I’ve been working with individual clients, developing and leading workshops and writing about this idea of Radical Wholeness for some time now. I’ve simplified and updated the main principles here. Your feedback is much welcomed.

What is Radical Wholeness?

Radical Wholeness is a liberated state of emotional and spiritual well-being that goes beyond the ego. It’s an undivided life filled with peace, passion, purpose, power and presence. It’s a fully integrated way of living with mind, heart, will and soul all working in concert with Spirit for a higher purpose that serves life. It’s an inner state of being where no part of you is in conflict with any other part of you or the world. It’s an inner union of Spirit and soul, masculine and feminine, and individual uniqueness with Universal Oneness. It is a way of living where you are fully alive and present to the real world.

Radical Wholeness is about moving beyond the ego’s need to either suppress or impress and towards the soul (or essence) simple desire to connect and express. It’s an experience and awareness, deep in your bones, that you are both deeply at peace and radically alive. You have both an expanded and intimate relationship with the Universe as well as a deep and sensual relationship with Life. You are fulfilling your unique purpose in life while knowing that their is nothing that you are required to do in order to be Whole. You have a felt sense of both depth (soul or essence) and expansion (spirit or authentic expression) You notice an ever deepening connection with your soul and expansion of your spirit - the BLISS of your own BEING.

This state of well being begins with healing the wounds from the past and learning to express our authentic gifts for a unique purpose in the present.

My personal experience of beginning to live this life of Radical Wholeness is more peace, passion, purpose, power and presence accompanied by moments of extreme bliss with along with a slightly broken heart from all the suffering and separation in the world.

Six Main Principles of Radical Wholeness

1. Feel it all as deeply and fully as you are able.

When we can feel our feelings of sadness without the sadness overwhelming us, our heart opens to a greater, deeper and more expanded joy. When we can fully experience our fear without the fear overtaking us, we connect with a greater, deeper and more expanded since of peace. When we can learn to acknowledge and consciously express our anger without the anger being destructive or overtaking us we experience a greater, deeper and more expanded since of our authentic power.

2. Question everything with a sincere heart through the lens of strength and love, particularly the beliefs that you’ve accepted about yourself, others and the world until you get to love.

Our thoughts are not a reliable source for interpreting what is true - about ourselves, others or reality. However, our ability to question everything, all the way to love, is our minds most valuable resource on your path towards Radical Wholeness.

3. Resist nothing.

“What ever we resist persists. Yet whatever we have the courage to fully face, feel and embrace becomes grace!

When we can find a way to stop resisting and fully accept even the most unacceptable parts of ourselves, our “inner critic” and mind chatter becomes dramatically quieter. We then begin to find ourselves miraculously able to not only accept ourselves and others more fully but to see, sense and feel the Divinity in ourselves, others and even what we once perceived as the most unacceptable aspects of life. This is the essence of the Radical Wholeness Process.

4. Embrace the reality of uncertainty.

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus stated “there is nothing permanent but change.” Whenever we argue with reality, reality always wins. Reality is our ultimate Guru. When we are able to honestly observe and accept the reality that there is nothing permanent but change, we can begin to accept the impermanence of all life and be creatively and fully alive in the present.

When we fully embrace the reality of uncertainty from the depth of our being, our attention naturally turns toward the preciousness of all of life. Our heart is set on fire to express our unique individual gifts in the world for a purpose that we feel is a mighty one and is in service to life and the conscious evolution of our planet. In living this way, there are no ordinary moments!

5. Move beyond the limits of your ego to know the limitlessness of your Essence.

Know that in our true nature-our deepest self we are more than our separate ego. In our Essence, we each are a uniquely authentic part of the whole-the whole of existence, not separate from but connected to every part and particle that has ever existed and ever will.

6. Express your gifts in an authentic way for a unique purpose that contributes to the healing and conscious evolution of our planet.

