The Journey of Self Discovery - Questions Answers and Guidance

Journey of Self Discovery – Questions, Answers and Practices

What is a Journey of Self Discovery

The journey of self discovery is a journey of inner awareness and realization. What you are to realize is who you are and why you are.

This inner journey happens on different levels.

When people talk about “self” most everyone will refer to the personal self. This is who most people take to be who they are.

When you talk about self-development and personal development, the self you will reference is the idea you refer to as “I, me, myself.”

When you speak about self-discovery you speak about discovering unique aspects of yourself. This is discovery of the self on a basic level. It might include the fact that you are afraid of spiders.

The journey toward self-discovery is life’s greatest adventure.- Arianna Huffington. Click To Tweet

This kind of discovery is about your personality. The journey of Self-discovery (with a capital S) is a journey that is so much more than this.

Wisdom teachers often refer to the personal self as the False self. Do not take this personally. Every one of us has a False Self. We refer to it as the ego (The Ever Grasping One).

The ego is the image or mask with which you face the world. The word ‘persona’ means “mask.” Your task in the 1st Half of Life is to develop strong ego boundaries.

The fulfillment of the journey of self-discovery is finding the True or Essential Self or you beyond the limits of your personality.

The journey of self discovery is about dropping the mask and learning to live from Essence.

Having said that it is an essential part of the discovery of the Self to develop a decent mask. This is the 1st Stage of the Journey of Life.

How to Embark on A Journey of Self Discovery

How you start the journey of discovery of the True Self is through The Power of Intention

Nothing happens without intention.

It is also best if you have more than a lukewarm interest in taking this journey of discovery. Many people will not begin this journey without some experience of personal suffering.

When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream. - Paulo Coelho Click To Tweet

It is best that you start in the way you mean to go on. This journey of self-discovery is a journey of learning to Love and to be Love.

This journey into Love requires three key things. (The Art of Loving – Eric Fromm)

These are:-

Commitment.
Discipline and
Patience.

The commitment is a daily commitment. The discipline is the practice or practices that you engage with.

In whatever way you begin the journey you will need patience and kindness.

Many people start the journey by reading or listening to audio presentations about the journey.

I recommend that you begin by keeping a daily journal. This means that what you discover gets grounded in the reality of everyday living.

Most wisdom teachers will tell you that the premier practice for the journey of self-discovery is some form of meditation, prayer or contemplation.

The reason they say this is that they recognise the journey can become one of more information rather than transformation.

Trade logic for bewilderment – Rumi

The intention of this website is to give you guidance in ways to begin and continue the journey that will invite you into the KNOWING of the magnificence of your True Self.

What are the Challenges of the Journey

The challenges of discovering your True Self are many. This is recognized as part of this essential journey.

Some of these challenges are:-

Personal Responsibility.
Moving beyond belief.
Listening to Your Inner Voice.
Feeling Your Feelings

This is not an exhaustive list but points toward what it requires for anyone who commits to the journey of revelation.

Personal Responsibility

To progress along the way of personal development and beyond, take responsibility for turning up and engaging in the work.

Self-discovery is a process. It is like a commitment to going to the gym. The difference is that you are in training to become fit thto feel the full expression of Love through you and as you.

Moving Beyond Belief.

The discovery of who and why you are is not a belief. Belief is of the mind. The discovery you abide within is a discovery of soul.

You do not gain soul experience through belief, but by an inner experience that is beyond belief. Such experience is beyond the finite personality – the mask.

I wish that when you are lonely and in darkness that I could show you the magnificence of the Light of your own Being – Hafiz

Anyone who takes the adventure of self-discovery will at one time travel The Road of Trials. This is a stage of the journey we all go through. It is one of the five stages of this journey of self-discovery and awareness.

When to Start a Journey of Self Discovery

You can start the journey of self-discovery when you become adult enough to take full responsibility for your life’s direction.

In almost everyone’s life, there will come a time when you experience what we call The Call to Adventure. (The Hero’s Journey). This is where you get to make the choice between following your True Way or not.

The Call to Adventure can come at any time.

It is the call of your soul to become all that Creation created you to express in the world. Most of us avoid this call to see just how far down the rabbit hole the wonder goes.

Morpheus: “You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.–The Matrix.

When I was 17 years old (1967) I got the Call to Adventure to become a Yoga Teacher. I refused the call because at the time living in Northern Ireland the media promoted Yoga as, “The work of the devil.”

I opted to stay in the Matrix and became an accountant.

It took me over fifty years to follow The Call to Adventure to become a Yoga teacher. This is the adventure I share here.

What do you Mean by Pitfalls along the Journey

The Journey of Self-Discovery is not all bliss.

If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are — if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time. – Joseph Campbell

It is a fabulous journey of possibility, but you will find challenges along the way. In this website I will introduce you to those pitfalls which many people fall into.

These include: –

Pushing for Self-Discovery (The Icarus Syndrome).
Disembodiment (Feet not on the Ground).
Taking the Teachings Literally (Clinging to Signposts).
Practicing Self Discovery as Avoidance (Spiritual Bypassing.
Engaging in practices of magical thinking.

The mythological Greek story The Fall of Icarus shares the pitfalls along the way.

This is where the Hero (you) fly too close to the Sun (Self Discovery) and fall to earth (becomes disembodied).

While the mystic Islamic poet Rumi might declare, “You have Wings use them and fly.” beware the story of the Fall of Icarus. As a folksinger and storyteller in love with mythology, I love this song that shares the demise of Icarus.

This song was written by Anne Lister.

