colors and there's really no thought processes to really you know label or interpret so it's you know it's kind of like so it's such an innocent place you know and I think if a young baby had a question a wordless question it would probably be what is

this very sweet what is this end endless

curiosity yeah yeah and then we learn the language and here we go get an identity on the shoulders carry

that I I love how you said that it's solving identity problem

with that all the suffering falls away isn't it yeah I can I can speak for myself I think life before Awakening was kind of like a constant low level I guess you could say internal friction that maybe like a mixture of fear not even conscious uh and do am I am I doing things right am I getting it right you know yeah but not even like strangely enough not even really conscious of it but it certainly was coloring how I lived same here I I remember I used to have days when I would just shut myself in the room and cry all day thinking oh for me life isn't

fair I know I'm laughing now but at that time it seemed very serious yeah so what happened in your story how did you come to solve the identity problem I think there was something always there that was um in some way really drawn to truth even though I didn't know what truth was there was something that you know it was some kind of like orienting Force if you will you know that was there

uh yeah it was almost like I had a premonition that at some point in my life this would become the Central Central Focus but I wasn't thinking of it in terms of joining a religion or um some spiritual path it wasn't really how I was thinking about it and then what happened is um I I got married young had four kids and then in my 30s what happened was I went through a real existential crisis that lasted about three years oh wow and I see that is what really really got things underway because it was kind of like kind of coming to me how how somehow I don't know I was just feeling I I've managed to overlook the amount of conflict and suffering in the world and I started to really pay attention to it not so much like going into news or stuff like that but I was I was aware of you know you know conflict between countries um conflict within countries conflict Within conflict within relationships conflict within uh workplaces and the conflict there was the conflict part of it which was really um mysterious to me why why there was so much conflict but also the level of suffering and the thing is I I had been brought up Catholic and then as a teen had decided I didn't want to have anything to do with organized religion so I didn't really have any kind of philosophy or framework for understanding life when this all started so it really felt like a real a real existential crisis like maybe this all of this suffering a conflict is utterly

meaningless and I would say uh because probably a big part of what helped me to get through that three years was the fact I had young kids because there was uh there was a lot of suffering there was suicidal ideation which I'd never had before I never really understood why somebody would kill themselves or even think about it and now I I could really see how the mind can present that as an option when the suffering is too great

yeah so that's where it began oh wow that's intense and thanks to those kids that kind of kept you

going yeah and then it was kind of on the heels of emerging from that that I met somebody who really had a great influence on my life and she was somebody who has since passed away but I do believe she probably had a lot of realization uh she'd been part of a Tibetan Buddhist order for a couple of decades and done a lot of meditation and probably that you know was contributing but I think I think there was something going on even from childhood because I you know I met became friends with her mother after she passed away she passed away from cancer in 2001 um but I I met her mother who said even as a young child you know she really was quite different in a lot of ways so she was an amazing amazing influence and I would say really got me interested in um meditation and kind of like looking into Buddhism in particular and we had talked about doing a 10day silent Retreat together and unfortunately she passed away before we could do it so four months after she passed away I went to a 10day goenka

retreat and honestly I was quite a mess you know when I went into the retreat you know I was still grieving quite a bit the loss of my friend um and really didn't have a lot of concentration skills at all yet on day eight of that first 10day Retreat I had that first major shift oh wow

