One Step at a Time. Finding the Self through building the Self.

I recently read a quote that really resignated with me. Author Carol E. Parrish Harra writes in Adventures in Meditations that “The spiritual journey is the liberating experience of learning how to hear and follow the inner guru.”

Now, guru is just a word. I’m sure it means wise one or teacher, and in this sense it is refererring to the self. You. Me. Another author once referred to it as our inner GPS and to be clear, it’s our intuition. We all have intuition and it can be developed through practice, a series of steps advancing our ability to hear and listen to ourSELVES.

The author goes on to say that “the spiritual search unfolds in a known pattern, the outer world is not enough and now the ascending step must be taken.” The “ascending step” can be seen in many models of personal growth, from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, to NASM’s Optimal Performance Pyramid, to this author’s Pyramid of Mediation Development.

Maslow’s Five 5 Hierarchy of Needs

If you aren’t familiar with Maslow’s Pyramid, the bottom of the pyramid are our basic needs for survival, the middle of the pyramid contains our psychological needs of belongingness and self esteem, and our self actualization is where we are fulfilled beings, only being achieved after we’ve had the steps taken or taken them ourselves to meet our basic and psychological needs.

Now….there is a newly expanded pyramid with 8 levels.

Maslow’s Expanded 8 Level Pyramid

Have you ever hiked to a summit? “The higher you get the higher you get.”Looking at this pyramid we can see that each level is an advancement in our self fulfillment, but what we might not know or want to acknowlege is that this “pattern of steps” of getting higher IS a spiritual path to Self Actualization and for some Transcendence. After our basic physiological and psychological needs our met, we move onto our cognitive and aesthetic needs. Our cognitive and aesthetic needs are met through our outward seeking, eventually, as the author of Adventures in Meditation states “the outer world is not enough, and eventually the first ascedending step must be taken.” And now…your spiritual journey to yourSELF has begun.

NASM’s Optimal Performance Pyramid

In the training world we build strong bodies, by first meeting the basic needs and foundations of stabilization, we then build strength in ascending steps, and when we are ready we test that strength and develop power. We build strong bodies and in turn build a strong relationship with our self and our personal power by systematically programming more stress for us to handle. One step at a time, we progress to our optimal selves.

Everyone everywhere wants to feel free, happy, fulfilled, satisfied, loved, and important. Our society often is programming us to look outside of ourselves and many people are finding themselves bored, bored with the chase of achievement, status, aesthetic, and overbooking the minutes in the day. So busy seeking outside ourselves we forget how to seek inwardly, losing the ability to hear our intuition, our deep SELF that can guide us back to feeling free, happy, fulfilled, satisfied, loved and belonging. The best part of this “known pattern” is once you realize your bored, unfulfilled, and offtract, the first “ascending step” will appear….and it will lead you to the top of the summit where you will find yourself again…better than before!

So…wether we know it or not…we are all on a spiritual journey to our best selves.

Love Jess