The intention of this article blog is to provide you with something that is both inspirational to feel and practical to do to begin from within in 2010.

Here goes!  (BTW-The pics are are from a Begin From Within New Years Celebration…. Karaoke was to follow )

We human beings occupy a unique place in the world. We’re said to have both an animal nature and divine nature. Think about it, like animals, we certainly have survival needs, desire to experience pleasure and want to be powerful. Don’t you? This corresponds with the lower three chakras that we share with the animal kingdom. Yet, we can and often do feel compassion for others who have no direct connection to us, are at least occasionally creative and have the capacity for self refection. This corresponds with the upper chakras, or our higher nature. As far as we know, there is no evidence that animals have developed this kind of higher nature, yet (our own pets excluded, of course).

This is the year to fully embrace your full nature. Embrace your wholeness! As a unique human being you are designed to experience meaning, aliveness, pleasure and to put to use your unique strengths to work in the in world in ways that add life to your years and years to your life. If you don’t regularly experience all three domains of meaning, passionate aliveness and pleasure, you’re not living your fullest life. And, research in the field of positive psychology reveals that the number one way to live a happy and fulfilling life is to find ways to utilize your strengths in ways that are meaningful.

You can begin from within in 2010 by taking these simple and practical steps:

• Discover your unique gifts and strengths. Then investigate unique ways to develop and express them. You can take a brief signature strengths inventory for free by registering at AuthenticHappiness.com.
• Consider the activities that provide you with the most meaning in your life. Take a moment now to determine specifically what these activities are? Write a few of them down. Then, inquire into the essence of what makes these activities so meaningful.  Once you’ve discovered this, you can let yourself wonder about what other meaningful activities to engage in this year.
• You can do the same process with the activities that cause you to feel passionate alive and those that you find most pleasurable. Get the idea?

No matter what your outer circumstances, you can find meaning, aliveness, pleasure and  learn to utilize your strengths in creative ways that will provide you with the peace, passion, purpose, power and presence of radical wholeness.

If exploring these ideas further in a group appeals to you,  join us at the Essence Circle this Tuesday the 5th at the Body Awareness Studio on Roswell Road. For a fuller experience, including your own personal MAP for utilizing your strengths to bring more Meaning, Aliveness and Pleasure into your life in 2010, check the MAPSS to Radical Wholeness One Day Workshop on the 16th at The Self Discovery Center.