tell me about

it yeah it was um it was a it was a very tough Retreat I spent the first five days obsessed with leaving uh and then on the sixth day I felt okay I think I've made it just over the halfway point I think I I can manage to stay and in a silent Retreat like a lot the mind really calms down you're not talking and you're doing a lot of meditation and you're away from your usual environment so it's really a great you know opportunity to you know look more deeply and what happened for me was on the eighth day uh I was sitting in the meditation Hall and had the mind just kind of go completely silent and it was so shocking to me I didn't really know it was it was in a way kind of terrifying because I never experienced anything like that like a real cessation of thought and it this fear reaction came up my heart started pounding I think if I hadn't had that existential crisis I maybe I wouldn't have had the skills to just kind of like calm myself down and so that fear subsided but then when I just kind of resumed the meditation the silence remained and the fear reaction came once more but it wasn't as strong and then that was it that was it you know it was um really uh such a such a clear seeing that I wasn't my thoughts I didn't know what I was but I knew for sure I wasn't my thoughts that's huge yeah yeah this is a very sticky point for many many people that are on the journey to see through these thoughts and what's going on there because one of the biggest identifications is with the thinker or the voice and the head so for you it's just flat out yeah flatlined bye bye yeah it was it was uh you know it was um I really see my life kind of like as before and after that that moment you know for sure and I think like a lot of people reactivity really fell away for some time and that's one of the most I think delicious parts of that first Awakening is the freedom from reactivity and of of course we see like the reactivity a lot of the reactivity is just about the thoughts you know so when the reactivity is gone um the Mind calms down a lot so uh I I went home I had I had kind of like a classic honeymoon that lasted quite strong for about three months uhuh and I had I had no idea you know what had happened like I to be to tell you the truth I thought everybody went home from a 10day vipassana retreat the same and um uh and so I came home and I just felt like wow this is the way life's supposed to be you know it was just like such an incredible feeling of freedom and I really didn't have a lot of words to put on it there wasn't even really a need to put words on it it was just just delightful just that sense of presence and freedom from that that constant inner friction so that that lasted for three wonderful months Yey and and then I got kicked out of the Garden of Eden back to the human Human Condition yeah and uh so for me uh let's say and over the next three months I I actually found myself um I think what happened is that that natural uh emotional purging process was really wanting to get underway but I didn't understand it as such I was very confused and I thought I was thinking well I felt so wonderful I need to get back to that right had no idea so because this first shift happened in the context of a 10day Vipassana Retreat I went went back uh like 3 months later and did a second I was uh I was in like a kind of like a lowlevel depression when I went back and by the time I finished that Retreat that depression lifted and I I never had another depression after but I didn't I felt like okay I'm relieved that the depression is gone but I didn't get back what I wanted back which was that that you know first awakening and so for me what happened is I think I ended up um because I was part of this goenka Vipassana tradition where it's really a lot about the technique you everything um everything is supposed to be resolved with a technique and unfortunately what happened for me is I ended up using the meditation practice as a way to manage my emotions uh not really realizing that I was doing that you know I didn't know the word bypassing I didn't know it was a thing I didn't know it was counterproductive but it was like I was almost like holding a compass trying to orient myself to what felt better and if feeling better was meditating that's what I was doing now there was definitely um benefits to all like I did this for 14 years going to 10day silent Retreats and even managing courses and I thought I thought I would be doing this for the rest of my life how interesting I never been to one you know it's um there it can be it can be beneficial for some people although well I'm going to say this if if somebody's listening to this that is gotten a lot out of being long-term with Vipassana I'm going to say I think that's really wonderful but personally um I think that staying as long as I did was actually counterproductive and I wouldn't I wouldn't recommend to somebody to do more than maybe one or two of the 10day Retreats yeah that's my that's my opinion but you had to experience all this to know

this now yeah so you know I really I really um you know got into this vipassana meditation and you know took it very seriously and then eventually you know start to be able to access jnana States and just absolutely extraordinary states of Tranquility um equanimity and I took on this idea that if I could get into one of these states long enough that Liberation would be on the other end of it and in some ways I think that the way way my relationship with meditation was was something akin to sometimes what happens to people with psychedelics uhuh wonderful and of course both of them can be just marvelous marvelous tools but if we don't really have um you know a better understanding you know we can we can get lost and and it's you know this getting lost is just a path it has to happen to learn something to explore something it's not being lost like oh it's a mistake there are no mistakes in this even you know sometimes you think people oh they are stuck in this stage or something they believe this stuff but it's all just passing by just a temporary stop it's no worries once you're on the train you're on the train yeah doesn't matter how many stops you have to stop and explore what's going on there

yeah yeah so for me uh you know I was in this uh meditation path for for quite a long time and uh eventually what happened is I it started to come into my awareness that there was still a lot of reactivity um that I was experiencing especially outside of retreat and I felt like well this this meditation technique is really supposed to be about getting to reactivity right and yet I wasn't seeing it I wasn't seeing that um in my day-to-day life and it's not that I would say that other people would necessarily have seen me as such a reactive person but I was I was very aware of it

