Inhabiting You

No one told us when we were forming the foundation of our living experience that we had the capacity to survive without really living. No one told us that it was possible to live outside of an experiencing authentic Self. No one told us that we were putting on a mask and costume—which wasn’t who we really were, but was a close proximity to who they taught us we ought to be. No one told us that just as it was possible to identify with what the family system would call goodness, it was also possible to identify with what the family system would call “badness.” No one told us these things.

And so we don’t know. We may live many years deeply driven and managed by a mask and costume, which is very different from how we genuinely feel and think. We may live that way steeping in the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs we should have, or which seem to be thrust upon us, for an entire lifetime—unless something or someone intervenes that forces us to look in the mirror for the authentic Self.

When a crisis or a series of crises occurs, it gives us a unique opportunity to wake up to who we really are. We may be forced by the events at hand to look at our truest emotions and our most original thoughts. These tell us what we’ve really been experiencing: not what we should experience, or what others expect us to experience, but what we’ve really experienced. It is only at these points of looking at and accepting our truest experience that we begin to really LIVE as opposed to merely surviving.

Sometimes it is not a crisis but a really happy event, such as a new healthy, loving relationship, a promotion, a windfall, the birth of a child, or some other similar event that allows us to begin to wake up. But it is in waking up to something more genuine within that allows us to experience life from a genuine, rather than a fake perspective.

We have to begin to inhabit our own bodies, our own minds, and our own souls if we are to truly have the exquisite experience of living that life was meant to be. When we live in a role, in which we are simply going through the motions of meeting external expectations, we are not inhabiting, living in, or dwelling in our own lives.

Inhabiting a body means that we become keenly aware of body sensation, which gives us information about how we are experiencing life. The body is very wise. It can tell us all kinds of things, from what we need to be eating to whom we need to be spending time with. But many of us live our whole lives not really attending to the body at all, much less in any loving or nurturing ways.

Inhabiting the mind means getting in touch with what we really think. Not what others think. Not what we should think. Not what we’ve been taught to think. But what we really think. This kind of thinking is very rare. Most people think in groupthink. They think what the group thinks they should think. They are afraid to think outside of groupthink because others might reject them if they do. So, they agree to go along with what the group thinks, and never bother to question it. But original thinking thinks original thoughts. It gets in touch with the essence of who we are and thinks from there. Many of the great thinkers of the ages thought original thoughts. They inhabited, lived in, dwelled in their own minds.

Inhabiting a soul means that you live in the deepest essence of who you are, your authentic Self, your soul—or some might even call it your spirit. You can recognize this aspect of you by its longings, by its deep soulful desires, by its creative impulse, by its desire to really live life. Inhabiting a soul means that you actualize the soul by putting its impulses into action. When the soul arouses the heart with compassion, you give compassionately. When the soul invites a person into your life, you go with it. When the soul desires deep communion with nature, you give the soul what it needs. When we do this we are inhabiting the soul.

In order to live, to really live one must inhabit the Self. It is waiting for us to allow it to the forefront of our consciousness. Every life event calls us to experience Self. If we listen to and heed the call, we begin to LIVE. Tired of just surviving? Try inhabiting YOU.