Be a more effective leader by understanding the three horizons of self-awareness.
The stories we make up Stories are the foundation for how we make sense of the world. We could call these judgments or beliefs as well. Imagine that you get cut off by a car on the highway. In an instant, you might feel a flash of anger. Now imagine that you pull up next to the car and notice that the situation is different from what you expected. Maybe the driver is a teenager, obviously flustered and trying to concentrate. Maybe the driver is older but in the backseat is someone who, it appears, is injured. In either case, your stories about the situation would be updated in an instant.
For better and worse, our stories form the basis for how we make sense of the world. They are our thoughts, and they help us explain how the world is, how someone else is and how we ourselves are.
To get greater self-awareness around our stories, I find it’s best to simply start writing them down. Going back to a dedicated journal or notebook, start to articulate all the stories you’re making up, trying to get curious about how true they are. In the example, one story could have been, “This person is selfish,” and another could have been, “I feel angry because I’ve been disrespected.”
Source article:How to Develop Self-Awareness and Become a More Conscious and Effective LeaderSource (click)
The above, once again, reminded me of the importance of developing self-awareness. Self-awareness,however, is not only important for CEOs so they become more efficient, everyone can greatly benefit from understanding who they are and what they truly want in their lives.
Self-awareness is a skill to be learnt. As children we are discouraged to observe ourselves and know ourselves. Instead we learn to defend our wounded parts with a false-self called the Ego.
“Examine yourself & understand who you are… Whoever does not know self, does not know anything. But, whoever knows self, has acquired the knowledge of the universe.” Jesus, Book of Thomas (Gnostic Gospels)
“Knowing others is intelligence, knowing yourself is true wisdom.” Lao-Tzu
There are many useful tools to regain connection with ourselves. My courses will provide you with artistic, creative and fun tools to go on a journey within and arrive to clarity and self-acceptance.
DESCRIPTION OF THE COMPLETE 60-MINUTE FILM: Marika Henriques is a Jungian therapist, a survivor of the Holocaust and the creator of extraordinary art. Now in her 80s, she tells her story for the first time. The documentary’s central themes, of the trauma of war, migration and the refugee experience, are powerfully resonant today. As a young girl, Marika was hidden from the Nazis in a Budapest cellar. Separated from her own family and unsure of their safety or whereabouts, she had to pretend to be someone else’s child to stay alive. This 60-minute film explores the importance of identity and who we become when our identity is stolen. And it is a story about how creativity can help us process inner trauma. Marika was able finally to face the deep wound inflicted on her all those years ago through drawing. These pictures portray a powerful psychic and emotional journey, from the re-discovery of a mute and terrified child, through the loss of her identity, to the horror of the holocaust and her perilous escape from communism. Gradually, over several decades, Marika worked her way to a place of transformation and healing. Marika tells her unforgettable story with insight and emotion. Her interview is intercut with images of her father’s extraordinary illustrated diaries, archive footage and Marika’s mesmerizing drawings and tapestries. “The cumulative impact is assaultive, inspiring, intriguing and moving by turns” Review in The Journal of Analytical Psychology, November 2023 (Catriona Wrottesley)
Director – Sal Anderson Executive Producer – Tracey Gardiner Editor – Natasha Westlake Co-producer – Steve Gough Cinematographers – Roland Denning & Ian Liggett Music – Alex Heffes Sound Editor & Mixer – Adrian Rhodes Production companies: Iridescent Films; Raw Productions (c) 2023
I recently created a new class – it is rather a practise group – that I call Compassionate Insight. It focuses on using this tool – Compassionate Insight – to create betterrelationships with ourselves and others. As a result we can become happier and more contented regardless of the environment we find ourselves in.
At the links below read and listen more about my journey to compassion and what this tool comprises.
Inner communication allows you to have a LIFE FULFILLED!
Can you answer the following questions?
Where did I come from?
Why am I here?
Where am I going?
Listen to this vlog
What is inner communication?
Me, Myself, and I
The three parts of the self have been described in many ways over the years. In my understanding: Me is the small-self or the inner-child that drives our actions. S/he provides us with the enthusiasm and stamina to act in the world.
As you become more like a little child you will be more connected to your inner kingdom. Remember?
And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:3
S/he is also the part of us that communicates with the higher-self, the I. As you connect to your basic-self – the ME-Self, you will understand the messages of the higher-self more. The Me-Self is playful, joyful, enthusiastic, and selfish (in a sweet and innocent way!). The I, the higher-self, communicates to the basic-self the ‘Divine messages’ of your true purpose and meaning, mostly through the action of Gratitude. Through Gratitude we are supported to open and allow the necessary changes to happen.
