Clear Your Blocks and Discover Your True Essence

A Step-by-Step Guide to Reducing Stress, Finding Inner Peace, and Connecting with Your Deepest Self

The practices in this guide offer real, tangible benefits that you can feel in your daily life:

Reduced stress and anxiety: When you regularly connect with your deeper essence, your nervous system calms down. The worries that normally spin in your mind lose their grip. You’ll notice that situations that once triggered stress reactions become more manageable. This isn’t just feeling better temporarily—it’s a fundamental shift in how your body and mind respond to pressure.

A felt sense of inner peace: Peace isn’t just an idea or a hope—it becomes something you can actually feel in your body. It’s a quiet steadiness that lives beneath your thoughts and emotions. Even when life gets challenging, you’ll have access to this inner calm. It’s like discovering a sanctuary within yourself that’s always available.

Natural joy: This isn’t forced positivity or denying difficult feelings. It’s a subtle but unmistakable sense of well-being that arises from feeling connected to yourself. Many people describe it as contentment, aliveness, or a quiet happiness that doesn’t depend on external circumstances. You may find yourself smiling for no particular reason or feeling gratitude more easily.

A deeper sense of connection: As you connect with your essence, something unexpected happens—you begin to feel less separate from everything around you. Not in a mystical or abstract way, but as a genuine felt experience. You might notice it when you’re in nature, sensing that you’re part of something larger. Or in moments with others, feeling a natural empathy and understanding. This sense of connection reduces loneliness and helps you feel more at home in the world.

Better emotional regulation: You’ll find that emotions don’t control you the way they used to. Anger, fear, and sadness still arise, but you can feel them without being overwhelmed. There’s a part of you that remains steady even when emotions are strong. This makes relationships easier and helps you make better decisions.

These aren’t distant goals—they’re natural outcomes of the simple practices you’ll learn. Many people notice changes within the first week. Some feel immediate shifts during their very first practice session. The key is consistency: even just a few minutes daily creates profound changes over time.

The Journey Begins Here

Have you ever felt disconnected from yourself? Like there’s a deeper part of you that you can’t quite reach? You’re not alone. Many people sense something more within them—a calmer, wiser, more peaceful presence. That presence is your true essence, and learning to connect with it is the key to experiencing the benefits described above.

Understanding What Happened at Birth

When you were born, something significant happened. Your deeper essence—what some call the soul—entered your physical body. Think of it like this: imagine a bird that has been flying freely in open sky, and then suddenly finds itself inside a cage. The bird is still the same bird, but now it experiences the world very differently.

Birth can be shocking. Your deeper self went from unlimited space to the limits of a physical body. From that moment on, you experienced life through your senses—touch, sight, sound, taste, and smell. This was quite an adjustment.

Because of this adjustment, and because of many experiences you’ve had since birth, you may have lost some of your connection to your deeper essence. It’s like having static on a radio—the signal is still there, but interference makes it hard to hear clearly.

The good news? You can clear that static. You can reconnect. And when you do, the benefits are immediate and real.

TRY THIS NOW: Sensing Your Inner Space

Close your eyes for a moment. Take three slow breaths. Now, imagine there’s space inside your body—not just organs and bones, but an inner space, like a room inside you. Can you sense that space? You don’t have to see anything or get it perfect. Just notice what it feels like to imagine space within you. What you might notice: Many people feel an immediate sense of calm or relief when they do this, even on the first try. Your shoulders might drop slightly. Your breathing might naturally deepen. That’s your nervous system beginning to relax.

What Is Your True Essence?

Your true essence is the deepest, most authentic part of who you are. It’s not your thoughts, emotions, or the roles you play in life. It’s what remains when everything else falls away.

Think of it this way: imagine a flashlight. The flashlight itself is the physical object you can hold and see. But the light that comes from the flashlight? That’s different. You can’t hold the light in your hand or measure exactly where it ends. The light is real, but it’s not solid like the flashlight.

Your true essence is like that light. Your body is the flashlight—solid and measurable. But your essence is the light itself—real, but not something you can put in a box and label.

