My Journey of Self Awareness preview

book preview of My Journey of Self Awareness by Elaine Miller




ELAINE MILLER was born in 1940 at Cardiff, South Wales, in the United Kingdom.
She married her husband Gordon in 1960 and had three sons. In 1967, Elaine and
her family immigrated to Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, where they lived until
1998, before moving to Queenslands Gold Coast.
Elaine has taught, Ballet, Keep-Fit classes and all branches of Yoga, during a
period of almost fifty years. She has been an active participant in many sports
including baseball, golf, wind-surfing, triathlons and kayaking. She has also
run a Keep-Fit School, a Yoga Therapy Clinic and a Yoga Ashram. At present she
resides at Burleigh Waters on the Gold Coast with her husband Gordon. Her first
book A Guide to Self Awareness was published by Poseidon Books in 2003.


In Store Price: $22.00 

Online Price:   $21.00


Format: A5 Paperback

Number of pages:

Genre: Non fiction

by Elaine Miller

A Guide to Self




Elaine Miller 

Imprint: Poseidon

Publisher: Poseidon Books  
Date Published:  2004

Language: English



This book is brilliant. It is
totally absorbing and has a great step-by-step approach to advice. Elaine
excels; she is one who truly lives her words.

Barbara Williams

A passionate, coherently written
testament of a persons powerful growth in Gods Love. Thank you for the
very interesting account of your journey of consciousness.

John and Sandra Stephenson, Burleigh Waters,
Queensland, Australia


is almost like a dream to me, to find myself writing about my journey through
life. A journey which was taken as someone who was able to enjoy having nothing;
owning nothing; being nothing; while living very simply. Yet, life itself has
provided all the material needs, such as a very loyal and supportive family,
with a husband who has been both a provider and protector. Life has given me
these material tools, plus a family to be with, in order that I could complete
my journey through life.


 My journey through life has given me many, many different
experiences, which I am about to try to share with you. These experiences have
taken me through family life, Yoga Clinics, Ashrams and two trips to India; from
the ashram environment back into Society; being involved with clubs and
competition; but still the movement of life is bringing changes.


progress has been constant throughout my life. From birth, I was fortunate to
have some valuable assets in my favour. For example, I have always wanted to
know Who am I? and What is the truth of life? In addition I have
always found that the lessons that life has given, or has taken away, have
brought me enjoyment, because I know that they have all been necessary in the
process of learning.


was a satisfaction within myself which was so powerful that any desires for
material acquisitions or achievements had no attraction for me. Throughout my
life it appeared that there was nothing which could draw me into being involved
in anything that life had to offer, and yet I was able to live my life as if I
was fully involved, and therefore was able to completely focus on everything
that I did.


saw this as my duty. My nature, being that of service to others, and my duty was
to fulfill all work, activities, situations and contact with people, as if in
the moment for each and every experience. There was no difference between
cleaning the toilets and giving lectures, because they are both a service.


see duty and service in everything, a soldier serves his country for the purpose
of maintaining human justice for mankind. A doctor provides a service for the
people who are sick. A government body provides a service for the country.
Parents provide a service by influencing their children to develop good values
because they are the providers of service for the future. The garbage collectors
provide services to communities, because without them the other seemingly more
important service providers are unable to function properly.


human beings we are not perfect, therefore I had no dreams of the world
changing, but kept my focus on service and duty. It ultimately gave me back
fulfillment, and the permanent satisfaction for which all of mankind is looking.


did not wait for the world to change, knowing each of us, as individuals, are at
different levels of awareness, but I tried to follow the humanness of the heart
and the individual conscience that is within, my conscience would always let me
know what was right or wrong, and I chose to work with it.


am trying to convey an understanding of this by writing about my own life, my
own attitudes, and my own approaches to life, and sharing it with you.
Hopefully, you may be able to identify some of your own experiences with those
of mine and be aware that there were lessons which could be learned from them.

process results in the mind projecting itself into the future. 




mother told me that she had a spiritual experience when I was born, which she
said strengthened her faith in God. My mother believed in God while my father
was an atheist, which, because of his experiences during the war, I could
understand. I was born five years before the war ended and, although very young,
I have lots of memories of the war. My father was a Diesel Engineer and his work
was to maintain the aircraft in battle condition on aircraft carriers and at the
airfields. Our home base was near St. Athens airfield, Llantwit Major, South
Wales, in the United Kingdom.


airfields were a major target for the Luftwaffe, which resulted in our family
witnessing many of the air raids and frequently having to seek cover. One of
these experiences was being strafed by machine gun fire from a
Messerschmitt fighter, when my mother, with my baby brother and myself hanging
from her coat tails, was walking down the main street during a shopping trip.
There was nowhere near to shelter so we just ran, hanging on to our shopping
bags. I dont know how the bullets missed because they were ricocheting all
around us and were so close. On that day and other days, many people were not so


Mothers sole concern at that time was to protect Mike, my baby brother, and
myself. I felt that amazing love experience, especially at the time when death
was so close, and when someone was only concerned for the welfare of others. I
think it was at this stage that I realized that love was unselfish.