internally uh so that you know it's just kind of interesting how it probably took 10 years into my Awakening to start to really uh become very curious about it why why do I still have this much reactivity after this amount of time you know it's one thing on Retreat you know but when you go home and it's still there uh that's you know pretty confusing and I started to maybe bring in doubt that there that this was you know something that I should stay with and then at a certain point what happened was uh I lost the will to meditate H it just fell away and it was kind of interesting how it happened because I would go and sit in my little meditation room at my house and sit down with the intention to meditate and I couldn't get it going and I kept trying over maybe a week or two but it it just the will was the will was just falling away and that actually you know was kind of a little bit of a crisis because I didn't really have any idea like this had been so much a part of my life so much of how I thought I would be spending the rest of my life that if there was any possibility of let's call it salvation in this life time that would be it like I had a kind of certainty about it and there wasn't any other possibilities Mhm so it the view I had and so then I had the will to meditate fall away and it was um kind of confusing and I I just kind of went through a period of trying to make sense of it how what do I do from here and interestingly it was around that time uh shortly after that um Falling Away of of being able to to meditate that things really started to take off again and this is like for the first time since that you know big first Awakening 14 years ago and I what happened is I had um a spontaneous mystical experience just one night just before getting into bed and a lot of I guess you know identity like let's say aspects of identity just kind of kind of like sprung out you know it was almost like a I could see aspects of identity and I could I I could see how I was identifying in some ways with what I thought was to be a good person you know even a good meditator a vegetarian what I thought were you know good political values you know things like that and then I realized wow even if I were a convicted Criminal sitting in a jail cell it wouldn't be any better in some regards it's still identification you

know it doesn't matter which suit we put on still a suit that needs to be taken off eventually yeah just out growing

it there was kind of like a second honeymoon period that came with this and I I could see how when thoughts would come again that had anything to do with Identity or belief or judgment or things like that it was almost as if I were coated with Teflon it was almost like they would appear and then it was almost like they would slide

yeah um so this is a this is 2015 and that was um that was quite a huge year for me because uh my husband and I had four kids and um one of them was really struggling a lot and um uh trying to help this um son you know led me to try to kind of explore different things um he'd been struggling with a pretty severe drug addiction and we after having tried a lot of different things Rehab Therapy and so on uh nothing was working uh we actually found ibogaine which is a plant medicine and that that literally saved his life um but then I knew enough that just you know getting free of the addiction which it it definitely did I knew enough about addiction to know that we had to get him into some sort of therapy uh I didn't know what kind of therapy but um eventually what what happened is somebody a therapist told me about something called um TRE

which stands for trauma releasing exercises and that was something that you know it was kind of interesting how that it kind of came into you know my awareness as something ultimately to try to help our son we also got we also had a therapist trained in somatic experiencing as well it was really wonderful he's doing really well by the way it's six years since he's been you know he quite stable uh and and going through the Awakening process himself wow yeah sweet but what was what was really interesting for me um when this therapist told me about TRE it was to suggest that I look into it as a means to help her son and I wasn't looking for it when I heard the words uh trauma releasing exercises I thought well that applies to other people I I don't have trauma in fact I actually had this kind of attitude about trauma that it was you know maybe uh an identity that people took on that was not helpful I didn't really understand the topic very well at all uh but the therapist had suggested I try it once just so I would have some idea of what it was and then find somebody to show our son uh and then kind of support him for a while and when I tried for the first time I think like a lot of people I really didn't know what to make of it but my curiosity was um enough that I thought well maybe I'll try this one more time and when I did it the next day it the way it landed for me it was quite clear that this was something that I needed to explore I had no idea what it was going to do but it just it just felt clear that this is the next thing and the interesting thing is I did have a lot of chronic tension and I had pretty pretty severe TMJ so do do you know what TMJ is no idea it's when you have just like a a really incredible level of tension in the jaw and you can end up with grinding at night I see um can end up you know it can be quite painful um you know I thought I was actually going to have to um go to a specialized dentist to resolve it because it had been you know really quite a problem for me and actually over the years since that first Awakening if anything had have gotten worse took me a while to realize this but I came to understand that with that first shift there definitely was some kundalini energy that got released as well and it happened you know in over the years again more Kundalini energy and I think you know coming into this meditation practice I already had a lot of chronic tension to start with and then adding this Kundalini energy just ended up maybe driving more let's call it like um nervous system

