The authentic self is the foundation of actualizing our evolutionary potential, and it is our birthright. It is an expression of being: us to the very core. It makes sense then that we can reap so many benefits by identifying with our very essence.
To me, it is no more and no less than being existentially healthy. Nevertheless, there are benefits even in connecting with this as an experience of grace or something like a loving friend or parent to our everyday self. For example, it protects us from manifestations we do not need, and encourages us into greater healing and empowerment when manifestations we cannot avoid are more stressful than we would like.
I found cultivating practices — forms of meditation and energy work — can stabilize this awareness and allow it to fuse with the personality matrix and transform it over time. It can also strengthen our capacity to discern what is what in our thoughts and feelings, as well as in our relationships. This applies to all that life brings to our doorstep.
The authentic self vibrates an undeniable, gentle sense of certainty in the face of questions, choices and the discernment of the hidden variables of the challenges we face in life. This includes an awareness of the deeper meaning of past events, the state of our present moment experience, and its tendencies of future unfolding. When the connection is conscious, I can perceive a weave of possibilities and interpret them for effective navigation. It bestows an awareness of the reasons why a path is viable or not and what I need to do to transform a situation, as well as letting me know if that is even necessary. At times, I can interpret events as if I were in a lucid dream with the real expressing as the metaphor of what would otherwise remain hidden to me.
I have found two attitudes to be fundamental to the process of connecting to the authentic self: commitment to the connection itself and alignment with loving consciousness. The first amounts to a sustained aspiration, like a constant prayer. It is a sense that remains in the background even when we are barely aware of it and go about our daily business. A simple turn of our inner attention is all it takes to connect in this manner.
No matter how we commit, however, any experience of awareness that is devoid of love is not the parental awareness that sheds light on our path through life. This includes any inner voice that feels harsh, judgmental or comes off as playing head games. I make it a point, therefore, to remember to choose to be receptive to the unconditional love of authentic self. No matter what my mind spouts, no matter how much I hurt, that feeling of love can still be present. Forget having to be joyful, or nice and spiritually proper. It is far more important to be uncritical and honest. In my experience, parental consciousness is always pro-growth. The more I open, the more it makes sense that I am the parental healer of my existence, free of blame yet ultimately responsible all the time.
The authentic self, for me, speaks through feeling. At the level of mind, it registers as intuition. It started as I practiced placing attention on a point above the head while aspiring for loving consciousness to come in. The mind eventually learns to put words to an otherwise indescribable intuitive flow, to channel the flow into conversation and writing without even exerting itself. At the level of the heart, subtle shifts in mood translate into an understanding of any given condition, within and without. At the level of the gut, the experience is sensate, the feeling of life force, which can circulate to heal as well as inform.
Because of this ever-deepening experience, I am grateful to be me. It took a while, but even though life and my feelings are not always pretty, I am not afraid of any shadow I may cast. This is a form of enlightenment to be sure. I am still who I was, but now so much more. More importantly, it’s all good.
