There is so much to distract us from the work of getting to know ourselves fully by going within. In my case, I was trying to create an identity based on success as indicated by how much money I had. The logic was that then I would be known as a success and feel like I was enough and deserved to be noticed and respected.

As long as I was overly identified as my body and mind, this was the drive that consumed me until I was literally spent in more ways than one. Through reflecting in my journal, I was able to start looking within and began to see these things differently.

I created the SPACE framework from my experience using the wisdom from human psychology, neuroscience, and mindfulness to support you in your journey.

My life went from manic to calm as I stopped looking for what was not lost and started to see myself in the context of my true essence which was already enough. You might be pleasantly surprised by what you might find.

Know thyself

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

True wisdom begins

With knowing thyself

So Socrates said

Much easier to say

Than it is to do

We would rather

Scales the highest peak

Or sail the seven seas

Than take that

Journey within

So you want to

Save the world?

You want to

Discover

What makes

Others tick?

You are the

Only portal

Of discovery

You have

Discover yourself

Other will unfold

Before your eyes

Experience your

Pain

Others will

Feels safe to hurt

In your presence

Embrace your

Humanity

With love and

Kindness

Humanity

Will seek your

Embrace

And experience

Love and kindness

What you seek

Begins in you

Stop hiding from

Yourself

Afraid of what

You may find

Delay no longer

Infinite Love awaits

In the next post, I'll cover the next part of the SPACE framework to reveal where most of the confusion stems from.

Our mind creates the illusion of a fixed self to give us personal agency to get things done. It achieves this by filtering out all other possibilities creating a sense of apparent "realness" as we fixate on whatever it is focused on achieving.

Most of my mental suffering during my dark days was linked to ideas formulated in my mind about who I was and what I needed to achieve to justify my existence as well as the experience of disappointment from not achieving these made-up expectations.

When we over-identify as the product of the mind, we are living in a restricted made-up world that can limit the scope of our human experience through its filtering process. This is like the fox guarding the hen house with no oversight.

The SPACE framework is a journey to reclaiming our real identity as the one who is aware of the mind and what it is up to so that we can call timeout on it when it gets confused by the fiction of its own making.

The benefit of seeing through the made-up nature mind-created identity is that we can have more fun with life knowing that we may face the joy of beauty revealed or difficulty from discovery and still be OK in the essence of our true nature.

The energy spent in the self-preservation of our illusory identity can be freed up to fly, flow and shine instead.

Made Up

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

Made up, me

Apparently a single self

Being preserved, at all costs

All made up, that's me

Made up, me

Such exquisite history

All the stories that define me

All made up, about me

Made up, me

Who I ought to be

How much it takes to reach

All made up, you see

Made up, me

Whose love will fill me

The only one, made for me

All made up, like all the others

Made up, me

What I deserve

What it takes to be enough

All made up, on the huff

Made up, me

What my services are worth

What it would take to be content

So made up, non can agree

Made up, me

Made up so much

Don't know where it stops

All mind made up, behind the scene

Made up, me

Why take it so seriously?

Might as well have fun

Nothing to lose, I'm all made up

In the next post, I'll cover the next part of the SPACE framework to reveal the best way to get out of the mind-created confusion.

When I work with clients to recognise the part the mind plays in creating their experiences, there is a tendency to begin to see it as the enemy and try to fight it.

The mind is sincere in its attempt to keep us safe and helps us achieve whatever it believes is in our best interest. It is designed to monitor and adapt and by nature can become confused and maladaptive.

I went through a time in my younger years when I was separated from my mother, the mind recorded this experience as something to be avoided at all costs and devised people-pleasing as the coping mechanism of choice. The logic was simple, do whatever it takes to stop people from leaving you ever again.

What is not taken into consideration is that I was never the reason for the situation and I am no longer as vulnerable to being left as I was back then.

As we begin to see through the confusion of the mind, the natural tendency is to resist and fight such thoughts that we recognise are no longer relevant or helpful for our well-being. This is like fighting shadows. It is never an effective strategy as the likely outcome is to prolong the very experience we are trying to avoid.

I have found the best approach is to acknowledge the mind's sincere efforts and affirm our new truth about being safe and Ok. We stay centered in our essence which transcends the mind and the wave of thoughts will pass.

We become like an observer in a hot air balloon above the clouds.

Resistance

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

Resistance is futile

To resist is to engage

To engage is to exchange

Fuelling the energy

By which it persists

It is here for its reason

Let it have its season

Glean all its lessons

Then let it be

That it too shall pass

In the next post, I'll cover the next part of the SPACE framework to show how you can reset your focus and connect to your true essence.

What do you do when you find yourself caught in a wave of unhelpful thoughts or a daydream that has you disconnected from what you have committed to do?

As covered in the last post, resistance is futile and counterproductive.

Thankfully there are very simple ways to recentre yourself in your awareness and connect to the present moment.

To recentre in awareness, ask yourself this question. Who is aware?

To Connect to the present moment, center your awareness on your breathing, noticing the inward and outward movement of breath through your body

Just keep returning gently to these every time you get distracted again. Then choose where you want to focus your attention next to support your well-being and present commitments.

Present Focus

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

I beg to be enlightened

The moment before me

Slips away in a blink

Thoughts of all things past

Ruminations of a future unseen

Eating away at what focus there is

A quiet spot

My eyes now shut

Consciously breathing

My focus on…

In the next post, I'll cover the final part of the SPACE framework to show how you can experience the richness that is here now regardless of your external circumstances.

When we see through the illusory nature of mind-created identity and all the stories about what it would take to secure it and make it significant. We are left with amazing clarity and a sense of a being expansive, innately robust essence that is full of infinite possibilities all available to access in any present moment.

The energy previously expended to maintain that facade is available to approach life with curiosity and fun without attachment to pre-determined outcomes.

We can experiment knowing there will be no failing just learnings.

We become present to all that is available to us now, appreciating the beauty in all the minds previously dismissed as mundane.

We can embrace those things we had been running away from; extracting the new wisdom and insight they bear to make our human experience richer.

We can experience the states that we previously thought could be found in external achievements.

What would it be like to experience true bliss not dependent on external circumstances by awakening to all the beauty of the present moment?

That is what the SPACE course was designed to point you to…

Any better?

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

What if it doesn't get any better

Than this moment

To feel all that is here

For me to experience

In the present here and now

That is bliss available to anyone

Who can connect

To the purity of the moment

Without the stories

Of the mind telling you

That it needs anything

Else to be any better

In the next post, I'll share more about how you can pre-register your interest in joining us for the first public offering of the SPACE course