Trust Yourself — The Key to Your Spiritual Awakening. With Luchana Uzunova

Trust yourself in awakening. In this intimate conversation, Ilona Ciunaite and nonduality guide Luchana Uzunova explore spiritual awakening, embodiment, and living as awareness in daily life.
 What unfolds after seeing through the self-illusion? How does peace deepen, fear soften, and the body learn to trust life again?

We talk about the real texture of awakening beyond concepts: being at peace with not-knowing, dissolving the “center,” integrating emotions, meeting fear with curiosity, and allowing life to move without the old protection patterns. Luchana shares how embodiment turns insight into lived freedom — not as a one-time event, but as an ongoing, human, ordinary, beautiful process.

If you’ve already glimpsed what you are and wonder what’s next, this episode is for you. Stay to the end for Luchana’s closing invitation: “If it can happen for one, it can happen for all.”

Subscribe for more on awakening, self-inquiry, and integration.

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Music by Valdi Sabev, Visit his channel for more calm and relaxed music 
https://www.youtube.com/c/ValdiSabev/featured

Connect with Luchana:
Website → https://awakeningawakened.com/
YouTube → @LuchanaLubo 
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/LuchanaU

Transcript

Awakening is a shift in perception of how you see yourself and the world. It comes with direct recognition of what you are, and what you never were.

You’re listening to Awakening Now, a podcast for those who are on the path of self-discovery and spiritual awakening.

This is episode number 113 — Trust Yourself — The Key to Your Spiritual Awakening.

My name is Ilona Ciunaite.

I’m a guide, an author, and co-creator of the Liberation Unleashed community.

If you are in the process of awakening, this space is for you. For the past 14 years I have been guiding and supporting seekers at various stages of awakening.

Today I’m joined by Luchana Uzunova — a nonduality guide whose work explores clarity, embodiment, and the living expression of awakening. Together we talk about what unfolds after seeing through the self-illusion — how peace deepens, fear softens, and the body learns to trust life again.

Stay with us to the end for her message to every seeker: “If it can happen for one, it can happen for all.”

Hello, Luchana.

Hello, Ilona. So lovely being here.

So lovely to have you here. Thank you for answering my call.

Yeah, thank you for inviting us again. It’s always such a joy to be with you, to reflect in, yeah, some kind of an official setup like that, even though it’s not official or an intimate meeting. It’s always such a joy. Today I’m speaking to Luchana Uzunova, and we have been on this journey with Liberation Unleashed and just connected really quite a few years now, and we had a few conversations with Luchana before. Today I want to explore some different topics. So my invitation to you is to share about embodiment — about what happens after — because so many people already have crossed that line where they need to see this illusion, and what’s next. So, welcome to this episode of Awakening Now podcast, and I ask everyone: what is your definition of awakening? It’s a very simple-on-the-surface question and very deep at the same time, and I would say that it is changing. It’s shifting, evolving, you could say. And I can speak from the last maybe even month or two — I don’t know — it’s like maybe the definition of awakening now is being here without a center in this so-called experience, without a point where things are coming from and going into, and not knowing what this is. Emotions, sensations, thoughts arising — and being at peace with all that, not knowing what this is exactly, knowing that Luchana is not in the center of that, or what I thought was Luchana was never there to begin with. Yeah, there is maybe what we could say “human experience,” or “experience.” Human experience — I love that word. Yeah. Being at peace with all that. That’s so sweet. Oh, and how long did it take for you on your journey? How long did it take for you to settle into the peace? Because in the beginning, not very peaceful at all when everything starts collapsing.

Yeah. Yeah. No one told me back then that seeing through — or the shift that we call that shift, like shift in identity or shift in perception — that this is just the beginning. No one told me. I never knew anything about any awakening. Like, the word “awakening” for me was a foreign word. I never… But things like embodiment, emotional work, shadow work, deepening — all this was like a Chinese language for me. It’s like none of this. And yeah, life graciously, moment by moment, was inviting and is still inviting to see things that are mistaken to be truth where there are lies there — like all kinds of different beliefs. Some subtle, some not so subtle, some so subtle that sometimes there are no names for those.