This is why many people struggle to connect with their deeper self. They try to think their way there, using logic and analysis. But your essence can’t be understood with just your thinking mind. It must be felt and experienced—sensed through your heart, your intuition, and your body’s natural awareness.

Your Essence Has Two Aspects

Here’s something important to understand: your deeper essence exists in two ways at once.

First, there’s the part that lives right here within you—let’s call it your inner essence body. This is located right where your physical body is. It’s your personal, individual essence.

Second, there’s a part that extends beyond you—vast and unlimited. This is harder to understand with your mind, but it’s like your individual essence is connected to something universal, something bigger.

Imagine a wave in the ocean. The wave has its own distinct shape—you can point to it and say, ‘That’s a wave.’ But the wave is also made of the same water as the entire ocean. It’s both individual and universal at the same time.

Your essence is like that wave. You have your own unique signature—like your own personal flavor or frequency—but you’re also made of the same universal substance as everything else.

This understanding explains why connecting with your essence creates that feeling of belonging to something larger. You’re not imagining it—you’re actually experiencing the truth of your nature. You’re both yourself and connected to everything. This realization brings a profound sense of peace because you’re no longer carrying the burden of being separate and alone.

TRY THIS NOW: Feeling Your Unique Signature

Place your hand over your heart. Close your eyes and breathe slowly. Ask yourself: ‘What does it feel like to be me—not my name, not my job, but the essence of me?’ Don’t try to think of an answer. Just notice any feeling, sensation, or quality that arises. Maybe it’s a sense of warmth, or peace, or even curiosity. What you might notice: Some people feel a gentle warmth or expansion in their chest. Others sense a quality like stillness or quiet strength. A few experience unexpected emotions—perhaps relief, or even tears. All of these are signs that you’re touching something real and deep within you.

Why Your Thinking Mind Gets in the Way

Your logical, thinking mind is wonderful for many things—solving problems, planning your day, learning new information. But when it comes to experiencing your deeper essence, your thinking mind can actually block the connection.

Here’s why: your thinking mind wants to measure, label, and control everything. It’s like trying to catch moonlight in a jar. The moonlight is real and beautiful, but the moment you try to trap it and pin it down, it disappears.

Or imagine walking into a quiet library and shouting, ‘Everyone be quiet!’ That defeats the purpose, doesn’t it? When your thinking mind tries too hard to find your essence, it creates noise that drowns out the quiet presence you’re looking for.

The key is to let your thinking mind observe without controlling. Let it be present, but ask it to step back and simply watch. This allows your deeper awareness—the part of you that feels and senses—to come forward.

When this happens, you’ll often feel an immediate release of tension. Your jaw might unclench. Your breath might flow more easily. These physical signs tell you that your nervous system is shifting from ‘doing mode’ into ‘being mode’—and that’s exactly where stress reduction and peace become possible.

The Practice: Connecting With Your True Essence

Now you’re ready to experience direct connection with your deeper self. This practice combines awareness of your body, breath, and inner space. Remember: you don’t have to get this perfect. Just follow along gently and notice what happens.

Many people experience noticeable benefits even from their first session—a sense of calm, a release of tension they didn’t know they were holding, or a subtle but unmistakable feeling of coming home to themselves. The more you practice, the more accessible these benefits become.

Find a comfortable place to sit where you won’t be disturbed for 10-15 minutes.

Step 1: Ground in Your Body

Bring your attention to your physical body. Notice where you’re sitting. Feel the contact between your body and the chair or cushion. Notice the temperature of the air on your skin.

Now, become aware of your breathing. You don’t need to change it—just notice it. Feel the air moving in and out. Follow your breath for several cycles, staying present with each inhale and exhale.

Benefit: This simple act of bringing attention to your body activates your parasympathetic nervous system—your body’s natural relaxation response. You’re already beginning to reduce stress just by doing this.

Step 2: Discover Your Inner Space

Imagine there’s space inside your body—not just physical organs, but an inner space or room. Don’t worry about visualizing it perfectly. Just play with the idea.

Notice that inner space without trying to label what you find there. Simply be present with it, like watching a sunset without needing to describe every color.

Benefit: Creating awareness of inner space immediately shifts you out of anxious or stressful thinking. Your mind has less room for worry when it’s occupied with sensing this spaciousness within.