disregulation so so I had you know quite a painful situation with TMJ you know if I can say it was kind of like living with a a a really bad headache all the time and there's just no no getting a break from it so when I discovered this thing called TRE the astounding thing for me was was you know when I started to Intuit it that it would be useful for me uh I started doing it pretty much every day from the beginning maybe for 15 or 20 minutes by two weeks into it the TMJ was completely gone oh wow amazing I I I couldn't believe it that something that had just been plaguing me and causing so much suffering could be could be gone uh just so so easily and um that was you know kind of like just the beginning and what happened was as I continued with this TRE process what happened is it started to get to these um blocks of chronic tension that were pretty much all over me you know my shoulders my legs my my core my you know upper body as well and as this tension got um let's say broke up and dissolved out well it was really interesting to me how much an effect I had on let's say

Consciousness it was pretty amazing because I had been you know in this meditation practice thinking that you know it was going to getting back that silence that I had in that first three months to make that permanent would would come from just um you know probably thousands of hours of meditation that's the way I thought of it you know and then I realized as I cleared out this chronic tension that I had it wrong that the silence was actually already there and that it was this chronic tension that was you could say driving this um these these um you know compulsive thinking patterns you know the noise yeah yeah they were they were so so um correlated and it took about two years uh for this chronic tension to be let's say broken up and mostly dissolved out but that was it was so clear to me during this 2-year period it was so obvious to me that at least in my case that there would have been no moving past that first Awakening had I not encountered that that things were in such a level of um let's call it like a mess energetically emotionally reactivity resistance patterns that I really needed this somatic work to be able to just get that you know get through that let's say the emotion and Shadow work that reactivity resistance patterns I think for most people this is this is where um this is really the hardest part of the whole process getting through this whole stage of things I agree because you know you may think that everything can be solved with the mind but there's this physical body the system and it has its own process to go through and adjust and realign and reorganize the whole nervous system so when the Mind releases mental stuff emotions releases emotional stuff the body is still with it tension know what to do with it a so wonderful that you found this TRE wow I tried it once or twice not not religiously but yeah I see that it leaves a pleasant feeling after yeah it's good feels good you know I don't I'm not uh I'm not fundamentalist about it I don't think everybody needs to do it but I think that there are certain people like myself that it was

invaluable and I you know I also want to say I I um I've been doing yoga for probably about 15 years as well and I've been doing a pretty serious yoga practice prior to discovering TRE which is kind of interesting because you would think that a yoga practice would probably more or less get to those same things but in my experience it wasn't really like I would do this 90 minute yoga practice and at the end I noticed that I would feel the best you know in a 24-hour cycle I would feel the best for the first one to two hours after and you know I think I think yoga I think yoga is really um fantastic um I think a lot of these you know body based approaches can be really wonderful but I don't think that it's something that is necessarily going to get to let's say uh disbound energy you know maybe for some people like I don't want to be you know unequivocal about this or you know I you know I don't know but I can say that that was a case for