Myself, is the conscious self. The conscious self gains clarity on who ‘I truly am’ and ‘how to express that’ through the communication between the Me-self (the inner child) and the I-Self, the Higher self. With that, the conscious self will become aware of what direction to take in life. S/he gains answers to life affirming questions such as: What I really want? What direction do I want to take in my life? Why am I here?
With the awareness of all that, we can start taking greater responsibility for our happiness and living the life we meant to live.
Are you aware of the inner voices that run you life?Are these inner voices supportive of you and help you become happy or against you? It is essential that we become aware of these voices. Some of these are old voices of different relatives and people we grew up with. Some of these voices need to be turned off and dismissed so they will stop running our life into directions that is not supportive of us or our purpose in life.
The Inner Voices of Truth
These three selves described above have ‘inner voices’ that you want to become aware of. We often do not listen to their voices because we are trained as children to listened to the ‘adults’ around us. Until the age of 7, we are in touch with ourselves and able to hear and know what is happening inside of us though we may not have had the means to communicate all that to the outside world. Then we started losing this connection because we turned outside towards our environment and took on some of their views and opinions instead of ours.
As a result, other’s sometimes negative emotional voices started running our life.
In order to have a happy and purposeful life you will need to reconnect with your ‘true-selves’, hear their voices and start acting upon them.
What to do?
First of all, we must take the time to listen within, so to speak. In meditation, in silent prayer and in pracitsing mindfulness you can gain insight into the different voices or tapes that run your actions (reactions). As we go through our days we need to stop and become aware of who is talking or who is guiding our actions right now by asking the question: Who is talking to me right now? With listening we can now start distinguishing what messages work for us and what do not.
The ones that do not work for us, we must dismiss or deny them and then overrun them with positive affirmations. We will eventually stop running these tapes and the unsupportive reactions that we developed along them.
As a result of gaining insight into your inner communication, you will uncover your own voices: the Me, the Myself and the I. As the three selves within become freed from the debris of ‘others’ ideas’, they become more God-aware. You will be able to act upon the God-aligned inner voices conveyed by the ME-Self or the basic self.
Key practises
Insight and Compassion
As we listen to our inner ‘tapes’ and look at mindfully our actions, reactions, and the words we use, we start becoming insightful of how we run our life and why. It can be a painful process to see how we limit ourselves. However, as soon as we become aware, we regain control over our choices.
As we walk the road of insight, we will soon discover that the child inside, the ME-Self, wants to be LOVED unconditionally. In return, s/he will provide us with the fuel to accomplish our dreams. So, if you want to have more energy and inner support for your ideas to become reality, it is imperative that you create a loving relationship with your inner-child, the ME-Self. You must embrace her/him with loving compassion, just as s/he is. Similarly, as you become aware of the limitations that you impose on yourself by listening to voices other than yours, you need to embrace these limitations and reactions with loving care or compassion.
Affirmations and Denials
bring alignment and clarity into our life. By practising affirmations and denials you start creating for yourself with knowing of yourself and of God. With affirmations you use the power of the spoken word to bring experiences forth for yourself that is life affirming and fulfilling. Affirmations are statements or small phrases that address an issue in your life with a sense of Gratitude.
Vision Boarding or Treasure Mapping
are visual affirmations. Whereas affirmations are usually written statements, vision boards or treasure maps are visual representations of affirmative statements. Similarly to written or spoken affirmations, they enable you to bring forth fulfilling experiences.
Gratitude
is a state of mind. The attitude of Gratitude brings forth life experiences that are both positive and supportive. In Gratitude, instead of focusing on lack and misery, we focus on the learning and God’s ever present Grace in our life. Similar to compassion, in Gratitude we embrace our life as it is. With that we become open and receptive to the goodness that is ever waiting for us to tap into.
Learn more about the programs I run to support you to develop your inner communication and insight:
To my personal experience, there is no deeper pain and sadness but the one that is resulted in loosing SELF. In my observation, we are mostly unaware of our ‘missing’ SELF, but if we pay attention to how we try to fulfill our feeling of ’emptiness’, we can notice that something is out of joint.
The shopping sprees, workaholism, obsessive behaviour of any kind, alcoholism, etc. they talk to us, they tell us that something is missing, something is suppressed. In my experience, the lockdown has brough up a lot of the hidden pains and aches onto the surface. Maybe, it is time to look at them, instead of surprising them back down again into oblivion.
I do not hold the keys to your kingdom of happiness. You do. What I can offer is ways and tools to start to uncover the hidden gems of who you are.
My tools are artsy, creative, meditative, contemplative and most of all ‘jolificatious’ 🙂 Let me know.
