From Suffering to Bliss

We each have the power to create Heaven on Earth

A Neos Experience participant inside our ancient megalith

On Monday, I woke up to a message that broke me open.

Sadness. Anger. Disappointment. Helplessness. All of it, at once. Emotions I know intimately. Emotions that have walked beside me my whole life.

I won't tell you what the message said. The content doesn't matter. What matters is what it surfaced in me.

My body trembled. I took a few deep breaths and dropped into my morning practice of connected conscious breathing. Everything else could wait. I needed to sit, feel, and let it move through me.

Because here’s the truth: I can call myself as conscious as I like, but how I respond in moments of trigger is the only honest measure of where I actually am. These moments are (painful) gifts. They are the curriculum to the life I long for.

An Instagram reel I watched this week captures it perfectly:

You can meditate for ten years, understand quantum consciousness, non-duality, the nature of the self—and then someone you love says the wrong thing at the wrong time, and you find out exactly where you actually are. Consciousness isn’t what you understand in silence. It’s what remains when the conditions get hard.

How conscious I am is a function of how I actually show up. Period.

The mind and body are conditioned to chase pleasure and avoid discomfort. But everything—especially the unpleasant—is a gift for the soul. The triggers show me where there’s still work to do. And they will keep showing up until I release them.

This sits much deeper than the intellect. I can forgive and heal everything mentally and still find that childhood wounds, generational trauma, and old conditioning live on in the body and the unconscious. That kind of work takes time. It takes real labour.

What changes when we become conscious is not that the triggers stop. It’s that we stop running from them. We stop medicating. We stop blaming. We recognise that the messenger is not the perpetrator and that we are not the victim. They are simply pointing to what still needs to be felt.

So after my breathing, I went looking. And the universe delivered, as it always does. A podcast, then a book: The Coming Times: A Pathway to Inner Peace. I devoured it in a single day. It felt less like learning and more like remembering.

It touched me deeply. And it brought new clarity to what we are really building at Neos and why this work matters so much for the evolution of the human being and our planet. This work is about what we can unleash when we are:

Moving Beyond Suffering

My most important job is to become the light and love that I want to experience. And for that, I have to tend to my own wounds first. On the deepest level, this is about self-love. The motivation can be selfish because as long as I cannot love myself fully and unconditionally, I cannot love anyone else.

It is a labour of love. We don’t speak about it often enough and we are rarely taught in it. This inner work is quiet, difficult, slow and often unpleasant. It is easier and more fun to do retreats, ceremonies, journeys, and listen to teachers.

Some of our Village Members during a recent gathering and workshop in non-violent communication (NVC)

The Power of Choosing Joy

And yet, it is the one thing that decides whether I live a life of peace and joy. No amount of money, status, or admiration can tend to these wounds. Only I can. And that’s why it’s so empowering. Everything I dream of I can create from within.

What the book reminded me of is this: in the end, it is simple. I have to turn all my attention inwards. News, other people, events—they will trigger me until I fully accept that it is all me. It is a choice, my choice whether I am joyful or whether I am angry, sad, disappointed.

So to end my suffering, all I have to do is acknowledge every trigger, sit with it deeply rather than suppress or escape it, understand it, see that it is not a threat but the remnants from ‘another’ time, that it is not me—and release it. One trigger at a time. One layer at a time. Until one day, there is nothing left to be triggered by. Only peace. Only joy. No matter what.

Reading The Coming Times: A Pathway to Inner Peace not only helped me let go of another layer, it uplifted me to new heights beholding what is possible when we do this work in community:

Creating Heaven on Earth

That is the mission, vision and promise of Neos. Creating the life we dream of has always been in our power. All we have to do is to commit to create that Heaven within. Every trigger, every negative emotion is an invitation to go deeper in this work, to evolve, to become an empowered, the New Human.

And when we do, we will be in one of the most beautiful places imaginable.

Thank you life for supporting my process so generously.

With love, from my healing heart,
Vincent

PS. For the breathing practice, check out The Presence Process by Michael Brown.

PPS. For the journey to bring Heaven to Earth, check out The Coming Times by Helen Jane Rose

PPPS. To join our next Neos Experience, get to know the land, the team and the project, join us June 11-14 for a beautiful experience. It’s a light retreat that allows you to experience the essence of Neos. You can book here.

Past participants said

• Such a beautiful and peaceful place, with amazing food and a truly heartfelt retreat experience. You can feel the conscious intention in everything, guiding you into a deeper connection with nature and life. — Jeanette

• Deeply spiritually motivated, attuned to the spirit of the land and its heritage as well as a new bright future as a center for healing and transformation. I wish them the best of luck and all visitors the same magical experience I had. — Martin