The (Long) Journey Towards Ourselves

Recently I have been dealing with quite a few clients with issues around moving onto the next stage in their lives. I am also in transition in terms of my work and home location. Anyway the lovely advice spirit brought through was that while we tend to see life as a series of events, or periods of particular ‘doing’ e.g. studying, working, raising kids etc, there is really only one journey. That journey regardless of its twists and turns, challenges or length is towards one thing: Ourselves. 

  Everything that happens along the way, every setting is just another stage upon which we are acting out this journey. And the folk we meet just our co- actors drawn in to shine a light or reflect back some aspect of ourselves that needs addressing. They are there to help move us further down the path – even if they bring us great pain.

  We often set goals – end points - and think well when I get there I’ll feel better; when I earn this much or win that contract, life will be great. Or alternatively we resist endings, afraid of transition or change.  But either way when nothing much has changed in our internal lives or the same lessons keep coming up we feel deflated.  That is because we are still missing the point of this journey: still measuring the success of our lives against a particular event, location or factor that is external to us. Indeed judging our success by comparing where we sit in relation to other people ( especially those who may have nothing to do with us at all) is particularly pointless, although quite common given the prevalence of social media.

 The blueprint for this journey you see is actually embedded deep within each of us. Our soul knows, what aspects of our splintered selves we have come to work on, the purpose of this life against which our success or failure will be measured. The ego and it's outward outfits - job, wealth, status, age - are red herrings trying to deflect us from focusing on the real journey.  Aided and abetted by the mind it aims to keep us busy and distracted. But it is only in stilling that mind and conducting an honest assessment of our internal growth that we can work out where we are on the journey toward our greater self. A regular review not of style but content, not of intellect but of knowing, not of work output but heart output. The following are some useful examples of questions we can ask:

a) how attached am I to my role as a victim at the centre of continual drama storms (real or imagined);

b) how easily am I able to let go of old patterns, faulty beliefs and labels about what I must be (rescuer/good daughter/hard worker) but which no longer serve me;

c) how well do I hold my boundaries while living and speaking  with an open heart;

d) how often do I choose to sit in truth rather than illusion;

e) how readily do I live consciously, aware of who I am and what I am aiming to heal in me.

  Perhaps if you want a very simple signpost for this long and winding road it is this one question: How far have I come from shouting ‘me, me, me’ to proclaiming ‘I am all that I am?’