Step 3: Sense the Vibration

Begin to sense the quality of that inner space. Instead of thinking about muscles, bones, or organs, sense it as a gentle vibration or energy. What does it feel like? Warm or cool? Light or dense? There’s no right answer—just notice.

Relax into this sensing. You’re exploring the vibration of your inner space without analyzing it. Continue to notice your breathing—this keeps you anchored in the present moment.

Benefit: By sensing energy or vibration, you’re shifting from conceptual thinking to direct experience. This is where peace lives—not in thoughts about peace, but in the felt experience of your essential nature.

Step 4: Let the Space Expand

Imagine that the inner space you’re sensing is gently expanding. You don’t need to force anything—just pretend the space is opening up, becoming more spacious, like a flower slowly opening its petals.

As the space expands, keep your attention on the center of that space. This center point is like an anchor that keeps you grounded even as the space grows. Continue breathing naturally.

Benefit: The experience of expansion creates a felt sense of freedom and possibility. Many people describe this as the moment when they first feel genuinely peaceful—not because they’re trying to be peaceful, but because peace is naturally present in this expanded awareness.

Step 5: Connect With the Center

Let your attention settle into that center space. Feel energy or awareness flowing between your conscious attention and that center within you. This is a gentle, two-way communion—you’re reaching toward your essence, and your essence is responding to you.

You’re now in contact with your deeper essence. It may feel subtle—that’s completely normal. Even if it seems like you’re just imagining it, stay with the experience. Your intuitive awareness knows what’s real.

Benefit: This is the moment of genuine connection. Many people feel a noticeable shift—perhaps a wave of calm, a sense of being held or supported, or a quiet joy. You’re experiencing your essence, and it’s providing exactly what you need in this moment.

Step 6: Stay Grounded While Connected

As you maintain this gentle connection with your inner essence, keep part of your awareness on your breath. Breathe slowly and naturally. This prevents you from ‘floating away’ or losing your grounding. You’re learning to be in two places at once—aware of your physical body and aware of your deeper essence.

Benefit: This dual awareness is what allows you to access peace and wisdom while still functioning in daily life. You’re not escaping reality—you’re discovering a deeper dimension of reality that exists right alongside your everyday experience.

Step 7: Receive a Gift

Silently ask your essence to share something with you—perhaps a feeling of peace, a sense of guidance, or simply its loving presence. Then, let go of expecting anything specific. Just remain open and receptive.

Whatever you experience—even if it’s very subtle or seems imaginary—allow yourself to receive it. It might be a warm sensation, a color, a sound, a feeling of comfort, or simply a quiet sense of ‘knowing.’ Trust what comes. Keep breathing gently.

Benefit: This is where healing happens. Your essence knows what you need—whether it’s comfort, clarity, energy, or simply the reminder that you’re not alone. The gift you receive is exactly what will most help reduce your stress and support your well-being right now.

Step 8: Practice Moving Between Worlds

Open your eyes and look around the room. Notice the objects, colors, and shapes around you. Then gently close your eyes and return your attention to the inner space within you.

Practice this several times: look at the external world, then return to your inner world. Back and forth, like a gentle rhythm. This teaches you that connecting with your essence is natural and accessible—you don’t have to leave the world to find your deeper self. Both can exist together.

Benefit: This practice trains you to access your essence anytime, anywhere—even in the middle of a stressful situation. You’re building a bridge between your inner peace and your outer life, making that peace portable and always available.

Step 9: Return Fully to Your Body

Bring your full attention back to your physical body. Notice your breathing, your posture, and the feeling of your body in space.

Look around the room again, this time noticing specific details—textures, colors, objects. Gently tap your body with your fingertips, starting from your feet and moving upward. This helps you fully return to ordinary awareness.

Stand up and move around when you’re ready. Stretch if that feels good.

Benefit: Proper re-grounding ensures that you bring the benefits of your practice into the rest of your day. The peace and clarity you’ve accessed doesn’t disappear—it comes with you, subtly influencing how you respond to whatever happens next.

Understanding What Just Happened

You’ve just had direct experience with your deeper essence. You didn’t go anywhere—at least not in the usual sense of traveling to another location. You didn’t leave your body or float off to some distant realm.