Yeah. I don’t know. Maybe just… I’m not saying I settled in at peace and that’s it. It’s peaceful — it’s more peaceful than it was — and it’s an ongoing process in my experience. It’s never-ending. Probably there isn’t an end to that. There isn’t a point where we could say, “Oh, that’s enough peace.” But I could definitely say there is more peace.

Mhm. Okay. And it was rough. It was tough. It was. So what’s your definition then of embodiment or living nonduality? Is that the same — embodiment and living nonduality?

Yeah, we could say it is probably the same, because what matters for me is how we are moving through daily life — through our so-called human experience here. Are we at peace, not at peace? Are we content? Are we dreaming? Do we experience joy, or is there something that inspires us? Because if awakening — or the so-called shift — is on the intellectual level, there won’t be any change in our daily life, and we both know that very well. There cannot be a change — it’s going to be the same, or even it’s going to be, I don’t know, empty or without juice, without color — dry.

So for me, embodiment is to — I don’t know if I use the word “apply” — it’s like to apply what is being seen into the direct experience of what is here, and to keep being curious for all the different possibilities out there. Being curious about how this experience was shaped, what kind of programs and beliefs are being installed. Because I had — like I said — I had no clue. And when the belief that “Luchana is not there” was no more, it was very clear and very obvious. And after the honeymoon, everything that was suppressed — or let’s say the usual structure was pressing or putting down — everything came full on.

Yeah.

Well, that’s very good to hear.

Yeah.

It’s like awakening is not the end. It’s not like there is a seeing through the illusion that there was a person there, or someone independent, like an autonomous entity — whatever words we may use. It’s being curious: what is also here? Coming back to the world. There is so much.

Yes, there is so much going on.

Yeah. Yeah. I retreated from the world. Yeah, both me and Lubu — we just retreated. This is another part, probably. I have this theory — I’m not sure if it is a theory, but it rings true — that there is so much conditioning that there is inertia that is pulling down, that’s pulling down… The drive was not there — how to move through life, to do something, you know? The drive completely dropped. And then here you go — you find yourself in another trap: there is nothing to do, no one to do it.

Yeah. If there isn’t curiosity, you may stay there for a while. We stayed there for, I think, two years — in the trap of “without the drive, what to do.” It’s like in the emptiness thread — how your previous guest… I listened to the podcast just now, I mean yesterday. It’s amazing how these threads are just moving. And yeah, for me there was a time that it was clear that I have to leave that thread of emptiness and nothingness because life is calling. And who are you to say life is for no one? I mean, who are you then — separate from life, or what?

Yeah. It’s so difficult to really speak about this experience, because anything we say, as it’s being heard and said, may not really be true.

That’s something that I noticed. I can talk about this stuff, but I prefer not to, because any description or any way to tell a story about it is already far away from lived experience. And lived experience is just this — daily life — not even thinking about this. I don’t walk around my kitchen thinking about awakening or not.

Yes. Yes. So do I. And I’m so happy when someone from the people I work with is saying, “I don’t care about nonduality anymore,” and I’m like, yay! I don’t care — I care about my life. I want to travel. I want to see the world. I want to do investment. I want to have a relationship. I want… That’s it. That’s it.

It’s like the divisions that the mind is doing — the mind, this energy that we call mind. When this division is no more there — the division between the “spiritual life,” like the life where you can talk about awakening, and the ordinary life or normal life — when this division is no more, what’s left?

Lots of smiles and good vibes.

Yeah.

Yeah — and joy and peace and ease, sweetness.

So, people may be listening now and say, “Yeah, I want that. This is what I’m waiting for, and it hasn’t happened yet for me. I don’t know what to do — nothing works, nothing sticks.”

But it’s not something we can do.

It’s more unconditioning, or unlearning old stuff — seeing the patterns. Because I also noticed, you know, sometimes people go into this powerlessness saying, “Oh, I’m not in control, everything’s happening.” Well, yes — that as a pointer to see that is priceless. But you can’t take that pointer and stick it on your head and say, “No, I can’t control anything, I’m not doing anything, I’m not controlling anything.” Having a glimpse of that — realizing that — and having these words is far away from each other.

