Some of the most urgent questions for people these days revolving around this question of “Who am I?” It’s made out to be a really profound question. It fills up movie and TV time, but I’m not so interested in it. It’s not that it doesn’t have value. It’s not that it isn’t worth exploring, savoring, discovering. It’s not that it’s a useless question, but it is.
Embracing Who You Know Yourself to Be
I will make the caveat and the space to hold that some people are so confused and upset and twisted around that they really don’t know this answer. But for most of you, you do. It’s the answer that comes up first in your head before your mind rushes in and says, “No, no, no. I can’t do that.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say that or read it in an email. It’s part of why so many of us teach to go with your first feeling about something because usually the mind is much slower than your deeper knowing. The deeper knowing is always first. The mind is usually scared of something.
You probably already know the first big fear that stops everyone: money.
“Well, if I had all the money in the world, I’d be a healer.”
I think money is often a dodge though. If you take that out of the equation for a lot of people, you’ll start to find other fears around self-judgment, social approval, and being recognized for who you really are lingering down there. We really are afraid of being who we know we really are. We can’t hide behind excuses anymore though, and it’s time to take a good hard (or a soft gentle) look in the mirror and be honest.
Seeing Ourselves in Our Original Light
There’s nothing quite so true to me as the reality that all of this is a return. All of this is a remembering. When I hear a student mention spirituality as “remembering,” I instantly know that they’re on the right track. We are all remembering on a planetary level how to be in community together again. We’re not doing this for the first time. We already know. Deep down, we already know how to be kind, giving, and in harmony with the love that surrounds and penetrates us. But before we can do this on a global level, we have to do it with ourselves. It is true that we change the world when we change ourselves, so now, it’s time to get to work.
Write Down Your Dream Life
So let me preference the dreaming of your true life with this: this isn’t about mental comfort or luxury. Spirit doesn’t need us all to be driving around limousines and living a constant day-spa life. In truth, just about anyone able to access the Internet and read this blog is already living a very comfortable life. Most of the world lives in such dire poverty that the Internet is a far-off magical commodity. I always encourage you to appreciate what you already have. In so doing, you are a little more prepared to dream up the real life that you want to live.
What is it that you really want to do? Com’on now. You know. No limitations here. You’re writing this down for yourself in your journal. Total honesty is required here. Leave the BS out. You don’t have to do anything else other than write it out…yet. Do you like healing, teaching, building houses, making healthy food, raising children, creating efficient organizational structures, making art, crafting music, developing computer codes, etc.? Seriously, where is your heart’s passion? That’s always the key. It’s not about doing what necessarily is pleasurable all the time; discovering your true self is about where you really come alive.
Spiritual Teaching, Blogging, and So Much More
I can tell you that what I’m doing in transforming my life isn’t “easy” in the sense of security or certainty. Of course, those things are illusions anyway. Tomorrow, you can break a hip going off a curb–this is a true story that I heard once. I think the question is if you break that hip, lose your eyesight, die, or otherwise have life drastically change your world, have you been living the life that you want to? Or are you still waiting? Who are you waiting for? The Second Coming? Seriously, you’re going to be very disappointed in your whole life if you wait around for things to be perfect and just come to you. You have to make a decision, and that decision is to embrace the true you.
Spirituality in All Things
I’m sure that some of you got a kick out of my earlier list that placed a passion for organizational structure on the same footing as making music, but everything is spiritual. When you do what you love, that’s what makes it spiritual. That’s what energizes the deepest parts of life and makes things come to life. You can’t take a limited view of spirituality as something you only do on Tuesday nights with your meditation group. It’s so much bigger than that, and that’s part of what’s banging on the inner doors of your mind trying to burst out. You know that you’re so much more than who you are right now, and you do know who and what you are. You are fast coming to the point where those questions won’t matter, and the real question of how do I do this will appear before.
Which when you’re ready to know, will also be simple. It’s just one foot in front of the other and a whole lot of love and faith. And really, that’s what life has been about all along anyway.
