"This is true freedom: a mind that is no longer deceived by itself."
~ Byron Katie
.png)
Hello, I'm Aliki,
I must confess, I've spent the majority of the last six decades waiting for my life to improve. In my mind, there was always something better just around the corner, so that was my focus:
-
a better job
-
a better relationship
-
a better place to live
-
and, of course, more money.
But every time I achieved one of those goals, I still wasn't satisfied.
What I didn't realize, was that I was completely caught up in the content of my thinking, unconciously going through life in my conditioning, just as we have all learned to do.
I believed every thought that popped up in my head
and never questioned whether or not it was actually true.
It wasn't until I came across these two souls that I woke up from my thought created world and became free from the prison of my mind.
Eckhart Tolle
Byron Katie
That's when the most incredible thing happened...
I became happy.
Truly, unconditionally happy.
At the time, I couldn't understand it, but what had happened was that Eckhart and Katie's words of wisdom led me to have an insight that changed my world.
Suddenly, I was no longer giving the content of my thinking the same attention, so it started losing its hold over me. I knew I couldn't take my thoughts seriously anymore, so they started fading into the background and eventually stopped bothering me.
Around the same time, I came across something called the Three Principles understanding, pionneered by this Scottish fella:
Sydney Banks
This understanding gave me another life-changing insight:
We all have wisdom and well-being within us
but we don't experience it because our thinking gets in the way.
To this day, I can't believe I was 52 years old before I ever heard that there was nothing wrong with me and that I didn't need to spend the rest of my life improving myself.
*MASSIVE sigh of relief*
This was also the first time I heard that
you're only ever feeling your present-moment thinking.
Some people don't believe this, but I've experimented and found it to be true. Try it and see for yourself - whatever you feel can be traced back to a thought. Sad thoughts create sad feelings, etc.
This was HUGE for me, because it meant
I no longer had to chase a better feeling by trying to change the circumstances of my life.
About a year later, I read "The Untethered Soul," written by this guy:
Michael Singer
This resulted in another profound transformation. Although I had recognized thought, I hadn't, until this point, recognized the resistance in me, and the fact that I was going through life wanting things to be a certain way.
The energy of forcing is totally exhausting.
Through this insight, I became free from fighting with life's unfolding.
I finally opened to life and stopped wasting energy on things I had no control over.
Somehow, through these simple insights, I discovered
happiness, wisdom and freedom
beyond anything I could have ever imagined:
-
I had a delightful absence of stress because I stopped taking my thoughts so seriously,
-
I was able to tap into the intuitive guidance of my inner wisdom because my mind wasn't too noisy to hear it,
-
and I relaxed into the flow of life, finally living in alignment instead of arguing with what was happening.
However, the story is not complete without two more honorable mentions:
Leonard Jacobson
Jeff Foster
Leonard unravelled the mystery of presence for me, expressing beautifully how we are awakened beings whenever we are fully present.
And Jeff is always reminding me that the ocean loves all of its waves, and that a life of radical acceptance means being okay with however you are showing up in this moment.
Of course, there are many more excellent sources of wisdom which I find, curate and share, but these are the ones who have touched me the most deeply and consistently on my journey of self-discovery.
Today, the Wisdom Quotes Cafe exists as an invitation to explore profound words of wisdom and experience life-changing insights, just as I did and continue to do...
I share the most excellent and transformative wisdom quotes, accompanied by helpful coaching notes daily in the Wisdom Quotes Cafe Group, and weekly here on the blog.
I also make helpful videos
and offer private coaching
Aliki Reddy is a Self-Discovery Coach who empowers her clients to live in the awareness of their true nature, where they can enjoy the simplicity and freedom of a life aligned with the present moment.
Aliki's coaching philosophy centers around unlocking the profound wisdom that each individual possesses within them to harness it for daily realignment and transformation. Through deep listening, powerful questioning and compassionate support, Aliki creates a safe space for her clients to explore their inner landscape, gain insights and make incredible shifts in their lives.
One of the qualities that sets her apart as a coach is her ever-growing curated collection of powerful wisdom quotes which she intuitively uses as signposts to guide her clients on their path of self-discovery.
Aliki has a background in teaching and entrepreneurship, skills which she uses to create original and effective content that she brings to her coaching practice. She guides her clients into their innate wisdom and well-being, using their life situations as a catalyst for the transformation they desire.
Originally from Greece, Aliki has lived in Hong-Kong, Cyprus, Germany and the US. She now lives in England, where she grew up, with her husband, teenage children and Chester the cat. She enjoys songwriting, exploring the beauty of nature, and discovering original ways to guide people from the world of the mind to the world of now.
