I am from Ukraine
No, I don't have any family that needs help. Neither am I gathering money for charity to help Ukraine like every big corporation. Instead, by sharing my life story, I hope to inspire you to help yourself reach internal wellbeing, which will manifest in external peace.
1987 - 2002 Ukraine
I was born in Mariupol, Ukraine, USSR, in 1987. My parents, both engineers in their 20s, and I lived in the eastern part where everyone spoke Russian felt Russian, and Ukrainian was taught as a second language in schools. I grew up without religion, spirituality, or mysticism. Although I thought about space and stars a lot, these thoughts scared me, and I chose to forget them. My parents separated when I was ten because of chronic fighting, and my father moved away to Germany.
Kiev, City Center, my last year in Ukraine.
2002 - 2008 Germany
At 14, my parents decided Germany had better opportunities, and off I went to live with my father. It was an emotionally traumatic experience. I had no support in dealing with the loss of everything I knew. In the meantime, my mother married an American man and suggested I move to the United States. I said: "No way! I finally got comfortable with the new language, culture, and society. I do not need another painful transformation". But she persisted, so I arrived in North Carolina at 20, letting go of everything I had one more time.
2008 - 2019 NEVER SATISFIED
The belief that the USA is a land of freedom and opportunity helped me open a business, which became successful by social standards and consumed a big chunk of my life. I appreciated financial fortunes, like going on vacations, my own home, and an investment account, but I was never satisfied. I didn't know that for wealth to translate into wellbeing, one needs a spiritual element. I lived by a society hoax "work hard, play hard," and was ignorant of many aspects of life.
2019 CHANGING
I was unconsciously searching for something beyond physical pleasures. Then, on my 32nd birthday in Vancouver, a city made for a healthy lifestyle, I met a fit guy who did triathlons. I wanted to change to reach his level. I quit smoking right then and drinking six months after. He shared the first Sadhguru video with me, which planted the first seed for the most significant transformation. The saying goes, when the disciple is ready, the guru appears. That year I also traveled to Tulum, where I had a session with a Mayan healer. She said, "It's time to go home, child..." and performed energy healing which I believed was a pseudoscience.
2020 LEARNING
In 2020 I went to Thailand and unconsciously bowed down in every temple. During COVID, I quit my job and started healing intensively. I did what you call inner child healing and shadow work. I learned about the nature of life from Vedic Astrology and Ayurveda. Magically plant medicine that I was not consciously seeking appeared in my life, which helped me awaken from my American Dream. Now that my world had turned upside down, I was so frustrated and hungry for truth that I drove to Sadhguru’s ashram in Tennessee. What seemed like a big waste of time then was the best decision of my life.
2021 AWAKENING
Not ready to fully buy into the who spirituality stuff, I kept living my usual life. One day I biked listening to a life zoom session with a Shaman. The moment he started shaking the rattles, I had an intense feeling of surrender, asking GOD (not even believing one existed) for ANY help. Then, 3 seconds later, I was on the ground with my leg broken into so many pieces, which tied me to bed long enough to realize I am not the body, not even the mind. So when people say, "sorry about your leg," I say: "It was the best thing that happened to me."
Let me explain: I realized that my physical body is only a part of my being, that life doesn't end after the body dies, and that humans are on the way to higher consciousness. We can choose to live the old way and suffer or raise our energies to a new level to be blissful.
WAR IN UKRAINE = MY INTERNAL WAR
A few years ago, there was a civil war in Ukraine. The west was fighting with the east. That is when I stopped watching the news. So when the rumors of war started coming in, I ignored them until I felt emotional. I couldn't understand why I had lived outside Ukraine longer than in it. So I took a deep dive into my subconscious to find the answers. My birth certificate states that my father is Ukrainian and my mother is Russian. The mother or the feminine side is left in our body, and the father or the masculine side is right. Living with chronic pain from scoliosis, I was always aware of the differences between the two. So I understood how this ancestral conflict manifested in my body. To me, the war between Ukraine and Russia is just a magnified version of what I experienced growing up. Seeing my birth city disappear under bombs helped me bring this emotional pain to the surface, process and release it.
PROPOSAL
I see this war as a great chance for us to become full-fledged human beings by letting go of the anger and fear that cause most diseases and unnatural deaths. It is an opportunity to look inward, heal our triggers, destroy old belief systems, and become conscious of who we are. It is perfect timing to hear the wake-up call and stop snoozing the internal alarm that will continue ringing only louder. — The sound of chronic backache, tension headaches, and shoulder pain that you believe is just stress. Wake up now and recognize that Ukrainians, Russians, Germans, and Americans are existentially one energy, only separated by illusion.
Hearing all these opinions on war reminds me of this elephant fable.
ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME?
Now I imagine this was too much - too soon for some of you. Depending on where you are in your life journey, you may not understand all this talk, just like I didn't understand when the Mayan healer spoke about "going home." However, I hope my perspective will inspire you to look for answers. The best space to look for truth is in your heart because the news, social media, and even your mind can deceive you.