WHO ARE YOU REALLY?
Every human being is made in the image and likeness of God/Source. This does not mean we look like God it means we are Divine Love, Eternal Peace, Absolute Abundance, Infinite Intelligence, Pure Joy, Creative, Perfect, Whole and Complete. God’s love is our love, God’s mind is our mind, God’s peace is our peace, God’s abundance is our abundance, God’s light is our light, and God’s power is our power.
We are connected to Source all the time and everything comes from Source. There is no separation, there is only Oneness. This is the Truth of who you are, the truth of who we all are.
Many people have forgotten the truth of who they are. Through struggles and strife, through disappointment and disillusionment, through fear and lack some people have lost their way. The bumps and detours have derailed them on their path to awakening. Those bumps and detours are not meant to sabotage; they are there to strengthen.
Despite it all, through it all, awakening will happen. We will all reach our final destination. Understanding yourself is the first step to awakening the Power that lies within and uncovering the beauty and magic that is you.
We were all born with fundamental drives or basic human needs. The four basic needs are 1. Certainty: We all want to be assured that we can avoid pain and gain comfort or pleasure. We want to feel safe. Some people do this by controlling every aspect of their life while others do this by giving up control and having faith that all will be well. 2. Uncertainty/Variety: We all want variety in our life; it stimulates the mind, engages us and makes us feel alive. 3. Significance: People want to know that they matter, that their life has meaning or that they are important to someone or something. 4. Connection/ Love: We all need to feel connected or loved. If an infant were to be fed but not loved the infant would not survive. We are social beings and we need each other. When these needs are met there are 2 higher needs or Spiritual needs: 5. Growth and 6. Contribution. When the basic human needs are met the need to grow, expand our awareness and make a contribution to something beyond ourselves become a must.
There are many ways people fulfill their need for these four basic human needs. Some are positive and bring people to a higher state of awareness and some are detrimental to our growth or dysfunctional. Some people may feel love and connection by reaching out and helping others, by showing compassion or seeing the best in people. Others may use illness or sadness or anger to connect with people.
One promotes growth and the other prevents growth. There are so many ways to get your human needs met. Smoking, drinking, depression, anger, service, reaching out to others, exercise, eating a certain way, meditation to name a few.
Several of your needs can be met with one activity or emotion. For instance smoking and meditation can meet several of your needs. They can each provide you with certainty, significance and connection. You can feel the certainty about what you feel doing each activity, certainty about what they each bring to you. You can also feel connection by doing either. When people go out to smoke a cigarette together to a designated area there is connection and a sense of belonging to a group.
The same is true of meditation. You can feel connected to your own breath, connected to other people especially if you are meditating together and you can feel connected to Source and all humanity. They both can also provide your basic need of significance. Some people feel very significant about going out to smoke a cigarette. There is also significance in meditating and connecting to the Source of all things.
Once an activity or emotion meets 3 of your needs it becomes a habit or in some cases an addiction. This is why it can sometimes be difficult for people to give up smoking. If smoking fills 3 of your 4 basic human needs it can be difficult to walk away from it. Some people have too much attached to the activity of smoking, they feel they will lose too much if they quit. Meditation can also meet several of your basic human needs. It can also fill your Spiritual need for growth.
Depression or illness may also fill the need for certainty, connection and significance. Exercise and eating well may fill all of our four basic human needs and our spiritual need for growth. Empowering ways of meeting our basic needs often fills one or two of our spiritual needs as well. Disempowering activities or emotions may fill our basic needs but they cannot fill our spiritual needs.
Some activities can provide opportunities to serve the greater good. Mother Teresa met all of her basic human needs and spiritual needs by serving people in the streets of Calcutta. She had so much attachment to helping others it filled her need for certainty by knowing there was always someone that she could help; variety by meeting so many different types of people; significance by knowing she was making a difference; connection through the selfless act of service to others; growth as she learned from all her experiences and contribution by giving to the needy and making a difference in the world.
Mother Teresa said “Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” I love this quote as it reminds us that we can always make a difference in our own little corner of the world. Whenever you do anything with great love you raise the vibration of our collective consciousness.
Take a look at which human needs you value the most. What are your top two needs? How do you fulfill your basic human needs. Do they promote growth, serve your highest purpose and the greater good or do they prevent growth and limit you? Do you allow negativity or detrimental activities to meet your needs or do you let positive emotions and activities fulfill your basic human needs?
How can you meet the spiritual need for growth and contribution? Make a list of your habits or addictions and beside each one write the needs that are met by the activity. Make a list of ways that you can meet the need for growth and contribution.
If you want to change your behavior regarding any activity or emotion you have to find another emotion or activity to replace it so that your human needs are still being met. People may have a hard time quitting smoking if they stop smoking but don’t replace that activity with another. If one were to replace smoking cigarettes with exercise for instance the need for certainty, significance and connection can still be met. You can also meet the spiritual need for growth and perhaps even contribution through exercise.
Understanding you and why you do what you do is the beginning of making lasting change in your life. Understanding you allows you to shift what you do to meet your basic human needs in a more empowering way. It opens the door for more love, light, peace, joy, abundance, and creativity to flow through you.
