This is a phrase don Jose says often, and it keeps landing differently every time I hear it.
Once you wake up to your truth, or a truth, there’s no going back to the lie.
The illusion breaks, and the shadow becomes illuminated.
Once that happens, there’s one question we need to answer:
What do I do with this new information?
For me, it always comes back to personal choice, because I only have control over my own agreements, my actions, and my attention.
Toltec wisdom teaches the world we experience is shaped by the agreements we live by. That doesn’t mean we’re responsible for everything that happens. It means our consent, spoken or silent, matters. Harmful systems don’t survive only through power and force. They’re kept alive through repetition, silence, and what we learn to accept as “normal.”
Over time, those systems become internalized, and we start going against our own well-being. Our happiness. Our self-love. Most likely without even noticing.
Toltec wisdom invites us to look at where these agreements live inside us, to see clearly, and to change them if we want to, without shame or judgment. Because when we see the agreement, we have a choice. And that’s how change actually begins, from the inside out.
Being impeccable with the word matters a lot right now. We have to be honest with ourselves. It asks us to notice how we speak to ourselves, how we name what we’re seeing, and where we soften or distort the truth just to stay comfortable or belong. When we’re not impeccable with our word, the lie keeps going quietly, even when our intentions are good.
Not taking things personally is often misunderstood as emotional distance or lack of responsibility. For me, it’s what makes presence possible: feeling anger, grief, or heartbreak in response to what’s happening in the world makes us human. This agreement reminds us not to turn that pain into identity or self-punishment. It lets us stay open and assess without burning ourselves from the inside out.
Assumptions are another place where old systems hide. We assume nothing will change and that our actions don’t matter. We assume exhaustion is the price of caring. Those assumptions keep our yes automatic. When we question them, even gently, we open to awareness, which interrupts the pattern.
Doing our best, in the Toltec sense, isn’t about doing more. It’s about responding from the level of awareness we have right now. In times of collective overwhelm, doing our best might look like slowing down, protecting our energy, and choosing presence over panic. Instead of disengaging from the world, we stay available to life without losing ourselves. We can then gather our energy and take action from the capacity that we have available.
This path is about unlearning. Unlearning the belief that our value comes from endurance or self-sacrifice. Unlearning the idea that we have to carry what was never ours to carry. The outside world may stay the same, but I can still choose to be different.
I can choose how I show up. How I listen. How I relate. How I keep my heart open.
I keep creating. I keep dreaming. I keep feeling, even when it hurts.
The last thing the world needs right now is one more shut heart.
I want to live with connection, with presence, celebrating life and the beauty of creation.
This, too, is an agreement. Am agreement I’m choosing with awareness.
🧡