What you did was shift your state of awareness. Think of it like adjusting a radio dial. The radio station was always broadcasting—you just tuned into a different frequency. Your essence has always been here, within and around you. You simply learned how to sense it.

This connection is available to you anytime, anywhere. Your essence is not mysterious or far away. It’s as close as your next breath. And yet, it’s so deep and vast that you could explore it for your entire life and never reach the end.

How This Practice Reduces Stress and Anxiety

The benefits of connecting with your essence aren’t just psychological—they’re physiological. When you practice these techniques regularly, real changes happen in your body and nervous system:

Your stress response calms down. Stress and anxiety activate your body’s fight-or-flight system. Your heart races, your muscles tense, stress hormones flood your bloodstream. These practices activate the opposite system—the relaxation response. Your heart rate slows, your blood pressure decreases, and your body releases tension it’s been holding, sometimes for years.

You gain perspective on your thoughts. Most anxiety comes from being caught in cycles of worried thinking. When you connect with your essence, you experience yourself as larger than your thoughts. The thoughts still appear, but you’re no longer trapped by them. It’s like watching clouds pass across the sky—you notice them, but you’re not swept away by them.

You find your anchor point. Think of your mind as waves on the surface of the ocean. Stress and anxiety are like storms that create big, chaotic waves. But deeper down, beneath the surface, the ocean remains calm and undisturbed. When you connect with your essence, you’re diving beneath those surface waves to find the calm depths. The storms may still happen up above, but you’re no longer tossed around by them.

You remember you’re not alone. Much of our stress comes from feeling isolated and separate, like we have to handle everything by ourselves. When you connect with your essence and experience its connection to something larger, that burden of separation dissolves. You feel supported by something beyond your individual self. This isn’t wishful thinking—it’s a direct experience that many people describe as profoundly comforting.

This doesn’t mean your problems disappear. But you gain perspective. You find an inner anchor point that remains steady even when life gets difficult. This is where true peace and joy live—not in having perfect circumstances, but in staying connected to your deeper essence no matter what’s happening around you.

Research on meditation and mindfulness practices (which share similarities with these techniques) shows measurable benefits: reduced cortisol levels, improved emotional regulation, better sleep, decreased anxiety and depression symptoms, and enhanced overall well-being. These aren’t vague promises—they’re documented outcomes that thousands of people have experienced.

TRY THIS NOW: A Quick Reset for Stressful Moments

Next time you feel stressed or anxious, pause. Take three slow breaths. Place one hand on your heart. As you breathe, imagine you’re breathing into that inner space you discovered earlier. Feel yourself dropping down beneath the surface waves of worry, down to the calm depths within. What you might notice: Even 30 seconds of this can shift your state. Your shoulders might drop. Your jaw might unclench. Your breathing might naturally deepen. These are signs that your nervous system is resetting. With regular practice, this reset becomes faster and easier—eventually becoming almost instantaneous.

Discovering Inner Peace and Joy

Peace and joy aren’t achievements you have to work toward—they’re qualities that naturally emerge when you connect with your essence. Here’s what people typically discover:

Peace feels like coming home. Many people describe their first real experience of inner peace as a feeling of finally arriving somewhere they’ve been searching for their whole life. It’s not the peace of having no problems—it’s the peace of being okay regardless of what’s happening. Your circumstances might still be challenging, but there’s a part of you that remains unshaken.

Joy bubbles up naturally. This isn’t the joy of getting what you want or achieving a goal. It’s a quiet contentment, a gentle happiness that arises from being in contact with your deeper self. Some describe it as aliveness—a sense of being fully present and appreciating this moment, exactly as it is. You might notice yourself smiling for no particular reason, or feeling grateful for simple things.

You feel more connected to everything. As you connect with your essence, a shift happens in how you experience the world. You might be walking outside and suddenly feel a deep kinship with the trees, the sky, other people. It’s not a concept—it’s a felt sense that you’re part of something larger. This naturally reduces feelings of loneliness and isolation. You realize that on the deepest level, you’re woven into the fabric of existence itself.

