The Easter bank holiday is the traditional time for spring cleaning, and many people across the world are thinking about tidying up and de-cluttering their property this Easter weekend. For me, this is a quiet time for self-reflection, honesty and Gaia. As I change and make changes so do my family and clients that I teach and surround me. We all have little white lies that we tell ourselves and others. There are archetype behavioural patterns that we all have a habit of falling into. You’re a smart, well-rounded person, right?
So why is it you keep making the same poor choices over and over again? Why do relationships in your life suffer because of poor communication? Why do you sometimes feel as though you have no control in your life? It could be because your inner child is in the driver’s seat, and if you’ve ever seen a six-year-old drive, well, that says it all. Our inner child is part of us–actually, it is us at one point in our life. But even though we grow up physically, a part of us still remains that child. This can be good in terms of play, fun, and just looking at life with the wonder of a child, but when our little inner child is in the driver’s seat making life decisions that children have no business making, that’s a whole other story.
We often wear a mask or persona, they are:
- The person who you think you are.
- The person the outside world sees.
- The person who you really are.
Authenticity is the key to growth. How many of us actually really know each other? Truth and trust are what honesty is about. Ken Wilber II is an American writer on transpersonal psychology and his own integral theory, a four-quadrant grid which suggests the synthesis of all human knowledge and experience. Ken states that in order for there to be a paradigm shift in humanity there needs to be a 7-10% shift in the consciousness of the planet. Once this happens in the way of consciousness or conscious awareness, behaviours will surface making our weaknesses become strengths and becoming global change.
So many of us are totally disconnected not only from ourselves but form the planet, this can be seen just by looking out the window at the amount of litter and rubbish being dumped everywhere. It’s frightening as this reflects the soul, the body, the self and the lack of taking responsibility and acceptability for the self. Expecting someone else to clean up, mend us, fix us or heal us constantly. Medical evidence tells us that a disease takes anything from 15 to 20 years to finally show up. If we are in tune with our body we have the ability to know this before.
We all have ways of self-protection. Does a man have to armour himself in muscles to feel adequate in the soul? Does a woman have to have cosmetic surgery to feel adequate in the soul? We have been told it builds confidence, but actually, the aesthetics are backing up an emotional deficiency.
Be happy with the truth of ourselves. There are two kinds of deception a) the mask we portray to the rest of the world and b) the story and mask that we bought into about ourselves. If you don’t understand and love the self, how can you connect and understand others? Communication is key. If we are an Amazonian tribe and cannot communicate with others, the tribe dies out. Our health can be our weakness or strength. In order to grow, we need time to self-reflect. We can either deal with pain or cover it up.
People who grow are actually able to look at their own imperfections. Turmoil and pain can either change us or put us into further denial. As the quote goes: “People dont grow up they grow old”. When I am privately training and coaching clients with injury, illness, sickness or disease we have to facilitate and maintain the change of habits in order to heal. If we can change just 1% each day after a 100-day period this will be 100% change.
This is why I dont encourage clients who are looking for the quick fix/aka the biggest loser, as they will end up back at square one if they don’t understand the thinking that got them there or how to take self-responsibility. I always ask: “Are you wanting someone to fix you?”
Did you know we all wear our choices? What you do in private reflects in public. Our growth is stunted by not being truthful with yourself. Be honest with yourself first then we can be honest with others. Any elite athlete will tell you that a loss teaches us more than a win. Connect before we correct, perfection is not a tool for transformation but honesty is.
Trans (trans-formation) means to move forward, we cannot change the past but we can change the future. So bringing up areas of pain in our past to the surface and using it as an opportunity for growth rather than stagnation will take us to bliss. All bliss comes from pain. We all have habits of numbing pain by many things, including smoking, drinking, eating the wrong foods, overworking or exercising in sports that cause more catabolic breakdown rather than anabolic repair. These we all do to prevent facing the self.
The more we suppress pain, the stronger it becomes. Let the body transform and get where it wants to go, take responsibility and acceptability that any change is a long-term investment. In yoga, we talk about ‘Gaia’. In Greek mythology, Gaia, (gay-ə or gah-yə) from Ancient Greek was the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia was the great mother of all: the primal Greek Mother Goddess, creator and giver of birth to the Earth and all the Universe. Gaia allows us to come closer to Nature. Think of a space which allows us to come back home to our own true nature, to our Selves.
Bibliography
Warren Williams – Chek blog
Carolyn Myss – Blogs
Paul chek