air attacks were regular, always a lot of destruction, loss of lives, loss of
loved ones, but the strange thing was, I could never get elated when an enemy
plane was shot down. I would think the pilot is a human being, having to fight
in the war, like my dad has to, but for what? Just because politicians said that
these people were our enemies we must fight them. What power people give these
so called leaders? I constantly remember these thoughts coming up.


this very young age I could see the conditioned responses, attitudes, power and
control, and I did not know whether these leaders were selfless in their
decisions. The experiences I had and felt at that time of my life, later gave me
the drive to work only with the experience of following the dictates of my own


experiences were everywhere during those five years; caring and looking out for
others; so much loss, pain and suffering, yet still there was no selfishness.
There would always be someone to help or to be helped. I was very pleased to be
in this type of energy where the community had inner strength, endurance and
selflessness, even when surrounded by destruction. The people-bonding was true
service to humanity, and it gave back the experience of Love, unselfish Love.


the war ended in 1945, these enemies then became our friends, yet there
wasnt any feeling of peace. The feelings of love that had been experienced
reverted back to selfishness, and that feeling of being a part of the whole, in
the service of humanity, disappeared, almost in an instant.


had a German neighbour, who had become a prisoner of war; he had lost all his
family during the war, so when he was released he decided to stay on in the U.K.
I remember him well; he was friendly, lonely, and sad. He used to come along to
the gospel singing at the local church.


was a difficult time for all, but it is not easy to change ones conceptions
readily. The powers that be had said these are our enemies, and then they
announce that, hey, these are our friends, and man follows orders. The
conditioning to blindly follow orders is very powerful. If we do have to fight
in a war it must be because life puts us in that position, so we must fight
without hate, without anger, without malice, and without prejudice, which will
keep us in touch with our humanness, and this is the better way to work.


conditioned state which keeps us locked into the world of dualities, for
example, friend or enemy, likes or dislikes, etc., takes time to transcend, and
can cause many conflicts and anxieties in peoples lives. This is how it was
for our German neighbour; he was treated so badly that eventually he had to move


came back into the society when the war ended, anger and hatred returned. These
conditionings are within us and nowhere else.


war experience left my dad with a few minor depressions, but life had allowed
him to return, almost unscathed, from the conflict. Although my father used to
say that he was an atheist he would often talk to me about the stars, planets,
comets and we would always end up silent, just watching the night sky. We would
both be in a space of awe and wonder where our minds could not go. In my own
heart, to me, my Dad was spiritual.


was after the war that the suffering and misery took over. I am referring to the
optional forms; pain is inevitable but misery is optional. Was it because we
were no longer working for the good of everyone without selfishness? I wanted to
find the answer; I wanted to find the truth of life.


realized when I was growing up that some people were completely unaware of the
influence that their experiences had upon their thoughts and attitudes.
Subconsciously, we enjoy listening to gossip and making judgments, and that
enjoyment comes from conditioning. In the world of dualities, this brings a
feeling of power to the enjoyer.


was very sensitive to other peoples thoughts even though I did not want to
be, because most of the thoughts were so full of rubbish and selfishness. I
tried not to know these thoughts, but unfortunately with no success. Then I
realized that people themselves often had no idea what thoughts they were
having, it was happening at another level outside their consciousness.


would hate another person because they could bake a beautiful cake, yet tell
them how lovely it was, or they could be envious because a friend has good
looks, yet still pay them a compliment. These thoughts and emotions are
consistent with the process of conditioning. We can learn to be aware of the way
in which we really think and how we behave outwardly. Any behaviour, such as
thinking or feeling requires energy. If these energies are not working
harmoniously, there will be no power in the speech, no depth to the feelings and
the collective behaviour will have no effect on others, because the energy is
dissipated. If the energies are in unity, you will feel a greater awareness.
Your behaviour and what you say will merge and have an influence upon those
around you. This will occur because your energies are in unity, with the inside
(thoughts, feelings and emotions) and the outside (actions) working as one unit.
This process allows you to understand the science of knowing the self and
provides the means to the understanding of conditioning.


attitudes have a great effect on ourselves and others. When we look at our
attitudes, we will see that we do have choices in this life.


good attitude produces a good energy, which makes one feel good; it is like
working with our humanness, which belongs to mankind. Although we are all
individually unique, we are, also, all living our own individual role which
contributes towards a unity when working towards the same goal, and that goal is
to know or realize truth.


cultivating and being aware of the importance of a good attitude, it definitely
brought a better relationship within me. It brought a feeling, at the same time,
of accepting people as they choose to be.  When
working with that humanness, it always brings a feeling of knowing that one does
not want to be happy unless everyone else can be happy.


are a few examples of attitudes that I cultivated in myself at different times.
I would only work with one example at a time, and would stay with it until every
atom and molecule in my physical body had become that attitude, and that the
mind, thoughts and feelings were comfortable with it. It became a system of
organizing my energies so that they worked in unity. The intellect is not
comfortable with this process because it takes away the control and dominance it
normally has over the average person.


human beings we do have choices over the type of energy with which we choose to
work. By following the energy that works closely with compassion, the
consciousness within that energy is always in unity, and this can then be called
truth. I was looking for the truth of life and having this unity was
essential, because only truth can recognize other truths.


is easy to be good when surrounded by an environment of peace and harmony, but,
if it is truth, then it should also be good in any circumstance which one can
find, while living fully in the world, and society, with all its conditionings.


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