These experiences are subtle at first, but they grow stronger and more consistent with practice. Eventually, they become your new baseline—not something you have to work to achieve, but simply the natural state you return to throughout your day.

Your Essence as a Friend and Guide

As you develop your relationship with your essence, you may begin to experience it in personal ways. Some people sense their essence as a loving parent who always has their best interests at heart. Others experience it as a wise teacher or trusted friend. Some simply feel it as a presence that loves them unconditionally.

All of these experiences are valid. Your essence is all of these things—and more. It’s whatever you need it to be in each moment.

Here’s a powerful perspective: the personality you identify as ‘you’—your name, your history, your preferences—is actually like a window. Your deeper essence shines its light through that window. The window gives the light a unique color and shape, but the light itself comes from something much greater.

When people talk about reaching your ‘higher potential,’ they’re really talking about letting more of your essence shine through. They’re hinting at your willingness to be inspired and guided by this deeper wisdom within you.

Making This a Daily Practice

The real power of these practices comes from consistency. Even 5-10 minutes daily creates profound changes over time. It’s like watering a plant—one watering doesn’t do much, but regular watering transforms a seed into a thriving plant.

Here are simple ways to maintain your connection throughout the day:

Morning connection (2-5 minutes): Before getting out of bed, sense your inner space and set an intention to stay connected with your essence throughout the day. This sets the tone for everything that follows.

Breath awareness breaks (30 seconds): Several times a day, take three conscious breaths while sensing that inner space within you. You can do this while waiting in line, during a break at work, or before a challenging conversation. These micro-practices maintain your connection and reduce accumulated stress.

Evening reflection (3-5 minutes): Before sleep, spend a few minutes reconnecting with your essence. Thank it for guiding you through the day. Notice any stress or tension you’re holding and let your essence help you release it. Ask if there’s anything you need to know for tomorrow.

Nature connection: When you’re outdoors, practice sensing your essence while also sensing the essence of the natural world around you. Notice how your inner space feels connected to the space around you. Many people find this particularly powerful for experiencing that sense of unity with something larger.

Challenging moments: When you feel triggered, upset, or stressed, pause and drop into your inner space. Ask your essence, ‘What would help right now?’ Then listen with your heart, not your thinking mind. You might receive a sense of comfort, a feeling of perspective, or simply the reminder to breathe and let go.

With regular practice, these benefits compound:

• Week 1-2: You notice moments of calm and clarity. Stress feels more manageable.
• Week 3-4: Peace becomes more consistent. You recover from stress faster. Joy appears more frequently.
• Month 2-3: Your baseline state shifts. You’re naturally calmer, more present, more connected to yourself and others.
• Month 4+: The practices become effortless. Connecting with your essence is as natural as breathing. The benefits permeate every aspect of your life.

Your Journey Forward

You now have the tools to connect with your true essence and experience its tangible benefits: reduced stress and anxiety, inner peace, natural joy, and a felt sense of connection to something larger than yourself.

These aren’t distant goals or abstract concepts—they’re real experiences that become available through simple, consistent practice. The path from where you are now to living from your essence isn’t complicated. It just requires showing up, being patient with yourself, and trusting the process.

Remember: your essence is not somewhere far away. It’s not something you have to earn or achieve. It’s already here, within you, waiting for your attention. Each time you take a conscious breath and sense that inner space, you’re saying ‘yes’ to your deepest self—and your deepest self responds with exactly what you need.

The stress and anxiety that may feel overwhelming right now can genuinely shift. The peace you’re seeking is real and accessible. The joy you hope for is your natural state. And the sense of belonging to something larger isn’t imagination—it’s the truth of what you are.

Let each breath remind you. Let each moment be an opportunity to return home to yourself. Your essence is the light that has always been shining within you—clear, bright, and forever present. And now, you know how to see it.

Welcome home.

One More Practice: Right Now

Before you finish reading, take this moment to practice. Close your eyes. Take three slow breaths. Sense that inner space. Feel the center of that space. Notice any quality that’s present—perhaps calm, or warmth, or simply a quiet sense of being. Let yourself rest there for just a moment. This is you. This is home. This is where peace, joy, and connection live. You can return here anytime.

Joel Bruce Wallach