“To thine own self be true.”
~ Polonius
Good morning friends. Well, our cloudy skies have passed, maybe a little too soon, but once again, it’s a beautiful morning! I love the white angel of a cloud hanging out in the pink pre-sunburst sky.
So yesterday, I was pondering surrendering our ego self to our divine self. I had a friend brilliantly respond: “Why oh why do we not ‘get it’ until this point in our lives? And, not that I really do get it even now, but why did my eyes roll uncontrollably when my elders and teachers and parents gracefully attempted to teach me some of these things as I was growing up?!?”
Well, as I was reading through my chapter in Carolyn Myss’s Anatomy of the Spirit this morning, I received a pretty good understanding of why this is. It’s partly due to our 3rd Chakra or stage of personal development!
This chakra completes the physical trilogy of the human energy system. Where the first energy center resonates to group or tribal power, and the 2nd to the flow of power between the self and others, the third chakra relates to our personal power in relation to the external world.
Myss writes: “There is nothing simple about developing self-understanding, independence, and self-respect, even though the journey consists of only 4 stages of development. The 3rd chakra is filled with the energy of our personal ambitions, our sense of responsibility, our respect for our strengths and weaknesses, as well as our fears and secrets that we are not yet ready to face.”
“Because we are often riddled with personal conflicts, we meet the spiritual challenge – to “become empty in order to be made full”, to die to old habits and self-images in order to be reborn – with great trepidation.”
We’ve got to build our self-esteem before we can begin to tackle the philosophical questions we are considering here. “An empowered sense of self often develops in stages, over the course of our lives, in a series of mini-initiations. Every time we advance in self-esteem, even in a small measure, we have to change something about our physical dynamics. For the most part, we abhor change, but an initiation represents the necessity to change.”
Myss then lays out the 4 stages of personal power and building of self-esteem, which I found very interesting.
They are revolution, involution, narcissism, and evolution.
That’s right, I’ve just told you that you’ve got to become pretty full of yourself before you can actually drop it, and move on, to evolve, and to open up to your divine, intuitive nature!
We reach a revolution when we begin to separate from group thought and establish our own sense of authority. We find the strength to express opinions that may be different from our family or peers. I’m sure we can all agree this stage can be a real challenge. Don’t all of us need to “come out of the closet” in some ways?
Involution occurs when we begin asking our inner self “What else do I believe? What else do I think? I want to know myself better. We begin to trust our gut. “Often, this self-examination leads us to want to focus on our relationship with God and our life’s purpose, but we first need to develop a level of internal stamina that gives us the strength to handle the consequences of self inquiry.”
Myss notes that many people in her workshops have admitted that when asked certain self-reflective questions, they prefer to “zone out”. They really don’t want to know themselves all that well. Or they’ll say “I don’t know, I’ve never thought about it.” Self-knowledge promotes choice and action, and many people feel unready for either.
If we find the courage to examining ourselves, we embrace that shadow side I talked about a few weeks back. We come out more whole, loving ourselves! Myss says that narcissism has been given a bad rap, and instead, it should be viewed as an extremely essential step in our development. While we are in this vulnerable stage, we may get major criticism from our tribe. Narcissistic energy gives us backbone in the face of opposition. The changes in this stage prepare us for the more significant internal changes to follow.
Finally, we evolve. The last stage of developing self-esteem is an internal one. People who can maintain their principles, their dignity, and their faith without compromising any energy from their spirit are internally involved. Ghandi, Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela all accomplished the level of self-esteem it takes to take control over their physical environment. And when they did, the environments changed to accommodate the power of their spirits.
Myss notes that all three of these people were thought to be narcissistic at some point. Even Mother Teresa was forced to leave two religious communities in her early days because her vision of service to the poor was too intense. She was thought to be self-absorbed, but had to go through a period of deep spiritual reflection, and when the time was right, she acted on her intuitive guidance. She entered into a stage of evolution in which personality become persona.
As your own spirit takes command, the world will also yield to it’s force.
I love that! I’m going to go out today, and be me. Express my 3rd chakra. Let my solar plexus radiate. Wear some sunshiny yellow 🙂 Start the evolution. To myself be true. How about you?
