Mastery of Ourselves

Summary

Achieving mastery of our lives and accepting who we really are, allows us to lead a truly authentic life.  In my last three life letters, I presented the importance of mastering our physical, emotional, and mental bodies.  By endeavoring to master these three vital components of ourselves, we establish a greater awareness that helps us along our life path or spiritual calling.  By doing so we get closer to answering the ever-prevalent inner question, “Why am I here, and why was I born?”

Why are we here?

As we feel time flying by as if at warp speed, it is even more important that we take the time every so often to check-in with ourselves to see if we are on track with “why are we here.”  Otherwise we can easily get caught up in daily routines of work schedules, family obligations, and pressures that either we place on ourselves or allow to be placed by default.  Finding more time in a day seems to be impossible, until a crisis – health, family or other forces us to stop in our tracks to reassess our lives.  It is in these rare moments when circumstances force us to get out of our conditioned patterns that we find the time to delve deeper into our own life’s grand design.

Discovering Our Life Path

There are many ways to discover our life path, but until we truly know ourselves inside and out, we tend to defer to those we feel are more knowledgeable or spiritually awakened.  It’s important to remember that we are all evolving at our own time and rhythm via our life experiences.   By resisting the urge to compare ourselves to others, we can see our growth more clearly.  Life is not a race to the end, but a journey in which to savor all the moments along the way.  By appreciating our challenges and seeing the downsides of our successes, we are able to stay balanced and navigate through our lives.

Inspiration is the Key

You will know when you are following your life path, when you find yourself inspired about the day and living in the present moment.  When you are uninspired, you fantasize about the future or regret past events and move out of the present.  One does not need any motivation to live in the present if you are doing what you are meant to do.  So take a look at your life and see if it takes you forever to get out of bed to start your day or if you are excited about how the day will unfold.  Inspiration comes from within oneself and if you are doing what you truly love to do, then life is not laborious, but truly “glorious.”

Take Small Steps Toward Self-Mastery

In order to ultimately know and own your life’s purpose, start by taking small steps.  To achieve self mastery in the physical, emotional, and mental energetic bodies, here are a few suggestions:

Physical:

1. Pay attention to your body’s cues to stress in the form of symptoms.
2. Note the depth and ease of your breathing.
3. Sense if there is tension or not in your muscles such as neck, shoulder, back, etc.
4. Check your posture – are you upright, in ease or slouched?

Emotional:

1. Take time to fully experience your emotions, whether good or bad.
2. Differentiate between your emotions versus another’s emotions
3. Be brutally honest with yourself and acknowledge where you have done the same thing that you perceived has been done to you.

Mental:

1. Discover your unique set of values that you live your life by.
2. Become aware of your thoughts.
3. Monitor your mental chatter – No “should’s,” “ought to’s,” “have to’s,” or “need to’s.”