I believe that the invitation to truly live requires us to be rooted in a deep trust of life. This rooting is grounded in openness, watered with courage, fertilized by compassion, expressed with kindness, blossoms through patience, and–when fully mature—embodies peace.

A fully flowering life can only emerge after we dissolve our own hard shell of expectation that surrounds the boundless life force that we are, but that mainly lies dormant in most of us, because it remains confined inside an unfulfilled “story of me.”

Natural Curiosity Leads to Self-Inquiry, Self-Realization, and Self-Actualization

Our natural curiosity can set us on a path to self-inquiry, which in turn leads to the gradual dissolution of whatever unfulfilled story of me we’ve been carrying around. A fully self-realized person—one who has dropped deeply into his/her experience of aliveness as life’s foundational truth, and who has therefore shed his or her personal human story as so much superfluous noise—begins to self-actualize with ease and grace.

This growth experience becomes enjoyable, because the being no longer struggles to root him or herself in the harsh ground of suffering—that vast, rocky and barren field of bitterness and unfulfilled expectations.

Self actualization springs naturally out of self-realization, the way a seedling bursts forth from a seed. It unfolds of its own accord the moment we stop allowing the limitless energy of our awareness—our pure aliveness—to be endlessly captivated, enthralled and drained by a heavy “me story” that needs constant reassurance and soothing, or that demands to be satisfied by the world before it can open fully into the world.

The Story of "Me" Demands A Lot of Energy

This story of me, which demands so much of our energy and bleeds away so much of our time and attention, emerges out of a framework we’ve erected within our own mind. That framework is a complex structure comprised of all the beliefs, expectations, stories and mental projections ABOUT reality we’ve collected since we were born. It serves as our invisible outer shell by forming a thick, barely penetrable barrier between the latent life force that abides within us and the richly abundant totality of the vastly creative and energetic reality that surrounds us.

The taproot of self-realization becomes able to penetrate this shell as we move into a deep acceptance of the ONE truth we can unquestionably know through direct experience: I AM. This taproot’s grounding, to be successful, demands only that we release whatever stories we’re carrying that purport to explain “who” I am, “why” I am, “where” I am, “when” I am, or “how” I am.

The ground of trust then opens wide and makes the whole of itself and its abundant resources available to the taproot of self-awareness—which, in truth, springs from a simple acknowledgement that we’re aware of our own not knowing. Out of this holy union between our awareness of not knowing and the ground of pure trust, genuine wisdom at last can begin to alchemize and become embodied in us.

The Human Seedling Matures

The process of self-actualization, which represents the maturation of the human seedling, begins the moment the self-realized “I AM” dissolves the shell of its personal human story and sends the taproot of its realization of its own not knowing deep into the unconditional ground of perfect trust. The instant we cease all attempts to explain the self to the self, and the moment we end our obsession with ensuring we understand both the self and the rest of the world adequately so that the self can at last feel safe enough to emerge, “I AM” bursts forth in all its glory and basks in the open marvel of its pure aliveness.

Courage in the face of not knowing propels the new life upward. The compassion it feels for everything it encounters becomes its branches, which spread out in all directions. The kindness with which it communicates acts like leaves that it pushes forth and drops into the highly receptive world; the patience with which it stewards the power and wisdom that course through its living arteries feeds its buds.

What flowers forth then, in the fullness of time, is a sense of absolute peace—the fullest embodiment of the purest essence of love in our living world. The fragrance that these flowers emit serves as an attractor field, drawing forth countless others who feed eagerly on the nourishment that the fully self-actualized life is able to offer.

And thus does this wondrous tree of life both energize and cross-pollinate the entirety of our living reality.

© Copyright by Eileen Workman.
Reprinted with permission from the author's blog.

Book by this Author

Raindrops of Love for A Thirsty World
by Eileen Workman

A timely spiritual guide to surviving and thriving in today’s pervasive, gloomy atmosphere of alienation and fear, Raindrops of Love For a Thirsty World, lays out a path to life long self-actualization, and reconnection through a shared consciousness.

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About the Author

Eileen Workman graduated from Whittier College with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and minors in economics, history, and biology. She began working for Xerox Corporation, then spent 16 years in financial services for Smith Barney. After experiencing a spiritual awakening in 2007, Ms. Workman dedicated herself to writing “Sacred Economics: The Currency of Life” as a means for inviting us to question our longstanding assumptions about the nature, benefits, and genuine costs of capitalism. Her book focuses on how human society might move successfully through the more destructive aspects of late-stage corporatism. Visit her website at www.eileenworkman.com

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