Your True Potential / SELF ACTUALISATION.

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"I am indeed a king (OR QUEEN), because I know how to rule myself" - Pietro Aretino

Look at your body objectively for a moment. Imagine and know the intricacies of your design, of your composition and the power of the biological complexity at work to keep you alive. Your prime directive is survival. We know this because of our scientific advances in understanding and experience. This is our purpose fundamentally. We cling to life through our in built desire to eat, drink and procreate. In modern western society, the majority of us live in abundance in most areas. Mainly the areas of our most required needs aforementioned.

The diagram above is Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a simple diagram that outlines our requirements for living a 'self actualised' life. They are the various stages of psychological development that one can obtain, from the most basic to the more abstract and complex. The term 'self actualisation' is referred to as "Realising one's full potential." This diagram provides one with a clear and simple outline of what is required in terms of 'fulfilment'. We have all most likely been denied the most basic of needs for whatever reason at one point in our lives, which can drive us into an emotionally negative mindset or even looking at this diagram can be create a strong feeling of lack in the knowledge that you may not have some of these 'needs' met. We may feel that we 'need' these met to be happy or fulfilled. I must argue that the starting point for pursuing an improvement of 'mental' function outlined here should be one of abundance and not scarcity or lack.
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This is not a simple change of your conscious thinking in terms of abundance, but the background; the subconscious. The primary software of your mind, your operating system if you will, needs to be updated before you can truly take the right action and move towards self actualisation. The journey starts with a deep and profound realisation that "You are enough." The abundance mindset is this realisation that "You are enough", and when you KNOW you are enough, you KNOW that abundance in any area CAN be obtained if you really WANT it. This is where things get tricky, if you are struggling to muster motivation to do anything but sit around or are easily distracted by stimuli, first of all, accept this fact (DO NOT BEAT YOURSELF UP - I have made this mistake too many times) and then you can start to change your subconscious mind and move towards betterment with the correct mindset of openness and abundance. 

SEEING THINGS DIFFERENTLY.

Even if you began pursuing your most ambitious dreams or goals right now, you would still eventually self sabotage at some point along the path. You are your own worst enemy or rather your conditioned thinking is. You may desire to be the best that you can be, but whenever you make an attempt to improve, you are overcome at some point with doubts and fears, even fears of success as well as failure. Its fair to say that we shy away from massive change in our lives and often look for comfort over any real productivity in our daily lives. We may want to build a career around our passions, but use excuse after excuse to keep us in our standard nine to five jobs that are leading to nothing except a lower than desired paycheck at the end of the month and a passionless, unfulfilled life (Just one example). Somewhere deep within you feel a force, a willpower to do, to be the best that you can be and change the world in some way. We feel a desire to creatively express ourselves and bring something incredible into existence. 


​How do we get out of our own way? 


1. Awareness. 

Stop for just a moment and take a courageous look at your 'self' or the idea of who you are at the deepest level. You will find that at your core you hold many limiting beliefs about who you are, reality and what you can achieve. These may be as simple as; "I am not worthy of success." Try detaching your 'self' from the thoughts and emotions that arise when in this natural state of awareness, remain as the awareness without any judgement of what arises.
​Let it arise into your natural awareness.


2. Radical Honesty.

This is where the real changes begin. Take note of what you discover during your moments of undisturbed awareness and put whatever you discover through your internal lie detector. Let's take the previous example of "I am not worthy of success." Who said? Why do you feel that way? Is it warranted? I could answer that question for you as I continue to do for myself on my journey of self development, but I'm not going to. You need to answer your own questions with the most intimate level of trust and love.


3.  Allow yourself to fully feel.

This can be as easy as you want it to be. What we often forget in our noisy and distracting lives is that we are designed to feel, as in really feel. The emotion that arises within 'wants' to be felt, it wants to be seen. Accept whatever emotions arise while diving into your subconscious without judgement. This is the emotion that you have been repressing and is a massive part of the destructive and recurring process of self sabotage.


4. Let go.

The next part is the most important. You must let go of these deeply entrenched beliefs that hold you back and their subsequent emotions. We repress and hold on to these as part of our core identity without even knowing. Even after a single session of 'letting go' you will start to feel your natural inclination toward expression and achievement. But now it won't be from a place of lack, but from the understanding that abundance in ALL areas of life is obtainable and there is nothing stopping you from living the life you want to live. 


Go through these steps every day for as long as you feel you need to, taking action in other areas as you begin to feel your natural passion and willpower arising within. Knowledge and information can help rewire the brain in many helpful ways, here is a list of books related to self actualisation.

P.S. You are fucking incredible! It's not often someone tells you that, but whoever you are - the very fact that you aware that you can improve and are seeking that improvement is potentially one of the most powerful and life changing things you can do. You have the power to achieve your dreams and goals! You are an expression of this vastly complex and infinite universe, look what it has made and tell me that you don't have the ability to create and experience whatever you want. Hell, you could be the next Albert Einstein or Valentina Tereshkova.

​Or you could be you and inspire the world through your actions. BELIEVE.

"What we think we become" - Buddha