Enlighten Up

The art of being your True Self

The reason we suffer so much existential angst is because we think that we are something separate from everything else. That sense of separateness leads to a longing for wholeness, which turns out to be an elusive and moving target. The knowledge and intellectual understanding that we are completely connected to everything, does little to ease our personal sense of separation. It would be nice to be able to sit, close our eyes, and spectacularly experience that cosmic oneness in a brilliant flash that would, once and for all, vanquish all thoughts of being anything but that. Fortunately, we can do that.

Unfortunately, that sort of enlightenment is hard to come by, but that enlightened sense of wholeness is more what we actually are, than the regular self that we think of as us. The self we think we are, the one that is separate from everything else, is our ego self. The harmonious, loving, interconnected with everyone and everything self is our True Self, which ironically seems foreign to us. That is how that sense of separation works against us.

In order for us to live into our enlightened nature, we have to practice being lighter with ourselves. We have to take the time to sit, close our eyes, and feel whatever it is we are feeling. Taking a moment to intentionally relax and feel what we are feeling, is the first step. The next step is to take a breath and relax more. If what we are feeling is a lot of tension, then we have a lot of relaxing to do, which takes practice. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a formal meditation practice, but building a habit of checking in with ourselves and then relaxing a little bit more, gets us accustomed to taking that little step back from the edge of our edginess.

Because so many of the problems and pains we dwell on in our daily lives have their basis in our egos, making the time to relax despite all of it, gives our true nature the chance to shine through and share the spotlight some. As long as we unintentionally think ourselves into stressful situations, we need to intentionally breathe ourselves out of them. Anytime we manage to take the time to breathe a little relaxation into our day, we may not get bowled over by a sudden enlightenment, but rest assured, we are enlightening up a little each time. And through it all, we remain completely whole and connected to everything.