Self awareness

In the course of your life you have developed a personality. During your upbringing, school, training, but also in normal interactions with the people around you. This personality reacts on signals from his surroundings according to a pattern that is successful to him, and he tries to get and maintain a certain position in that world. Successful can be either positive or negative, negative attention is also a form of success for a personality.

Within you there is also a part that does not participate in the activities and patterns of your personality. It is peaceful and quiet, you will find it within you, and it feels very familiar: your inner Self. In the course of your life you got so enthusiastic over the possibilities of your personality and al the challenges it can face and the "rewards" it gets for that, that your focus is now mainly on this kind of activity, thus having forgotten the part of your inner Self. Your personality is thrilled by activities, your inner Self is a way of Being.

You personality is a way of focusing the attention of your mind that you will outgrow sooner or later, it will simply no longer bring you what you really want. By that time, you will become more and more aware of the tension it creates, and it begins to lose its attraction for you. But give yourself some credit: you have practiced the way of your personality for so long, that it will also take some time to undo its grip on your awareness and shift your focus more and more to Being.

Your inner Self is a quiet presence, which will not actively draw attention to itself. But you can find it, and become aware of it. However, it is only by your free will that its awareness will come to mind. So do not expect your inner Self to blow its horn in the midst of stressful situations, loss, etcetera, to "save" you. But you do have a choice: to shift the focus of your attention. And the more you become aware of the nature of the solutions your personality offers you, the more you will remember that they do not really solve anything, and that you do not want them. Thus you become willing to look for the benefits of your inner Self. So it requires a conscious decision to change the focus of your attention.

Your inner Self is a natural part of you, and by recognizing it, you start to actively influence the balance that up till now has so heavily leaned towards the part of your personality. It also offers you access to creativity, because it does not use logics and rationality. You will have experienced or read about those situations where your best inspirations and solutions to problems come when you are not consciously working on the issue itself, like in the shower or during a walk in the woods. The freedom of judgment that comes along with your inner Self, opens up a whole new area of experiences and new ways of dealing with situations.

When you start to give time and attention to your inner Self, you will find that your priorities will change. That you will want to give more attention to this way of Being. That sounds rather dull when you are still in the full swing of personality experiences. But be not deceived, Being is different, but so natural for you as opposed to your personality, that you will be drawn to its attractiveness for you. It is remembering and make place in your awareness for a very familiar part of you. To be honest, that may take some time before you really appreciate it. Because it changes your focus from activity to Being (which comes with action), and activity is so very attractive, yes even addictive to your personality, that you will have to face a lot of arguments from your personality that want to convince you to keep on using its focus. Your conscious decision is needed to let these arguments be what they are, and not reinforce them by believing them or act on them. Take your time for this process, and accept that it is part of the undoing of the grip of your personality on your awareness. You have practiced endless activity for almost as long as you live, so be not surprised that it will take some time to undo that. The BEcourses anticipate on this, and gently help you in this process. .

But there are more effects that you will like. The more you remember your inner Self, the less you will feel the need to judge, resist, promote your personality, want to be in charge. This will result in peace and quietness, and will feel very natural and balanced.

The key to your inner Self is: awareness. Be consciously present in the things you do, but do not judge it, or act on it. Just be aware of the thoughts and feelings, but do not believe that they are a reality in itself. Let them go by. Do not hurry this process, because too big a step in one time will induce fear and resistance with your personality.

Your inner Self is more subtle, it can easily be overpowered by your personality due to its nature of defenselessness. It will wait until you return to it by free choice. It also takes experience to be able to tell the difference, and do not underestimate the skills of your personality to disguise itself as your Self.

When you are ready to practice this, you will find that, even though it sounds very simple, you are likely to find a lot of obstructions along the way. Your personality will promote its own way (that is its nature, so do not fight that). Your loved ones and friends may do the same. Fear, doubt and insecurity will enter to let you rush back to your personality.

To help, support and inspire you, you will find a lot of practical information on the columns pages including stories of practical applications. You may use BEcourses to help you on the way to bring these changes about or work with you in a practical situation that causes stress or similar feelings at this moment. You can also use the online relaxation exercises.