Welcome!

Thank you for visiting my webpage. I'll tell you a bit about my journey, and perhaps some of it will resonate with you.

I turned to spiritual investigation in my late twenties, when my marriage failed. I felt that I had tried to play by the rules, even though it never looked very promising, and it hadn’t worked out. I felt profoundly disappointed with life. I sensed that I needed to find my true self, although I had no idea what my true self was. I was terrified to start on a road from which I suspected there was no turning back. But I knew I was guaranteed misery if I didn’t.

I read Krishnamurti, and then found the Gurdjieff work where I learned to witness my thoughts, emotions, and sensations, and not identify with them. With years of psycho-spiritual work, I matured and my experience of life gradually improved. But I still felt a hole in my gut, of disappointment, failure, and loneliness, and a wall around my heart. I often wished I didn’t exist.

When I first read Saniel’s book, Waking Down, I appreciated his clarifying de scription of my predicament, but I had been so disappointed by my quarter century of trying to awaken, that I did not immediately investigate this work. I did finally attend a sitting and then a weekend course, and found them to be radically and profoundly different from any teaching or interpersonal interaction I’d experienced in my life. I felt accepted and welcomed exactly as I was. I don't know if those words can adequately convey the feeling of having compassionate, awakened people look you in the eye and tell you that you aren’t a mistake and you aren’t doing anything wrong. I got the message that I do not have to perfect myself. I found encouragement and support to relax in the company of my disappointment and loneliness. I felt that the teachers and other members of the community saw and recognized my true self, which enabled me to experience my self more fully.

The second birth awakening has initiated me into a new way of engaging with myself, with life, and with other people—actually engaging rather than just running and protecting. I have come to know myself as more than my fears and my issues. I have seen my fears and issues become more permeable, allowing me to live more fully and authentically. As at the beginning of my path, I still don’t know what lies ahead, and I don’t know the full dimensions of my divinely human nature, but I am grateful to be exploring.

I live near Seattle, WA. I have a degree in Computer Science, and develop software at a hospital. I am blessed to share life with two wise and wonderful children, both adults. My history includes six years in the Gurdjieff work; three years of breath work in The Art of Living; Advaita; many kinds of bodywork and holistic therapy; psychotherapy; extensive reading; and unceasing self-investigation. I have studied Brain Gym®, Tapas Acupressure Technique®, and Nonviolent Communication.

I welcome you to awaken, and embody, and heal, and shine forth as all that you are. The world needs you and wants you.

If you sense that I could be of service in your own awakening, embodiment, and healing, through Waking Down in Mutuality, please call or email me.

Blessings,

Sylvia

Email: woodsylv@gmail.com

Phone: 425-778-8217