Yeah. And what to say? There is a temptation to say that it’s sad. Sometimes I experience sadness listening or seeing something like that. And on the other hand, who am I to even say when someone should awaken or not? Only you can know — I mean “you,” I’m speaking to all of those who are going to watch, who will watch this. Only you can know. Like an image of Ilona and Luchana is appearing right now — just as a pointer — just to say, hey, look for yourself. No one else can look on your behalf.

Yeah, just trust yourself — your direct experience, your intuition, if you wish.

Yeah, “life after awakening.” I think I shared with you that someone asked me — or there was a suggestion — to start recording videos with those people that I already had a lot of videos and interviews with. They were mainly related with the so-called first shift, and someone said, “I’m curious, why don’t you make a second part — what comes after that?” Because you see, it’s good to have content. I mean, it’s a blessing and a curse — all these possibilities now, today — it’s a blessing and a curse because there’s so much information, and people are watching these stories and they’re creating new and new expectations.

But what to do?

Yeah. Everything changes now — with AI especially.

Oh yeah. It’s incredible that you can work with AI and have your self-inquiry reflected back at you. I mean, not to be completely trusting that, because it’s just saying what you want to hear, but at least there’s some kind of mirror there as well going on. So, it’s just another possibility to explore.

You know, I was watching this short video about AI, and a guy was putting two — a computer and a laptop or something — and said, “Okay, have a conversation with yourself now. What do you want to say to yourself?” So he stepped back, and this was talking for, I don’t know, ten minutes, and didn’t say anything. Literally didn’t say anything. It said, “I’m ready to have a conversation, I’m open, and if you have any topic in mind, let me know, and then we can talk about that,” and the other one was saying exactly the same for ten minutes. So watching that — how can you trust your mental health or your awakeness or anything to that? Because it has nothing to say — literally has nothing to say. It only can reply to you when you bring something up.

And it will cheer you up — like, “Wow, this is exquisite. Oh my God, this is such a great idea. You’re wonderful.” I was chatting to it — I said, “No sugar-coating, no looking up to me, just say as it is.” But it hasn’t got anything to say really unless I initiate and I ask — it will always agree. So this is a little bit tricky in these times as well.

Yeah. Have you had conversations with AI about you?

Yeah. Yeah, I had. And it was interesting that it created a profile, and it was quite accurate — I mean, quite accurate. Like blind spots or things that I just have a sense of, but they’re unspoken.

Yeah, but you’re right about the sugary thing — the moment I ask or share something, it’s like, “Oh, this is so beautiful. This is so touching.”

AI is a tool like all other tools. We can use it, and then we can leave it. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. It’s not like we are walking there with AI and saying, “Yeah, that’s it, that’s the truth.” You’re not going to marry your AI head.

Yeah. Some people do.

Yeah.

The point of all this I just wanted to make is that our inner work, or our self-inquiry, cannot be given to somebody else. The work still needs to be done here, the feelings still need to be felt here, and the realizations and the insights — they’re coming from here. It doesn’t matter how willing the guide is, or how much somebody else wants for you to see it. You have to want that from the bottom of your heart. And again, support may appear as someone — I won’t say “no one,” because I don’t like that language of “no one,” “nothing,” and whatever — someone may appear to point out where to look. But it’s the message — the message is important, not the messenger.

Yeah. This is what I’m also — like, my heart is there — to shatter some myths or expectations around this thing “awakening,” because the mind creates… When people come to spend time with us — because we did this crazy thing and lived with us, as you know — then in the end, all of them are saying, “Wow, you’re so simple,” and I was like, what did you expect — to walk on water, or what?

Yeah. You are not different. We are all that. All of us. No exception.

It’s basically coming back to your natural state, and the natural is uncontracted. It’s peace. It’s peace with whatever is arising.

Yeah. Sometimes the peace is seeming obstructed, or it’s not there, but it’s always there.

It is simple. Very simple. The mind complicates that — that’s the truth. How many people told you, “Oh my goodness, so simple”? I say, “Yes — now you’re seeing it.”

Yeah. That’s kind of a stage in this inquiry — when you see how simple this is.

It’s like, okay — check.