to live your fullest potential

To live your fullest potential

First become an integrated human being

Most people do not live at their full potential, and the fundamental reason for this is that on the inside they have become fragmented. Often the thinking mind has become cut off from the physical body. And when this happens, the thoughts pull us in one direction, whilst the physical yearnings of the body are pulling in a different direction. And these two forces, these two fragments, are trying to pull the person apart and it takes a huge energy, a huge effort, to manage these opposing forces. That is energy that is no longer available for really living life to the full.

But the mind body-split is only one of the ways in which we become fragmented. Within the mind there are many different fragments too. We have the conscious thinking mind that has become rather split off from the rest of the mind, which we call the unconscious. And this division causes huge troubles. The unconscious is packed full of everything that we have rejected about ourself. It contains the dark side, our shadow, all those things within us which we deem unacceptable. They have been relegated to the unconscious. And in pushing them into the unconscious in this way, we hope that they will have no influence, no part to play in our life. But how wrong we are! The power of those shadowy elements of our unconscious is extremely strong, and they often dictate our life in subtle ways that we are not conscious of. They lead to projections and transference, emotions being pushed around without our awareness of what is going on. Again this consumes a huge energy which is no longer available for living in a wholesome way.

And then there are all those other elements of the unconscious: the archetypes, our inner man or inner woman, the inner child, and so on. And each of these voices is urging us in a different direction. And even within the more conscious part of the mind, there is fragmentation. We have the inner judge or critic, the superego, telling us what we should and shouldn't do. And we have our ego, that wants to create a stable personality, an identity for us. All of these elements and many, many more, exist within our psychology. And whilst we are in such a fragmented state, our energy is wasted. It is consumed in an ongoing internal battle. Whilst we are in such a state on the inside, there is no way we can truly fulfil our potential in life.

In order to live our full potential, these fragments must first become integrated. And this can be a slow and painful process, but one that we must undertake. It involves first bringing the light of consciousness to everything that is in the unconscious. It is only once we have gained awareness of these fragments that we can become whole. But not only must we become aware of them, we must also accept them unconditionally, whatever is there. Perhaps there is hatred, anger, judgment. There might be a hatred of men or of women. There may be a lot of fear, anxieties. By bringing all this into the light of awareness and accepting it as it is, it loses power, it loses the power to determine our life course. It no longer controls our behaviour in the same way. And through this awareness and acceptance, the various fragments within us can begin to meld into one another, until once again we are an integrated being. And sitting in this integrated state, our full energy is available for action. From here, and here alone, can we live our fullest potential.