Icarus
Martin Simpson

I never wanted to fly high
I was too fond of walking
So when you said you’d touch the sky
I thought it was your way of talking
And then you said you’d build some wings
You’d found out how it could be done
But I was doubtful of everything
I never thought you’d reach the sun

You were so clever with your hands
I’d watch you for hours
With the glue and rubber bands
The feathers and the lace and flowers
And the finished wings glowed so bright
Like some bird of glory
I began to envy you your flight
Like some old hero’s story

You tried to get me to go with you
You tried all ways to dare me
But I looked at the sky so blue
I thought the height would scare me
But I carried your wings for you
Up the path and to the cliff face
Kissed you goodbye and watched your eyes
Already…

Is there a Map for the Journey of Self Discovery?

There are many maps of self-discovery. These will suit different people at different times of their lives, dependent on the Stage of Life they find themselves in.

In the 1^st Half of Life—20-40 years the focus is on a map of self-discovery related to personal development or self growth.

This is a necessary and valuable stage. It is psychological in nature.

Then there is the 2^nd Half of Life beyond the age of 40 years where the maps of self-discovery relate to spiritual development and the alignment with the soul.

The problem is that many of the maps invite you to become what the modern mystic Eckhart Tolle refers to as “Clinging to Signposts.”

This is where you follow the map of personal or/and spiritual development very literally. You cling to the words and concepts that are not your direct experience.

The maps I share with you here invite you to become an adventurer. Trust the way you are here to walk the journey of self-discovery. I am here as you guide but as the mystic poet, Rumi declares.

It’s your road, and yours alone.

others may walk it with you,

but no one can walk it for you.

― Rumi

Why is the Language of Self Discovery Important

I love the language of self-discovery. It is a language beyond logic. It brings me alive and takes me into what the poet W. B. Yeats calls “The Deep Heart’s Core.” (The Lake Isle of Innisfree).

This is the language that allows you to become living poetry (Rumi). It is the language that takes you into the realm of mystery, magic where you find meaning and purpose, and passion for life.

This is the emphasis at this website. It is to take you beyond logic and to light a fire in your head (Song of Wandering Aengus).

Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire—W. B. Yeats.

Western education is unbalanced in its preference for information. The language of poetry, myth and storytelling is the language that invites transformation.

The problem is that we have not educated you in understanding this magical language. Mostly we have trapped you in what the mystic Osho refers to as “Logic chopping.”

Everything gets reduced to information rather than direct KNOWING and insight. The head gets satisfied; we leave the heart out and the soul is nowhere experienced.

Without a feel for this language of transformation that is mythology, mystical poetry, and magical storytelling you will be a signpost clinger and the journey of self-discovery will be like reading the menu in a restaurant but never experiencing what is on offer.

Do You Have a Journey of Self Discovery Course

The plan is to create several courses that explore the journey of self-discovery. This will include:-

Companioning YOUR Greatness.
The Journey of Self Discovery
Being Beautiful.

These will be by email and audio recordings.

Companioning YOUR Greatness.

I will base this around the poem by W. B. Yeats entitled These are the Clouds.

This will be a course on learning HOW to think in ways that will light a fire in your head rather than fill you up with more information.

The Journey of Self Discovery

I will base this around the poem The Song of Wandering Aengus.

You will explore what it means to live life with a fire in your head. You will discover what it means in practical ways to enter your personal hazelwood—the place of magic and potential.

This exploration will take you beyond personal development to understand the adventure of transpersonal alignment.

Being Beautiful

This will take the story called The Four Treasures of Ireland. This is the story that forms the basis of my book Being Beautiful—Learning to Treasure the REAL You.

On this adventure, you will discover The Stone of Destiny and the Cauldron of Plenty. These are the treasures of the mythical people called The Tuatha de Danaan. They are called the Shining Ones.

This exploration will allow you to recognize yourself as one created to shine into this world of form, the Beauty it creates you to uniquely express.

Daily Reflections.

I intend to begin a series of daily reflections related to all the above. These can become daily support for your journey of self-discovery.

Some Journey of Self Discovery Quotations

Here are some of my favorite self-discovery quotes.

You are Not Who You Think You Are

You are not who you think you are. You are not your fears, your thoughts, or your body. You are not your insecurities, your career, or your memories.

You’re not what you’re criticized for and you’re not what you’re praised for.

You are a boundless wealth of potential. You are everything that’s ever been.

Don’t sell yourself short. Every sunset, every mountain, every river, every passionate crowd, every concert, every drop of rain – that’s you.

So go find yourself. Go find your strength, find your beauty, find your purpose.

Stop crafting your mask. Stop hiding. Stop lying to yourself and letting people lie to you.

You’re not lacking in anything except awareness.

Everything you’ve ever wanted is already there, awaiting your attention, awaiting your time.― Vironika Tugaleva

Our Deepest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. ― Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles”

One Word for a Journey of Self Discovery

The one word that epitomizes the journey of self-discovery is the word “Trust.” If you were to live that word as your only guide then the truth of who and why you are would be revealed.

You would become a revelation unto your Self.

As a guide to the process of self discovery this is the work that I do. It is to support and encourage you to trust in your own magnificence.

I am guided by a wish declared by the mystic poet Hafiz of Shiraz. Hafiz says.

I wish that when you are lonely and in darkness that I could show you the magnificence of the light of your own being.

While I cannot show you this magnificence, I can encourage you to explore that light within.

In this way, you become one of The Shining Ones – The Tuatha De Danaan.

You stop playing small. You recognize that you are here to shine a light into the world. You are that light. Shining this light is a guarantee of genuine delight.

I hope that it will encourage you to join me in the journey of self discovery that you are created to express within time from the magic of the Timeless.

Trust and do what you will.