|
On...
The Two Selves
Even
though the majority of people express themselves through their
personalities with some degree of soul influence, it can be useful to
contrast these two aspects of our identity. In this way we learn to
discriminate between them, know when our expression is dominated by one
or the other, and are more able then to choose which influence to
increase and which to decrease.
Even
though you might normally be a beautiful blend of these two levels of
identity, when you are most stressed, in fear or not centred you will be
clearly dominated by ego or personality. Everyone has the potential to
be dominated by ego at any time. Our state at any given time is always
some degree of both personality and soul. Self-awareness enables us to
be aware of this and then to create greater integration between the two.
That is the path of evolution of consciousness.
Whenever
anything happens that we do not like, are challenged, or that is
unexpected, we always have two responses within ourselves. These
responses begin as two perspectives.
a.) The
one is a subconscious perspective that arises from our conditioned ego.
This is typically a perspective that says something is wrong or bad.
Fear is inevitably aroused. What follows might be defensiveness,
criticism, aggression, anger, depression or a number of other reactions
that reveal a lack of acceptance and a desire to reject or deny.
b.) The
other response arises from soul within and is usually more subtle, and
therefore we are often not even aware that it exists. But it is always
there. It tells us things like: this is part of a bigger plan, this is a
challenge that you can handle and learn from, this is an opportunity to
change your life for the better, this is a result of past karma that you
can now heal, this is a step to expand your consciousness to become more
understanding, loving or empowering.
Since the
subconscious response is the one that initially usually prevails, you
can always stop it by focusing on the other possible responses. The
sooner you do that, the easier it will likely be. The subconscious
response typically prompts us to take some kind of action, which might
be a useful thing to do. The other response requires us to reflect and
try to gain some understanding. And it usually necessitates a letting go
and allowing the higher intelligence or plan of our life to unfold. The
ideal is to blend the two so that appropriate action follows the deeper
understanding of what it is all about.
|
Exercises:
Recall a situation that recently occurred. Examine your
response to it, and notice the degree of or presence of the
egoic response and soul response. If there was a significant ego
reaction, then reflect now on what the soul response would
possibly be. Do this exercise regularly until it becomes
habitual in order to become more soul-centered in your way of
handling life’s challenges. |
To grow spiritually, we must expand our understanding
of personality and soul, and we must experience new aspects of soul
every day. The 4 Level Soul Journey program with email coaching will
deepen both your understanding and experience of the core elements of
soul development. For more details,
click here.
This is one of 150 Soul Perspective articles.
For more articles visit
Soul Perspectives
Index.
Andrew and Bonnie Schneider are now offering personal interactive email coaching for the 4 Level Soul Journey program. Connect weekly with Andrew and Bonnie on how to develop soul consciousness. Read more about this personal coaching from Andrew and Bonnie Schneider by clicking here.
|
