​Ignite – My Story in 5 Minutes with 20 Background Slides

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypSVaftSTos

​ (The numbers below, correspond to the slides being projected; the beauty of the slides does not come through in the video. Let me know if you would a copy of the PPT slides.)​

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1.My name is Lauren Spiro and I am happy to share with you a bit about myjourney of transformation.

2-3. First, I want to take a moment to appreciate the larger cultural context of my life & say that when I look at the distribution of wealth & the exploitation of resources on this planet I am humbled. I was born into privilege, in a working class/middle class family where

everything looked so pleasant on the outside but on the inside I felt like I was living in a war zone.

4. I experienced such a profound lack of safety that it led to my clinging to anyone who offered a safe harbor or anything that could numb the pain.

5 By the age of 16 the irrationality of my life and of the world led to my experiencing a spiritual emergency. In an heroic act of integrity my mind desperately reached for the authentic Lauren in an attempt to find meaning and purpose in my life.

6 -7 I needed help to move from monologue to dialogue but instead I gotlocked up in a mental institution, put on psych drugs and labeled with chronic schizophrenia. As you might imagine this made my life a little more confusing.

8. Now I want to share the 5 most important lessons I learned that helped me transform my own consciousness.

8 Lesson 1. Someone whom I deeply respected told me there was never anything wrong with me. It took me a long time to wrap my mind around that concept. It meant understanding the larger social context of my spiritual emergency which required that I understand the impact of trauma and the dynamics of oppression.

9 -10 Lesson 2. Another person whom I deeply respected told me “I believe in you”.

No one had ever told that before and it felt really good to hear those words and believe them. I realized, however, that I needed to believe in me. What would your life look like if you believed completely in yourself?

11-13 Lesson 3. Letting go & becoming unrecognizable to myself

What happened was – a completely unexpected spiritual blanket came over me while I stood by the pond at Auschwitz and said “something happened here”; meaning right here and somehow it was related to me. Before I returned to that pond 1 year later I did a lot of emotional release work – opening up as wide as I could and letting go of rage and fear. I did a lot of grieving for my people and all people killed by oppression and war.

14-18 Lesson 4. The wisdom of the heart

Last year when I returned to the pond and the Healing From War workshop my support group leader said to me “You found them”. I immediately felt some pressure next to my heart and a few seconds later my mind realized what my heart (and body) already knew – that I had found my family buried in that pond. This lesson left me feeling profoundly connected to my people, to all people who ever lived, are living and will live.

19-20 Lesson 5. Listening to my heart lead me home to my soul.

What I know to be true is my experience. The process of transforming my consciousness came through my heart and my body (not my thinking brain). Listening deeply taught me that my heart knows what is true before the mind does. When I engage in inner war, struggle or suffering I don’t know where home is. When I embody inner peace, I know that home everywhere I go.

In summary – my spiritual emergency was in fact my minds attempt to re-connect with my soul . Thank you for listening.​