me well it's nice to follow your own path and share what works for for us but it doesn't mean that everyone has to start going to silent Retreats now and do these exercises or be very very serious about yoga yeah oh I'm listening to you and it sounds so dedicated so much focus into this amazing um another thing for me that was um relevant at this time is I I met and started working with Gary Weber do you know who yes I know Gary Weber we had the a few exchanges yeah yeah I was I was really really lucky to work with Gary um that was that was really important too because um Gary really helped me in you know the few years that I worked with him um you know doing a lot of Shadow work as well um working on beliefs he introduced me to different things that turned out to be quite helpful uh yeah and I mean it was still you know there was still I would say like a you know a fair amount of chaos going on in my personal life for a while you know this whole thing with our son it took a couple of years for that to really settle down and and resolve like you know let's say it was until beginning of 2018 that he really became very stable so yeah so there was like lots of um you know looking into identity you know even identity as a mother you know identity of who is my son you know um so many so many things were inquired into during this period uh and then Gary stepped back from teaching around 2019 um I think he's 81 now and um that was kind of at the beginning of the pandemic all like 2019 and by this time you know it was really quite remarkable what had happened let's say in the years between 2015 and 2019 if I think back like year over year what was happening was um really just a really extraordinary uh let's say emptying out emptying out of a lot of I don't know you could say um conditioning um habituated patterns you know of of reactivity resistance and I had really quite an amazing access to Inner silence um most of the time by 2019 and you know I mean subjectively I never felt so such a such a high level of well-being in my entire life I really I really truly didn't um uh you know physically emotionally psychologically it was just such an incredible sense of freedom and this was like where Gary stepped back from teaching and something something felt like I don't know uh I had this intuition that there was more but I didn't know what I really didn't know anything about maps of Awakening believe it or not like I didn't know these things existed Gary had never really talked about this I still don't know

I know they out there but I don't maybe it's maybe it's a good thing I didn't know I don't know but um but the thing is is uh you know I think something in me into there was something like this it was kind of a feeling of a responsibility that I knew how I had come so far out of

suffering and I knew I'd already had I'd already oh yeah I would also say in 2017 um I had a pretty big experience of anata uh and so that kind of like open my eyes to something Beyond you know um just let's say the let's call it like the experience of

well-being uh but I didn't like it was kind of interesting how I wasn't really even holding that as a goal but something in me just knew I don't know had the sense of personal responsibility to the let's call it the process itself to keep going and um for the next couple of years um you know I was um doing a lot of reading uh I actually found my way to somebody who is a facilitator who was basically putting themselves out there as an expert on the teachings of Ramana Maharshi and I worked with this person one-on-one

and in retrospect I feel like like that you know was um not really where I should have been working at that point you know with with more selfing parade I think that you know it well I mean it look of course you look back and you it couldn't have been any other way than it was but what happened was eventually a a certain kind of um I'm gonna say a certain kind of frustration came forth and it felt like I think I'm going to have to figure this out on my own and so I stopped working with this person and I just I wasn't meditating but I was just sitting I was sitting I was taking periods of time throughout the day and there was a a kind of kind of like intensity behind it of sorts in the sense that I knew there was more there was something more to this Awakening but I didn't know what and I felt like I'm not going to look at any more books I'm not going to look at YouTube videos I'm not going to try to find the answer somewhere else and what happened is the what started to come into a into view for me was pretty pretty astounding and that was about the senses the sense Gates and it was uh kind of pivotal for me in the sense that I think to some extent I was reifying awareness but didn't know it and I and and then it started to dawn on me that I don't know the senses started to kind of like really come into the Forefront instead of that you know kind of like that he sense of Consciousness Consciousness is everything it was more like uh the something about the senses themselves were just coming into the Forefront and then I realized ah like because I didn't understand this but I realized I can't separate awareness from any of those Sense gates I went through them all and I was astounded and it was just also the recognition that this whole life I had been let's say there had been let's say gathering of let's call it information data through the Sense Gates and that Consciousness was then you know constructing a world out there all the quote unquote knowledge I ever thought I had was was really being constructed in the mind and the whole interface upon which all this information had been gathered I was I was just like astounded I was like how how is it possible that I could go through my whole life and the interface itself has been overlooked yeah isn't that just looking back isn't that crazy it really hiding in the plain sight yeah yeah um and I I would say the you know I had some uh let's say uh the body sense I think really started to wake up you know several years earlier um you know between um the TRE and you know the yoga practice and hearing was was you know clarifying but I think like a lot of people the visual field was you know quite challenging for me and um it was around this time that uh I found out about Angelo so a friend of mine discovered him read his book and uh came over to my house one day and she brought his book and she said Chris I'm going to give you this book and let's call it an early birthday gift I think you're gonna like it cool and uh so I I devoured the book and I I reached out to Angelo asking if he would be willing to work with me and I was very lucky he said yes and you know he really it was like the believe it or not at this stage of things it was the first time anybody had given me any sense of where things were in ter in terms of the process we're talking like 20 years into this Awakening process and um you know he gave me some exercises to do to work with the visual field which I did um uh and I was you know finding it rather challenging um but eventually what happened for me is you know I could really sense how that relationship between let's call it like the sense of presence and the visual field how they you could say they construct that you know like that sense of subject object you know started to come into view um it would happen while driving it would happen while walking it would happen while you know just sitting you know with a cup of tea in the backyard and you know just kind of like seeing how this happens uh you know eventually you know it just um that that whole subject Object Illusion um dissolve

