Tree by the River: Loss of Appetite Unveils New Source of Energy
CHAPTER 6: TREE BY THE RIVER: Excerpted from Unveiled: Autobiography of an Awakened One by Dawn James
Loss of Appetite Unveils New Source of Energy
Psalm 1:3 (NKJV)… like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither...
As the weeks passed, I began to realize that I had done all the things I wanted to do: I was at the top of my career as a Finance Director, we had built our dream house from one of my architectural designs, I had three beautiful healthy children, all doing well in school, and a loving husband and father to our kids. What more could a girl ask for? Yet my life began to feel anti-climactic in virtually every way. I was only 38 and wondered had I accomplished everything I set out to do? Is this all there is? Now what? I had a feeling of finality, and it felt strange. All my life, I had lived like I was on a mission, to get this or the other accomplished, and now my to-do list was blank. I began to withdraw from my life and started going through the motions at work and home like an actor on a stage…I simply played my role.
Have you ever experienced a moment in your life when you became detached? You felt empty, hollow, or completely numb to everyday living—like a part of your life lost its meaning? And you asked yourself the question, Why Am I Here?
It’s a question I began to ask myself on Christmas Day of 2002, when my first life began to unravel. I felt empty inside, like a tree that had been uprooted – just a hollow shell of my former self. This feeling of emptiness affected me physically as well, so much so that when the dinner table was all set with a stuffed turkey, mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables, green salad, and the like, I looked across the table and what I saw looked like rocks and twigs. I didn’t want to eat anything. I wasn’t hungry. I suddenly had an intense feeling that forcing myself to eat was somehow a violation!
A violation of what I didn’t know, at the time. I started questioning this concept of eating. Are we eating because we are socialized to believe we must eat three times a day? Are we hungry for food? I sat there quietly, watching my family eat Christmas dinner, and simply twirled some lettuce and cherry tomatoes around my plate, hoping no one would notice I had not eaten a thing!
On Christmas Day of 2002, I stopped eating meat, and a few weeks later, I stopped eating bread, pasta, and other carbs. I remember Ian took me out for breakfast on Valentine’s Day, and he ordered my favourite—pancakes. When the waitress put the plate down, I just stared at it for a minute, then looked at Ian and said, “I cannot eat this.”
“Dawn, you are scaring me. You need to eat something. I need you to make a doctor’s appointment, and I will join you. We need to figure this out.”
By Valentine’s Day, I had stopped eating vegetables and fruits as well.
I reluctantly made the appointment, and my doctor took all the standard tests. The results all came back within the normal range. Have you ever had that feeling of here we go again? My life was pretty uneventful for almost 19 years after the ‘fight of my life’ just before university graduation. Nonetheless, here I was experiencing yet another loss. Reflecting on my childhood and youth, after each unveiling, I was led to an awareness of sorts, some new insights into my abilities, my stamina, my outlook on life. Although many lessons didn’t come to me until later, I now had a sense that this loss of appetite meant something. While I should have been panicked, and those around me were at times, I felt a sense of freedom, or perhaps it was a detachment that I had never felt before. After Valentine’s Day, my only sustenance… my only meal for the next six weeks was drinking water infused with fresh-squeezed lemons.
During this time, I never felt hunger pangs or food cravings; I didn’t feel weak, had no headaches, nothing. I didn’t even lose weight!
One of the most profound changes I experienced between Christmas Day and my last day, in addition to my loss of appetite, was this almost insatiable need to be outdoors. I craved being in the sun, feeling the warmth of the sun rays on my skin. I was guided to start sun gazing as well during this period, every morning at sunrise and every evening before sunset. I found myself waking up maybe two or three minutes before sunrise and walking outside to greet the sun. It felt joyful, natural. I also needed to breathe fresh air, not recycled air-conditioned air from my office. I started leaving the office at lunchtime and walked to a nearby park. We lived on an acreage, so when I got home, I would stroll into the forest in our backyard. I would often sit outdoors amongst the Scotch pines and maple trees until sunset. I needed to spend a few hours outside every day. My body was yearning for a new energy source, as I was certainly not getting my energy from food. I remember calling a good friend one day and telling her, “I think I am turning into a plant! I am literally living on air, sunshine, and water, and yet I feel perfectly fine.”
Each time I encountered a bump in this road called life, I found myself having to accept my new circumstances and surrender my fears, my worries, even my disabilities to a higher power. I surrendered my ears, my eyes, my voice, my legs, and even my heart to a higher power.
What more could I give? Give up? Yet I felt I was being guided to surrender something, maybe everything, this time. Everything in this material world became meaningless to me: food, money, sex, home, career, status, all of it.
And surrender I did.
~ Chapter excerpt by award-winning author Dawn James
UNVEILED: Autobiography of an Awakened One
Winner of the 2022 Silver Award for nonfiction, genre spirituality
AN AFTERLIFE PAGE-TURNER YOU WILL NEVER FORGET!
Read this Silver Award-Winning Afterlife Story: Unveiled
“Illuminating, enlightening, and uplifting!” ~ Publisher’s Weekly
Have you ever sensed there was more to life than what meets the eye? What if your greatest challenges were actually gateways to profound spiritual awakening?
In this extraordinary memoir, international award-winning author Dawn James takes you on a transformative journey that began with a series of near-death experiences – from childhood blindness and paralysis to the night her heart stopped beating during a powerful kundalini awakening. Each "death" pulled back another layer of the veil between our physical world and the realm of Spirit, leading to a profound truth: we are not just physical beings having occasional spiritual experiences, but spiritual beings on an earthly journey of discovery.
Through Dawn's raw and inspiring narrative, UNVEILED answers life's deepest questions: Why are we here? What lies beyond our physical existence? How can we transform our challenges into catalysts for spiritual growth?
This Silver Award-winning book (2022 Readers' Favorite) takes you beyond typical spiritual memoirs, offering both personal revelation and practical wisdom. Dawn shares how she transformed from living a limited physical existence to experiencing life on a profound spiritual level, exploring fascinating phenomena including:
- The mysteries of Kundalini awakening and Merkabah
- The truth about astral travel and psychic abilities
- The power of unity consciousness (Samadhi)
- The role of guardian angels and past lives in our journey
- Practical techniques for raising your personal frequency and developing intuition
UNVEILED isn't just a book – it's an invitation to discover your own spiritual potential. Through Dawn's remarkable journey of overcoming blindness, deafness, paralysis, and multiple brushes with death, you'll gain powerful insights into your own path of awakening. Her story demonstrates how life's greatest challenges can become doorways to extraordinary transformation.
Whether you're questioning your life's purpose, seeking spiritual understanding, or ready to expand your consciousness, UNVEILED offers the guidance and inspiration to help you remember who you truly are – a perfect being in an imperfect world, ready to discover why you're really here.
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Dawn James became a Conscious Living Teacher and Soulful Living Mentor, following a profound spiritual awakening and kundalini experience in 2003.
Dawn is a bestselling author known for her conscious-living book trilogy, Raise Your Vibration. She is also the award-winning author of the compelling afterlife story, UNVEILED: Autobiography of an Awakened One, which won the 2022 Silver Award for Nonfiction-Spirituality from Reader's Favorite.
