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I feel like this is a good moment to ponder this question.
I will share more than the Non Dual answers – ‘because that is what happened’. ‘I didn’t write it’. ‘Life wrote it’. Etc. All relevent from one perspective, yet
I found myself motivated after my own profound awakening shift back in 2014, to really try to understand what had happened, and also to learn how to deepen into the most peaceful and powerful experiences that were occuring at times, plus also to understand the NonDuality teaching scene in general.
I listened to a lot of the prominent teachers, on youtube, in podcast interviews and in person at satsangs or on immersive retreats.
I recognised that there was a lot of discussion about helping seekers to ‘awaken’ to the essential truth yet not as much literature or conversation about how to embody and evolve after awakening.
I also met other explorers who were going through their own journey with this. Some were struggling in some way and I would often share my understanding and wisdom with them, as well as promote the teachers and teachings I resonated towards.
There was no actual book titled After Awakening. That title came to me quite early on, sometime in 2015, as a good one that would potentially be helpful to those whom were seeking the kind of insights I was. I committed myself to one day writing the book.
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The book ended up being written part time, piece by piece often in 1-2 month spurts followed by long gaps.
It was around autumn of 2018 when I put the first draft chapters down. I wrote about the awakening ‘moment’, teachers and teachings, the mind and the mind made self.
In the summer of 2019 I decided that I needed to start the book with the first part about Essential Awakening, mainly because I knew that some friends and family would no doubt read the book, so it might be beneficial to them to include some Self Enquiry techniques and other relevent information.
In the Autumn of 2019 I probably wrote the languauge and terminology chapter and the trauma and addiction chapter and the relationship chapter.
Early 2020 I added more and begun editing it into a book.
Autumn 2020 I continued the project adding more about purpose and fleshing the manuscript it into a proper book, editing and rediting it.
By December 2020 I felt it was done and employed a copy editor to do the punctuation edit. I felt ready to publish, I first wanted my wife Katharine to read through it. She felt it was quite repetitive in places and needed some reworking, so I put aside the idea of publication.
We decided to sit down together and rework the book line by line. It was a frustrating process for both of us. We often didn’t find the time to commit to it and it was very slow going when we did. However I could tell our combined input was improving the quality of the book. We probably got one fifth of the way through. We managed to co edit the Part 1 Essential Awakening and the Language and Terminology section. That took around a year.
By early 2022 I recognised that the After Awakening chapters needed a bit more of a personal voice. I decided to write a page or so of my personal story for each chapter heading so that readers may connect better to me and to the content. (The italicised pov sections were not included until then).
I also took the project back on myself and committed to edit it more rigorously whilst also reworking the book. I broke up some of the larger chapters to create new ones. I also then added the three new chapters towards the end of the book on the topics of; Health and Metaphysical, Plant Medicine, and Political Awakening.
By March 2022 the book looked very close to how looks today. The chapter headings are the same at least. I decided that it would be faster if I got my wife to edit the rest by herself one chapter at a time, so handed it back off to her.
Over the next year she would carefully edit a chapter when she had time and then I would update the edits.
The Book was finished in Mid June 2023. I finally couldn’t edit or read another sentence of it. I passed it back over to my copy editor whom did a great job on the punctuation and commas. I then begun the process of co creating the book cover and helping the layout designer design the book, with input from my eagle eyed creative wife!
Finally 26th of September 2023 After Awakening has been launched into the world !!
Links to Purchase your copy can be found here.
Thank You and Good Luck with all your creative projects and dreams …
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