In a recent seminar, I asked 150 participants, “How many of you are lost right now?” and all but a handful raised their hands.

It’s happening to all of us. We may know where our chairs are, but we’re lost in another environment altogether. If that’s true, then where are we?

Human beings are the only species that doesn’t have a true sense of “place.” This is because we’re able to use our minds to imagine ourselves somewhere else, to revisit the past and imagine the future. We experience a reality other than the present moment, a reality called our subjective experience, which is often at odds with the events going on outside of our heads. No wonder we’re disoriented. Our emotions and our thoughts have us in a desert when we’re sitting in a seminar in a hotel room.

All of us have a “place” within the world, and within the great web of life. Knowing this “place” gives us a sense of security and purpose. The problem is that we give so much weight to our own internal experiences that we have amnesia about our true nature, and then we can’t find our home, where we belong. We feel as if we’re wandering aimlessly on winding roads to who knows where. We forget that we’re adventurers on an Enchanted Map, engaged in the magical art of co-creation with our fellow travelers and Spirit. We can’t go “home” until we know where we are right now.

I felt lost and confused, tossed around from the Barren Desert to the Storm Fields to the hypnotic Field of Poppies for years, until I finally hit Rock Bottom and recognized that I was an alcoholic who was powerless over my drinking. I had fallen asleep in that dangerously alluring Field of Poppies so often that I’d missed out on much of life and many chances to grow, to heal myself, and to embrace my purpose. I had simply been existing as I reacted to what was happening all around me. I hadn’t been able to hear the voice of my soul, which knew where home was and how to get there.

I couldn’t own my role in co-creating the events of my life, because that thought was far too painful to entertain. Deeply uncomfortable in my inner landscape, I was frantically seeking a place of respite that kept eluding me. And like many alcoholics, I had a Shazam! moment when I one day peered into a mirror with a very different pair of eyes. I truly saw myself for the first time in as long as I could remember.

People will often say that it’s a photograph of themselves, a video clip, or a reflection in a mirror that jolts them out of their sleepwalking and alerts them to who they are and what they’re doing. Shazam! They see themselves as they are right now, not as they wish themselves to be or remember themselves being. They’re able to do this because they’ve stepped out of their subjective emotional experience and become aware of their observing self, who sees with great clarity. The wizard who can change the map is awake! The soul speaks!

We’re not always in the habit of listening to that inner voice. Our attention is drawn to the drama of our landscape, and we forget that we’re the ones creating it.

Have you ever had a dream where you felt you were being chased or were in grave danger, and suddenly a part of your psyche realized you were asleep and woke you up?

Our minds are set up to be self-protective, but sometimes we have to feel some pain in order to heal. We have to look into the dark places. There’s no getting “around” the shadowlands, no detour.

But imagine that you have the power to awaken at any time, to reclaim your powers of observation and take up your magic wand that taps into all your inner wisdom, as well as the wealth of wisdom the Divine makes available to all of us. Imagine that your courage to face all challenges is there for you at hand, and you can instantly call upon all the enchanted creatures of this land to assist you in magically traveling to a better place.

You can do this. And you will have help.