Having good energy flow is the best, but the ebb side of energy is just as important. It is a time of building, transforming and recollecting what we’ve lost. If you embrace the times when your energy is low by doing less and being okay with it, you will have better energy flow overall.
Essentialization: Moving closer to one’s essence
The above definition came to me in a dream one night and later became the basis for my book, Portals of Peace: A Path to Inner Peace and a Healed World.
The truth is that most of us have two selves – the self that we present to the world and the deeper self, which is our essence or soul. The fact that we have a presenting self may sound bad, but it’s actually a good thing. Growing up we are taught how to control our instinctive impulses and how to present ourselves in a socially acceptable manner. Without the socialization process we’d be living in a barbaric world.
At a certain age, however, we are called to integrate these two selves and allow the essence of who we are to fully emerge. Joseph Campbell referred to this as the hero’s journey. It is a time for us to take some risks by entering unknown territory where we are sure to discover our untapped potential, dreams and gifts.
Mystics believe that we are assisted by supernatural forces in this process that I call essentialization. Because life energy is the great alchemist, we are only asked to do what we know in our heart is the next right thing and life will do the rest, transforming us into our highest, most authentic self. Sometimes this is a small thing and sometimes it is a big thing. We know we are on the right path when the thing that our heart is leading us toward invokes a sense of fear. It feels like a risk, but at the same time we know it is important – imperative even.
Be still. Listen to your heart. Follow it. This will lead you down the path of essentialization. It may look dark and scary at times but it is certain to reveal your most authentic self and lead to your highest and most fulfilling life.
What is love? Love is the energy of life moving through your heart and toward the object of your affection.
Self-love is no different. We love ourselves when we allow life energy to fill us up from the inside to the point that it overflows into the world. From an energy perspective, there is no way to really love another without loving yourself first.
Many of us are so used to subtly rejecting ourselves that we’ve forgotten how to allow the energy of life to penetrate our hearts. Before loving energy can even reach the heart, we resist and block it with judgments about ourselves. Self-rejection is so subtle that it’s often automatic and unconscious.
Don’t worry about trying to love every aspect of your personality and body. That’s a waste of time. Simply begin to practice allowing. Sit in silence for a few moments every day and focus on creating an atmosphere of love within yourself. This loving environment invites life energy to enter and gently open you up from the inside.
If you make this a habit your life will transform. You will have more energy, more intuition, and one day you will look in the mirror and know that you are worthy of all the love you can handle.
According to Albert Einstein, you can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created. Silencing your inner critic is no different. One’s inner critic is a product of the ego – the persona that we create in order to best survive in this world. Some aspects of the ego can be healthy, but the inner critic is not one of them.
There is a way to replace the voice inside your head that constantly tells you that you’re not good enough with a voice that continuously encourages and validates you. And that is by cultivating a relationship with the level of yourself that is deeper than your ego and more reflective of who you really are. We’ve all had encounters with this aspect of ourselves. Perhaps while sitting on the beach and feeling a sense of well-being so strong that it feels in that moment that nothing could shake you out of your bliss. Or perhaps in a moment where you feel overwhelming compassion for another human being to the extent that you are no longer aware of the plethora of distractions that usually occupy your mind.
How do you begin to tune in to this more loving voice? By making an effort to get to know this part of yourself with the following three steps:
1. Breathe
2. Ask
3. Listen
The first step is to consciously breathe. This means that you breathe a little deeper than usual and focus on your breath instead of the constant chatter in your head. Take a minute or two in the morning, afternoon and evening to do this. Each time you become aware of your breath, you quiet your inner critic.
The next step is to begin asking your essential self questions. For example, “How should I handle my debt?” You will be amazed. You will actually begin to hear or feel the answers to your questions at the oddest times!
The last step is to take time to actively listen to your essential self. You may not even hear or feel anything at first, but just spending time in a receptive state helps you learn how to tune into this deeper part of yourself.
Shifting your attention from the part of you that’s critical to the part of you that’s loving becomes easier with time and is well worth the effort!
This article comes from a new column on personal growth, which shares expert’s opinions on various topics. This weeks topic is how to silence your inner critic. To see what the other voices have to say on the topic, check out here.
Life happens. We all face challenges, and as I experienced, it’s tempting to take difficult situations personally. My intuition offered me a little advice on this: Stop making it personal – nothing is personal but everything is purposeful.
Have you thought about the fact that in only five years we will have arrived at the year 2020?
A friend of mine and author of Awakening Oneself, Jeff Geiser, suggests that we all write down the vision that we have for ourselves in 2020. Most of us know that it’s good practice to write down your goals and dreams, but it seems particularly powerful to do so for the year 2020. As Jeff suggests, it is now that we have 20/20 vision about where we want to be in the future.
That said, our world is changing faster than ever and in my opinion, goal setting doesn’t work in quite the same way that it used to. Nothing is static for more than 30 seconds these days, so we must constantly flex with the times and the shifting desires within our own hearts. What we want for ourselves today may not feel right tomorrow.
I wrote out my 2020 ( 20/20) vision today and would like to encourage you to do the same. I intend to visit my vision often and modify it any time my desires shift.
Happy Manifesting!
