Profound life-affirming insight and guidance is abundant in your daily experience.

The trouble is you're often not available, not present enough, to tap into these nuggets of transformational wisdom. What's more is that they often come from the oddest and most unexpected sources. Even to the awake and conscious person, the sage advice is often misunderstood.

I completely missed many of the messages that were seemingly channeled to me as a very young adult. I was fascinated with the 60s era. To me, the 60s represent a colorful and creative explosion of the human spirit. I often dressed in the style of that era and still cherish my collection of vintage clothing designed by Emilio Pucci. I made a feeble attempt to become a cool pot smoker but after a try or two I realized that I'd rather get high on life than spend my days in my bedroom listening to Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" over and over and over again.

The study of the 1960s counterculture, that included heavy experimentation with psychedelic drugs, was still a part of my study as I explored a variety of philosophies on spiritual growth and self-awareness. Timothy Leary was one of the most outspoken proponent of the therapeutic and spiritual benefits of LSD. He coined and popularized the catch phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out."

I was woefully misguided when I interpreted that statement as a suggestion to get high on drugs and drop out of conventional life. Since I had already determined that a life of drug use was not for me I 'dropped out' of further inquiry into mystical spiritual experiences at that time. Others misinterpreted the words of Timothy Leary, as I learned later, and did, indeed, spend days, months, and perhaps years in a drug induced haze.

Several years ago I returned to my journey of self-awareness and the expression of my full potential. The words of Timothy Leary once again crossed my path but I understood them for their intended communication the first time.

"'Drop out' suggested an elective, selective, graceful process of detachment from involuntary or unconscious commitments. It meant self-reliance, a discovery of one's singularity, a commitment to mobility, choice, and change. Unhappily my explanations of this sequence of personal development were often misinterpreted to mean 'Get stoned and abandon all constructive activity.'"

A good dose of detachment from process allows you to awake to change in the present moment. Alert and willing you are able to alter your course, make a newer and better choice, as needed. Paint your vision of the future, the outcome you wish to experience, and then detach from the exact way you think it has to materialize. When you show up in your life in a state of anticipation and committed intention, rather than in expectation of specific events, you expand the ways in which your dream can become reality.

Commit to the outcome, detach from the process.

"You're only as young as the last time you changed your mind." —Timothy Leary

The experience you desire must be in alignment with your authenticity. Who you want to become, what you want to have, must be in integrity with who you are at your deepest core. Otherwise, you will fight yourself every step of the way. When you stand centered in the truth of who you are you show up in your life devoted to your purpose, using the gifts of your unique talents, and express them to your fullest potential. Nothing gets in your way, including yourself and your own Inner Critic.

"Think for yourself and question authority" —Timothy Leary

Make your own choices and question authority, especially the life governing thoughts and beliefs, the rules, of your own monkey mind that is filled with doubt and fear.

"Turn on, tune in, drop out" is not about checking out from hotel society, it is about consciously checking into what you are here to do, your life purpose.

"If you take the game of life seriously, if you take your nervous system seriously, if you take your sense organs seriously, if you take the energy process seriously, you must turn on, tune in, and drop out" —Timothy Leary

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Next: Cowardly Lion? Tap Into the Wizard Within To Transform Fear

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Copyright ©2009 Valery Satterwhite. All rights reserved.

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