You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
I have always found him inspiring. I do not agree with all he believed in but I can see how what he believed in worked for him and many others.
I was recommended to read this article (CLICK) recently and these bits I found telling about how to START anything that can lead to running something successful. Vague, ha?
People who eventually find success start by trying things. Lots of things. They succeed at some. They fail at others. They learn from those successes and those failures.
And this is how it is in my experience. I have tried many things. People laughed at me for keeping on trying something ‘new’ again. Though they were not new at all. They were just different aspects of the same road I was walking. And this road is often invisible to the untrained eyes. And this is the key, I think. I never let anybody discourage me. I maybe wrong, most of the time, but I am wrong as a result of my own choices not by somebody else’s. Plus I have learnt a lot. I keep on learning. I may or may not be successful by definition of the world.
I, however, consider myself very successful. I have walked a path so far that I carved out for myself. I failed numerous times but it has never stopped me trying again and again. I have pioneered in creating services and surfaces that contributed to the life of many people positively. I am grateful for that. I may not be successful in terms of how much money I have, but I am rather rich in terms of ‘thank you!’s’. My focus has always been on creating products, services and surfaces that add quality and depth to the life of others. And I have done that so far very successfully.
Getting here was a long and laborious road because I kept on ‘tryin out’ new things. I kept on changing the equilibrium and the way I see and experience things. I plunged into myself, stirred up the mud causing heartache and fear, then came out with little treasures. This approach has contributed greatly to the way I live my life. And my life has been, so far, a exciting adventure, full on living!
The idea to run a Gratitude infused Art Class came about during the Lockdown. I felt lost and angry. My entire life suddenly was on hold. Because of the uncertainties, I had to live my residence, move to another country where I was stuck for over two years. At the beginning, all I could do was to complain. Why is it happening to me? Why did I make that decision? I should have done it differently. I hated the place where I was ‘stationed indefinitely’ and I could not see the way out.
As I kept on looking at the glass half empty, I started to get depressed. This was the moment when I thought that it just could not go on like this. I cannot change where I am or what is going on in the world, but I can change how I experience all that. So, I started a ‘daily blessings’ exercise which basically consisted of me sitting in a meditative position and trying hard to find things that I was grateful for on that day.
It was not easy. Because I like drawing, I decided to try to draw my days in a way that the picture would remind me of the fun things that I have in my life. To cut this rather long story short, eventually, I thought that others may benefit from having fun with counting their daily blessings, so I opened my ‘daily blessings’ sessions to the general public. The rest is history! 🙂
GRATFULNES ART JOURNALING CLASSES AT UNITY UK
According to participants, the class supports them to become more mindful and creative. During the class we focus on addressing the shift from left-brain to right-brain activities, balancing the two hemisphere. Colouring and drawing contributes to generating a state of flow. Participants can also develop their drawing skills. All in a fun and supportive environment.
YOU DONT NEED TO BE AN ARTIST TO BE ABLE TO PARTICIPATE AND ENJOY THIS CLASS!
Each class addresses a different aspect of Gratitude and supports you to deepen your practice of expressing your Gratitude towards the blessings in your life.
UNITY in the UKis introducing a new and creative way to experience GRATITUDE! Tap into your artistic skills, because everyone can draw!
A fun and practical class:
Take part in short meditations to become more present and aware of the blessings in your life.
Watch fun videos on how others approach Gratitude.
Listen to wonderful songs to find inspiration for your creative journaling practice.
Create a piece of colourful artwork related to what you feel grateful for that day, to generate more of what you are thankful for in your life.
Dates and Times of the ART GRATITUDE Classes held in 2022 7-9pm (UK time) on ZOOM.
Upcoming DATES in 2022 24th October 7th November 21st November 5th December 19th December
Upon your registration, you will receive an email with the Zoom Link and further instruction in preparation for the class. Thank you for your understanding.
Each weekly session addresses a different aspect of Gratitude. It will also support you in deepening your expression of Gratitude towards the blessings in your life. Along with that, your creative side will have an opportunity to come out and play.
Tap into your artistic skills, because everyone can draw!
According to participants, the class supports them to become more mindful and creative. During the class we focus on addressing the shift from left-brain to right-brain activities, balancing the two hemisphere. Colouring and drawing contributes to generating a state of flow. Participants can also develop their drawing skills. All in a fun and supportive environment.
YOU DONT NEED TO BE AN ARTIST TO BE ABLE TO PARTICIPATE AND ENJOY THIS CLASS!
It is a pitfall to believe that when you became aware of your inherent abilities, it will automatically enfold. Just because I am good at something it does not mean that I can use it well. In this podcast I talk about how to use one’s inherent leadership abilities for the benefit of all.
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