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Realizing and Expressing Your Inner-SelfOn this page, we'll take a look at some techniques for expressing your inner-self. Realizing and expressing your inner, true self brings peace, authenticity, and graceful living.Before we begin, I want to clarify a few terms. Understanding the distinctions between these terms will be important for exploring the experience of self on two levels. These two levels of self are of course related, yet they express different aspects of our existence. So, as we go through this exploration I'll make a distinction with capital vs. uppercase letters in the terms "inner-self" and "Inner-Self."
 The Ocean represents your Inner-Self, or you as an inseparable part of everything that is. As with an ocean wave, the inner-self exists and has its own characteristics. Yet is it not separate and apart from the rest of the ocean. It arises from it, is made up of it, and ultimately returns to it. The Ocean and the Wave are actually one and the same; it simply depends how you look at it. (Note: I don't want to digress into theoretical gymnastics, but I do want to note I like the metaphor of the Ocean and Wave, shared with me by Tom Thompson, because it's helpful in understanding the "no-self" teachings in Buddhism and forms of Hinduism. Yes, a relative, individual self surely exists; it's just not a separate self that's cut off from the whole of everything that is.) Exercises for Expressing Your "inner-self" (lowercase) Much of www.best-personal-growth-resources.com is devoted to ideas, resources, and techniques for understanding and expressing your inner-self. These include pages on the process of personal growth, creating growth plans, releasing creativity, harnessing the power of your mind, using your strengths, visualization exercises, and building happiness with positive psychology, among others. (Please see the Sitemap tab on the left for a list of all the pages by subject.) In addition, here are a few excellent exercises for exploring your relative inner-self, subconscious, and intuition. I have adapted these from an excellent book by Piero Ferruci called What We May Be. The book provides many exercises used in a branch of psychology called psychosynthesis, which combines the fields of psychology and spirituality.
To begin, think of a dominant personality or character trait you have. Try to feel it and see it. Now, give that personality trait a name or an image. Let the name or image emerge spontaneously; don't try to think about it too much. Give it a name like, "The Scholar," "The Old Wise Man," "The Nagging Complainer," "The Hero," etc. Spend some time letting this image talk and express itself. What does it want? What does it need? How does this sub-personality help you? As you let it talk, don't rush it. Let this sub-personality emerge clearly. Once you've finished with the first sub-personality, choose another dominant trait and go through the exercise. Again, take your time and allow the image or character to speak. Once you've done this for several (4-6) personalities, close your eyes and see how these sub-personalities interact. How does the "Hero" interact with "The Scholar"? How does "The Jerk" interact with "The Monk"? Think about the interplay between the various parts of yourself. As you continue with your daily activities, watch for these sub-personalities emerging and interacting. (p.42)
Once you're prepared for the visualization, and you are deeply relaxed with eyes closed and breathing deeply. . . For more exercises like these, please do check out What We May Be, by Piero Ferrucci.
 Exercises for Expressing Your Inner-Self (uppercase)In many spiritual traditions realizing your true Inner-Self is the culmination of spiritual fulfillment. People often refer to it as awakening or enlightenment. Over thousands of years these wisdom traditions have designed practices, such as meditation, chanting, prayer, and yoga (which means "union") to help us find the divine dwelling within and without. (Please see the page on Spiritual Sayings for quotations about finding seeing the divine inside and out.) While there are numerous practices, the highest teachings of these traditions emphasize that to realize your true self, all one really needs to do is be quiet, look inward, listen and see the truth for ourselves. As Eckhart Tolle writes in Stillness Speaking: Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness. This is the I Am that is deeper than name and form. The practice most useful for cultivating this silence is meditation, although the type of meditation you practice makes a difference. Many forms of meditation (mindfulness, loving-kindness, heartmath) are excellent for calming the mind, yet during them we are still actively concentration and doing something. Our "doing" interferes with our ability to see the stillness. It's like trying to see to the bottom of a lake; as long as you disturb the water, you cannot see clearly what's at the bottom. So, once you can calm the mind, try natural meditation. In natural meditation, you sit in meditation yet you take your hands off the steering wheel. You don't do anything. You simply breath and rest as the Observer or the Witness of your thoughts, feelings, and emotions. You rest as silent, choiceless, and effortless awareness. You simply notice that you are "being breathed" by something greater than you. Here are full directions for Natural Meditation for realizing your true Self from the Awakened Heart Center site. Also, please check out our interview with Tom Thompson, where we discuss Spiritual Health overall and natural meditation as a key component of it. To close, I leave you with the words of Eckhart Tolle about living from the wisdom of your inner-self contained in silence: Do you need more knowledge? Is more information going to save the world, or faster computers, more scientific or intellectual analysis? Is it not wisdom that humanity most needs at this time? But what is wisdom and where is it to be found? Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions. Note: Researchers in the field of psychology have spliced and diced the unconscious and attempted to map out all of the terrain of the self. For example, the great psychosynthesis researcher Roberto Assagioli uses an egg-shaped diagram to map out the lower unconscious, middle unconscious, superconscious, field of consciousness, personal self or "I," transpersonal Self, and collective unconscious. Jung and Freud have other maps. The Buddhist and Hindu traditions have maps as well. My intention here is not to get into a discussion of theoretical gymnastics; rather I am concerned with how one practically learns to know and express his or her own authentic inner-self. I hope you've found it useful. Leave Inner-Self and Return to Spiritual Development Leave Inner-Self and Return to BPGR Home Related Articles
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