and now [Laughter] what yeah um so uh that was it things happened pretty quickly when I met Angelo so have to kind of think back that was maybe two and a half years ago I'm not sure at all and Angelo had told me that he said when non-dual realization is clarified he said that that's basically the staging ground for for no self

and I don't know it you know I I never really did quote unquote anything to it wasn't kind of like I thought okay let's make that a new goal or you know there was like such there was like a real feeling of contentment with with non-dual realization it was not I would say there was no seeking energy at all uh anyway um the way the way it happened was um

just it it really took me by surprise because I was just having a conversation with my husband one day just just a ordinary everyday conversation and as we were speaking it was like the most uh obvious thing was that I wasn't there that it was kind of it was like actually a huge shock to tell you the

truth and um you know I I don't think I even said anything to him like we just carried on the conversation but I was I remember just feeling like oh my gosh like uh I don't think anything anything could have ever prepared me for this and uh yeah for a few days I was just kind of walking

around um in a in quite a State of Shock and there was a kind of strange kind of grief that was there for me uh that lasted for about three months three months yeah like it wasn't like I was in bed depressed or anything like that um but it was I guess grieving kind of I don't know grieving you could say some idea I had you know even the whole idea of having been on a spiritual path right everything that has transpired up to then you know it's just it's like it obliterates even that you know I remember reading Gary Weber's article about that that when these beliefs are broken there is a grieving there is a sense of a loss like a best friend died or something that the system has to go through that process to grieve but it's physiological neurological it's a natural process there there's like for me too I would say like an energetic aspect of this as well very much you know in the bodily level as well um so yeah I spent um probably about 3 months this is like maybe a couple of summers ago um I think you know the way people go through this can vary widely you know some people laugh right some people have a rather easy time you know so it seems we don't know how many years of depression before or after yeah I I think it can vary quite a quite a lot how how this goes for people I don't know if that's what you see as well like that um people can have really intense reactions yes that's what I see and as you say everyone is different it's Unique and everyone's process is different and unique but listening to you and your dedication and how many hours you meditated and did this and that and just step by step little tiny bit by little tiny bit and here you are it's like a hero's journey well I meet a lot of people that they go like Enlightenment 5 o'clock why is it not here yet yeah yeah yeah chill give yourself time 10 20 years till the end of days everything is unfolding already anyway so it's no rush that's right that's right what needs to be seen eventually will be seen and it's not up to me when

how but there's a lot of that rush now I don't want to live another lifetime you know this has to be the last one there's not enough time I think things have changed so much you know like when I think back when this really got started for me it was 2001 I think it's changed so much since then because in 2001 I think for many people it wasn't even a realistic goal you know uh at least the people that I knew um maybe you know um maybe Echart Tolle's book you know changed things maybe you know helped a lot of people get to that first shift uh and then I think I think YouTube has done amazing things you know in terms of helping people um awaken and you know get a better understanding of how to do emotion work and Shadow work and you know yeah it's all it's all ready there so so much information and go it's getting more mainstream not mainstream mainstream but more acceptable so when I started looking into that it was um 2010 like you hear words no self is like a taboo you cannot tell somebody oh there is no you they will throw you out of the group and say get out of here all this nonsense

yeah but it's great that more and more people are finding this because that's the way out out of the Trap of identity and out of suffering and although it takes a lot of years to settle and a lot of more insights to uncover and live your everyday experience with this new seeing it's just one thing that makes the real change shakes the system to the core and then life turns another way what was done gets to get

