Spiritual Development

The Power of Awareness & Rigorous Self Honesty

The Power of Awareness & Rigorous Self Honesty

Awareness is the most powerful tool I’ve seen that offers promise of change and dealing with questions of fear, trust, and control in business in a healthy, constructive way. When we feel any one of our three essential biological needs are threatened (security and survival, power, affection and esteem), we revert to ineffective and negative patterns of thought and behavior. Positive change becomes possible when we become aware of what is happening inside ourselves and how we are interacting with others.

As we start noticing these things, the possibility opens for admitting and expressing truth. We can then learn to deal directly with how these patterns are affecting our work relationships and performance and learn to modify them. This is the personal foundation and catalyst for continued growth, high performance and success for an individual, team or an organization. When we have this awareness we are in a position to progressively achieve a state of self actualization and be catalysts for organizational health and success.

Self-actualization refers to actualizing your top skills, capabilities, possibilities, and potentials, it is being the best you can be so that you can be fully alive/fully human and contributing your unique gifts. It is fully functioning as a healthy and inspired human being in all of your relationships, activities, career, habits and life domains.
Self-actualization is about refusing to die with your music and gifts still within you. It is actively seeking to develop your talents and cultivating your inner richness. It enables a human being to be at his or her very best and enjoy life fully.

Preparation for Meditation Practice

Before you meditate or engage in any spiritual practice, take 10 minutes to reflect on the profound significance of your practice.

Ask yourself:

Why do I need to awaken for myself?
Why do other people need me to awaken?
Why does God/evolution/humanity (your choice) need me to awaken?

Allow yourself to feel deeply into the most authentic answer you can find. Then, invite that deeper answer to come forward as a clear and present intention to engage your spiritual practice from authentic presence. Engage and cultivate your practice from this deeper intention and sacred place. Notice how this exercise impacts the quality of your spiritual practice and the quality of your emotive responses.

When you encounter a challenging and emotionally charged situation in your life, before you respond, take a few minutes to ask yourself:

What is the most enlightened or evolved response I could have in this situation?
Why is it important for my own evolution for me to respond in the most enlightened, evolved way I can?
Can I let this person off the hook?
Why does God/evolution/humanity (your choice) need me to respond in the most enlightened, evolved way I can?

Allow yourself to feel into the larger significance of your response to this challenging moment.

Ground yourself in an intention to show up as an exemplar of humanity’s potential and allow your response to express itself from this deeper intention. Notice how your perspective on the situation and your ability to show up changes when you approach it in this way.

Exploring Qigong

I have explored many exercise systems and Qi Gong offers tremendous benefits. It is subtle but the energy changes you feel are palpable. Most of the time I don’t learn very effectively from instructional DVD’s but this series by Lee Holden was easy to learn and it helped me work through back soreness from overdoing it with free weights.

Qigong or Chi kung (气功 or prana force) is the philosophy and practice of aligning breath, physical activity and awareness for mental, spiritual and corporeal health, as well as the development of human potential. It includes certain forms of martial arts and the spiritual awakening to one’s true nature.