CHAPTER 1

1. Only when I had bid farewell to the imposters of my life and relinquished the masks of reputation and validation did I hear those precious creaks I had longed to hear. The door to freedom was opening, and with humility and grace, I took my first tentative steps inside.

(freedom, humility, grace)

2. To fully understand who you are can only be done from the perspective of connectedness. Here you realise your "self" is a part of something more than "you." When you truly understand this, life becomes one of universal service and contribution. You become aware, not of your passions and dreams, but of your duty. And when you get clear on this, nothing will stop you. To participate in the pursuit of passions and dreams becomes optional. To perform your duty becomes non-negotiable. You are truly free. Instinct and hunger are awakened, and you will know you are fully alive. Bring who you are to your duty, and you, my friend, are living. You will understand, for the first time, just how heavily the trivial things in your life weighed you down.

(connectedness, duty, freedom)

3. Quite often, when you can no longer cope with the lie, which is life when you are performing for everyone else but yourself, there is a period of "stuckness." You cannot stay where you are, but you have become so attached to the mask you have been wearing, and all that came with it, you can't let go of that, either. It is just as it is for an animal that has been chained up for a long period of time. You can break the chains, but the animal will stay right where it is. This stuckness, though bitter and scary, is your first taste of freedom. The further you move away from the chains, the sweeter your freedom is going to taste. People who once claimed to love you may cut you from their life. Or criticize you. Or talk about you behind your back, as if you have lost the very sanity you only just discovered. But that's okay. They loved you caged. They were the chains. Love them, pray for them, and wish them well. Leave the ashes of what you once were with them to adore and remember. They can remember you as you were. Live so that one day, should they be blessed to witness you in all your glory, they too might be tempted to break their chains and walk beside you in a world viewed only through the eyes of freedom.

(freedom, love, prayer)

4. There is no higher self or better version of who you are. There is only who you are. And this isn't something you magically turn into, change into, or transform into. It isn't something you find by miraculously growing wings and flying into the sky.

Go and look in the mirror.

There it is. Everything you are and ever will be is right there. And who you are will be revealed through courageous human action that is a living and breathing expression of who you are and what you believe in.

(courage, revelation, truth)

5. True freedom is to know who you are, to know what your duty is, and to have the courage, regardless of how scared you are, to carry it out with love in your heart and alignment to your values and principles. Jesus knew it, Gandhi knew it, as did many others, and I am starting to know it. To welcome death before betraying who you are is to know true freedom.

(freedom, alignment, courage)

6. Expressing yourself with alignment is the warrior's way. You don't have to be spiritual to do this. You just have to be a good and honourable person. Whatever is God in this world, whatever is divine in this world, whatever is Jesus in this world, whatever is Buddha in this world, and whatever is pure love in this world can only be expressed through us. The only way God's work is done, His (or Her) very existence, is reliant on us to be good people. This is the yoga, this is being, and this is love. When we set and then activate beautiful and honourable values and principles, plying the divine tools we've been provided, to honour the very creativity of our existence, we become one with God. This is yoga, and this is pure love. And my God, when you experience this, life is just so beautiful, just so damn beautiful.

(honour, expression, alignment)

Timothy James Guthrie

7. When I think of energy, I am reminded of two things: If you understood it as a valuable resource, you wouldn't waste it, and if you understand it as your fingerprint on the world, you would bring love to everything you touched.

We have no idea just how easy it would be to make the world a better place. Writing about energy as if you understand it and expressing it through beautiful action are two very different things.

(energy, fingerprint, expression)

8. Phusion is where you go when you can no longer hide behind exercise, yoga, religion, reputation, personal development books, quotes, and social media likes. Phusion is where you go when you realise that most of your life is built upon lies, and you decide to seek out the truth of who and what you really are.

(phusion, yoga, truth, conditional expression)

9. We need fewer people walking on hot coals and more people walking among the people, serving.

(service, people, love)

10. Phusion warriors don't deal in passions and dreams.

Phusion warriors deal in duty.

Being a phusion warrior demands sacrifice. You cannot serve others fully when your heart, mind, and soul are full of your self.

(sacrifice, duty, service, conditional expression)

11. Phusion warriors don't search for a higher self. They don't try to connect to a better version of themselves. They carve out who they are through aligned action.

(warrior, alignment, action)

12. There is no such thing as spiritual wealth. The concept of money has no place in a spiritual world. Personal development gurus who amass great wealth by exploiting people's vulnerability are not manifesting abundance; they are stealing. In a spiritual court of law, they would be considered a thief, nothing more, nothing less.

(truth, spirit, abundance)

13. Abundance blocks do not exist in a spiritual world. What people are suffering from is an expression block. Work out the what and the how, and then ... Boom! You're off, and life will never be the same again.

(abundance, suffering, expression)

14. "Individual" is an antonym for "global." If you are a truly global citizen, you will, by definition, put the needs of others and the planet before your own. In many ways, I'm not sure we have ever been less global.

(global, individual, planet)

15. Limitations are only limitations when perceived as such. When viewed more accurately through the eyes of truth, they are a gateway to love: a pure, genuine, and unconditional love where we come to view our limitations as a very special and integral part of who we are.

(limitations, love, truth)

16. As human beings, we are not perfect. We can be scared, make mistakes, and are desperate to be loved and adored. We treat others badly and judge them in the process. And then we hate ourselves for doing all of these things. I am wondering if we have lost the art of being human or if, in fact, we have ever given being human a chance.

(perfection, love, judgement)

17. I cannot and will not view abundance in terms of myself personally. We were born into abundance, in terms of what the earth has to...