undone yeah that's why so it's so wonderful to hear your story in such a fine detail because for many people they will find something to resonate with and see oh that's okay oh God that's okay it's not just

me wonderful yeah I mean I've seen people you know Awakening so many different ways you know I mean countless countless different ways um I've I've sent some people that I I meet with to Liberation Unleashed uh you know to work with a guide and um seen good results there um i' I've seen a couple people woke up believe it or not through AA to get through that first um that first shift um for some people working with maybe Ayahuasca um so many so many different ways you know yeah everything's included it's all available which candy are you going to take on but just be careful it's a red pill way back once you once you bite on that that's

it but it's the um you know it's the emotion and the shadow work I think looking into reactivity this is you know what I see with people these are the things that um you know it's uh we can't we can't rush our way through that it has to be has to be pretty thorough I like how one of my guests said well it's a lifestyle you know it's a lifestyle just start undoing being your own facilitator of undoing everything it's a lifestyle it's not a quick job or there is some destination just relax and enjoy the ride yeah yeah and now you are facilitating people as well right yeah yeah and how can they find you uh so I have a website which is my first and last name well my full name Christina Guimond at um um was it Christinaguimond.com I'll put that in the

description that's great thank you Ilona so much for the the beautiful work that you're

doing it's amazing resource for

people when I saw that there is no self and that changed my life I just had to scream off the rooftop say everyone this is what you're looking for can throw anything at me I don't care have a look

yeah there so much passion back then 2010-11 when I started to point like look here that's not the right way you're looking look here how many people do you think have come through you know the the process now uh to be honest I don't know uh it used to be it used to to be like everyone that comes to Liberation Unleashed let's say about half would would complete the conversation with what we would agree it's seeing or the shift now I think it's less and everything changed guides changed people changed the whole environment changed now we do more zoom or speak face to face and it's completely different process than a forum because you can see you can help prepare the ground and you can help or assist while the seed is opening and then all the rest whatever is happening it's a long process it's no rush no rush anymore like next yeah so I think it's thousands that went through how many of them genuinely had a shift I wouldn't know uh but as they say it's just a little opening it's um it's a gate you go through the gate you're free you explore you fall you stand up you carry on you go this way you go that way it's your freedom your freedom to see what works for you and find your own path and your own voice and help others that's all yeah beautiful

you know one of my clients recommended to speak to you oh

yeah [Laughter] hello I know who you're speaking of yeah sweet yeah yeah and I'm so enjoying doing this podcast as I get to meet people like you like Angela like others that are on this you can't really call it Mission but it's just a job somebody has to do it right being called to do it so here we go yeah yeah I'm glad you're doing it me too I'm glad you're 
doing it these conversations are I'm sure super helpful for a lot of people yeah cuz it helps to dispel the expectations and also opens up a new techniques and new methods and new possibilities to work with whatever emotionally physically or mentally that needs to be worked with and none of that is wrong but you don't know until somebody tells you right you don't know until you know so just with a torch showing different possibilities and I think the main main message is from everyone that I speak to is that you have to focus on what you are doing forget about what other people say for a moment for the Moment of Truth you have to look inside within you what's true for you what's going on here because all this is good all that is fine but that's not going to do it what happens is the attention turns here and then things start to get revealed and if you need to go to a silence retreat you go go to silent Retreat it's available or you can just sit in the kitchen with screaming kids it's the same doesn't matter but yeah finding that shift towards

here is the key isn't it it really really truly is you know um I tell to people you know that I I meet with that I actually you know I have a deep respect for that Awakening intelligence within them you know that it it knows so much more than the two of our minds together and that if you can if my job if anything is to kind of connect you to that right it's like a like that discernment process yeah yeah puttin the light bulb on it's

there yeah wait well thank you so much Chris such a pleasure to talk to you

wonderful and thank you everyone for listening for watching Press like if you like comment if you like And subscribe because that really helps to get this message across to more people that's how it works YouTube so thank you everyone and I'll see you in the next one bye for now