Hi everyone,

When we stop identifying with every thought and emotion—when we stop trying to fix or control and instead just observe—a quiet shift happens.


A shift into increased awareness.

We recently explored this shift in our podcast episode, Moving Beyond Ego. What is it like to live from the seat of the observer? What happens when we pause, witness, and allow? It changes everything.

In a recent blog post, I describe the observer—not as detached or indifferent, but as the part of us that holds space for it all, with clarity, love, and presence. It’s not about being above our emotions, ignoring them, or numbing ourselves. It’s about being with what is, without being consumed by it.


This is what presence offers us: a place where stillness and life can co-exist.

Moving Beyond Ego

In this episode, we discuss the subtle yet powerful shift that happens when we begin to recognise the ego in ourselves and in others—not as something to eliminate or resist, but as something to understand and surrender to. We explore how triggers show up in everyday life and what it takes to pause and explore what’s actually happening beneath the surface.


🎧 Watch or listen: YouTube | Spotify

Posture #3: Awareness in the Body – Awareness in Life
Our posture is more than just the way we sit or stand—it reflects how we carry ourselves in life. In this episode of Tools of Awakening, Abdi Assadi and I explore the simple yet powerful practice of using body awareness and posture to cultivate presence. We look at what happens when we shift awareness from the mind into the body—specifically grounding into the feet—and how that changes how we respond to life. We also touch on how our presence impacts those around us, and close with a guided practice to bring these principles into everyday life—one breath, one step at a time.


🎧 Watch or listen: YouTube | Spotify

The Mind Beyond the Thoughts
Here we explore what it means to quiet the mind. Rather than controlling or silencing thoughts, we look at how awareness creates space. Thoughts aren’t who we are—they’re often the residue of unresolved emotions. Through reflection, personal stories, and a short guided meditation, we explore what happens when we shift attention from mental chatter to presence. Whether you’re new to yoga philosophy or looking for practical ways to bring more clarity into daily life, this episode offers tools to meet each moment with greater awareness and ease.


🎧 Watch or listen: YouTube | Spotify

The Observer

In this new post, learn about how stepping into the role of the observer helps shift our relationship to thoughts, emotions, and our reactions. It’s not about being detached—it’s about being rooted in presence.

📖 Read more here.

Each of these episodes is a reminder: Awareness is always within reach. Whether it’s learning to let go of resistance, deepening into stillness, or aligning with presence, these small shifts create space for something greater.

I’d love to hear what resonated most with you—feel free to reply and share your thoughts.

With love,

Pernilla

Source: Wisdom Quotes for Spiritual Growth

Awakening 101 Resources

Awakening Process

In the process of awakening, life lessons become like pieces in a puzzle, where each experience allows another piece to fall into place. Sooner or later, enough pieces are there to start changing the way we perceive, experience and react to life.

FIND OUT MORE

Share Post

Awakening 101 Logo
Awakening 101 Logo

Abdi Assadi

Abdi Assadi

Website 
Books:
A Healer’s Handbook
Shadows on the Path

Abdi Assadi is unlike any other healer or spiritual teacher ever encountered. He is an expert in martial arts, and a dynamic healer practicing a diverse array of Chinese and Eastern Medicine, indigenous shamanic rituals, and meditation techniques. With a clinical practice in New York City for almost 4 decades, Abdi has accumulated a vast knowledge of real life experience working with several thousands of individuals, guiding them through the most difficult times, and teaching them how to understand themselves. One of the greatest things about him is he merges the human psyche with the spiritual psyche.

Steeped in deep wisdom and insight that is rare to find on this planet in these modern times, Abdi has an extraordinary ability in perceiving and comprehending human souls and their individual psyche. Guided by the divine, Abdi guides you to open up and see beyond your limited Self, into your own soul. His impeccable discernment enables him to unleash personal remarks that pierce through your veil, statements that you will never forget and in an instant alter your perception of yourself and your reality.

– Quotes from Shadows on the Path by Abdi Assadi:


All spiritual masters teach us that love is an activity before it is a condition – and that love is all-encompassing.
Page 18


It felt like I was coming off a race track and driving in a school zone. He knew, years before I did, that my speed was my way of suppressing my early childhood anxiety, and that only slowing down could heal it.

Why do you need to use all these words like God and spirituality? It is right here Abdi, all around you, all the time
Page 40


one does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.
Page 51


Ultimately it keeps grace out of our lives because we are using our will power to manipulate every event and person around us.
Page 74


His lesson, which I had begun to learn for myself, is that outside circumstances do not define our internal experience if we can surrender into them. Painful or undesirable situations will always arise; true suffering comes from our ego’s desire to resist life as it is.
Page 77


Note from Pernilla:
I met Abdi in the fall of 2014 and when I arrived in his office the first thing he said was, “It’s time that you stop carrying other people’s anxiety.” In the year that followed, my entrenched codependency patterns reared their ugly heads and I was confronted with a part of myself that I had never even known was there.

A few years later, Abdi said, “When are you going to start writing your book?”I looked at him in surprise. I was not a writer. My expertise was centered around creating crazy good Excel spreadsheets. However, I started writing and collecting notes about life issues and life experiences … and here we are a few years later.

Sally Kempton

Website
Youtube Channel
Books on Amazon
Interviews

Sally Kempton is a preeminent meditation teacher of our time.

She is an expert scholar in Hinduism and all Hindu texts especially in Kashmir Shaivisim. Formerly Swami Durgananda, she left monastic life in the 1980’s to teach publicly. She has written several books and is one of the most known and loved spiritual teachers in our time.

Note from Pernilla:

I met Sally at one of her workshops at City Yoga in LA in 2003. She had the most gentle and loving disposition, and I just wanted to always be around her. I was fortunate to have been part of her two year-long “Transformative journey” courses in 2006 and 2007 and many retreats ever since. She is the true representation of unconditional love and transmits intense shakti from her Guru Swami Muktananda.

Sally is the primary building block and foundation in my spiritual journey. Without her, I would have never found and stuck with meditation – the most transformative experience of my life. Without her, I would have been lost without a clue where to go next. Her wealth of knowledge of yogic philosophy and incredible understanding of the human condition is what makes her a force to be reckoned with.  She understands your depth and makes you feel seen, heard, validated, and deeply loved.