On Awakening a Fuller Sense Of Self

by Bethene LeMahieu and Lynn Jericho

When you say, I am, no matter what words follow, you know there is infinitely more to be revealed. Awakening to a fuller sense of self is the ever-increasing inner awareness of being and becoming more completely revealed to yourself and to the world.

Fullness evolves and unfolds through our daily living. It manifests in the outer expression of good deeds, inner and outer harmony of the emotions and the inner presence of wisdom.

To recognize our fullness, we must examine ourselves with a sense of wonder. This examination begins by wondering about the following questions:

How do I experience myself?
How do I experience my shadows?
How do I experience the Spirit within me?
How do I find my communities?
How do I engage the other?

As you contemplate the questions, engage all of the aspects of yourself in the inner dialogue. Remember you are the playwright, the director, the actor and the audience. In each role you experience the questions differently.

How do I experience myself?
Consider these questions: How do I experience the shape and appearance of my physical body? How do I experience my well being? What are the stories of the events in my life, including my relationships and my work? What has inspired my thoughts? What have been my dreams? What aspects would I like to change? Answers to these questions are not carved in stone. Ask them many times and give the answers freedom to change.

How do I experience my shadow?
Ask yourself: What do I fear? Where are my doubts? What makes me angry? What fills me with hate? Fear, doubt and anger can overwhelm the soul, but their dark presence may not be bad news. Confronted objectively and creatively you can work through them and learn from them. Shadows illumined with objective light teach us great lessons.

How do I experience the Spirit within me?

Spirit, the Divine Cosmic Presence, dwells deep in the human heart as love. Experienced first within, it is evidenced in the ability to nurture and be nurtured. Inner love revealed in the world brings fullness to the world. What transforms fear, doubt and anger into courage, confidence and love? It is the inner presence of individualized Spirit.

All of us need a spiritual practice that is profoundly personal, not one based on learned external beliefs. The more we can define our own individuality, the more able we will be to act in the world ... in ways rooted in love. We need to structure sacred space and sacred time for reflection, contemplation and imagination. To gain insight into what may be right for you, ask yourself: What are my rhythms? What are my rituals?

How do I find my communities?
To experience yourself as a growing, developing human being you need four kinds of community. Your Creative Communities are made up of those who value, nurture and encourage your creative life while understanding the inherent risks of creating. Your Emotional Community consists of those who love you and whose presence gives you a sense of warmth, acceptance, safety and well being. Your Resource Community includes all those who provide the knowledge, skills and services you cannot provide for yourself. And your Receiving Community encompasses all those who seek, appreciate and respond to the products of your creativity.

To experience a fuller sense of self, it is important to identify and nurture your communities. Ask yourself: Where are my communities? What are my needs, based on who I am becoming? Have reverence for those communities not initiated out of your needs and be certain to cultivate the others, as well.

How do I engage the other?
How do I let the other know who I am? How do I find out who they are? Thoughts, dreams and concerns about the past or the future reflect personal truths and offer opportunities to achieve the purpose of conversation: to speak your truth and to listen for the truth of the other. Sacred conversation is the sacred intercourse of two souls, and we can not get enough of it. It nurtures fullness.

In answering these questions, no matter what age you are, you can look backward to what you were like and you can look forward to what you would like to become. In doing so, it is helpful to be aware that our lives are configured in periods of twenty-one years. The qualities of interactions between the self and the world change dramatically during the four, twenty-one-year periods of adult life: 21-42; 42-63; 63-84; and 84-death.

We can sense overarching gestures of gaining and giving in the fullness of each span: we give youthful enthusiasm and gain confidence and competence through work and relationships between 21-42; we give mature service and gain deeper meaning through responsible leadership and sound influence between 42-63; we give seasoned guidance and gain freedom and renewed interest through helping others and engaging in new activities between 63-84; and we give loving wisdom and gain peace of soul through objective introspection and generous listening from 84 and beyond.

Remember, a wonderful life is a life full of wonder. Wonder at your fullness-every day.

Lynn Jericho and Bethene LeMahieu, authors of
Ground Zero and the Human Soul,
can be contacted at their web site: 4sqconversations.com.