Life has entrusted each of us with a unique set of strengths and gifts. It is our soul  purpose to be good stewards of the gifts that we’ve been given. How? By combing these gifts with our life circumstances, including all  our victories and defeats, pain and challenges overcome to discover a unique life story with contribution to make and purpose to fulfill. If we don’t discover it and express it in this lifetime, the world will never have it.

We begin Part Two of The Winter FIRE Of  Wholeness 60 Day Breakthrough Experience next weekend. The initial weekend and following 30 days has been all about releasing the core wound at the root of our  limited ego. Participants have been observing their egos tendency to inflate by acting out, proving and being right or deflate by withdrawing, withholding or being passive-aggressive, when their wound (emotional bruise) is bumped in to.

Part Two is titled Connecting With Essence - Intimacy with Your Authentic Uniqueness. Here’s where we begin to look deeply into the part of ourselves that is deeper, truer and eternal. I call it Essence. In preparation for the weekend, I’m asking that all of the participants read an article that I’ve re-written based on a piece I wrote last year. I hope It connects with your Essence.

Finding Presence

Essence is a beautiful and simple word I use to refer to a mysterious something that is hard to define, but we all know it when we experience it. Essence is the physical sensation of feeling a Divine Presence.

Essence comes through when we are swept away by listening to beautiful music, moved deeply through witnessing great art and or expanded through well- crafted writing. We sometimes feel it from the teachers who touch our lives the most profoundly. Yet, we are just as likely to be touched by it when witnessing a simple act of kindness, an amazing athletic feat or when receiving a child’s dandelion bouquet. It is the overwhelming emotion of love we experience when we share a hug with our beloved.

The source of this Essence is God, Spirit, or The Divine. The name that I choose to use is Presence,because in my work, I often experience a sensation of having a Divine Presence working with me and through me as I guide people to heal their deepest wounds. I call this experience Embodied Presence and it is the reason I get so much joy out of my work.

Whatever your word is, we all yearn to connect with this Presence, breathe it in deeply and fully, when those moments come. Essence is the part of us that allows this connection, craves it and seeks it out. I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes by Emerson from The Oversoul:

Embodied Presence is found when we live in the moment and not the past or the future. It’s when we allow the Divine Presence to come through us and express itself. To live as fully, and deeply as is possible, we must move beyond the limits of our Ego to find Essence.

How do we know we have moved beyond our Ego and are living in our Essence? Here are a few observations I have about Ego and Essence from my own life and experience:

• The source of Ego is fear. The source of Essence Is Love.  Or, you might say God, Oneness, Light, Wholeness, Love Spirit or Creator. A  strict scientist may may not call it love and  simply refer to it the evolutionary impulse and its opposite-fear, Newton’s second law of thermodynamics, entropy.
• Ego protects against vulnerability to cover shame and gain power through control. Essence expresses vulnerability  with strength, Love and presence.
• Ego reacts from past hurts. Essence responds freely from  present moment awareness with strength, love and presence.
• Ego seeks pleasure and avoids pain. Essence responds fully to the moment and all the experiences of life with strength, love and presence.
• Ego separates and isolates. Essence connects.
• Ego inflates or deflates. Essence remains centered in Presence with expressing and connecting behaviors.
• Ego want to be right. Essence wants to find truth.
• Ego grasps for certainty. Essence embodies faith.
• Ego is jealous. Essence  lives in the moment and loves without expectations.
• Ego seeks to suppress or impress. Essence seeks to express love and life.
• Ego tries to prove. Essence desires to share.
• Ego defends. Essence keeps an open heart by choosing to live in an undefended way.
• Ego is rooted in separateness. Essence is grounded in wholeness.

Of course, many more distinctions that could be made about Ego and Essence. I invite you to use this as a partial guide to help you clarify when you are acting out of Essence or seeking refuge in your Ego. Add to the list with your own experience. Be aware of the physical reactions of your body and simply ask yourself, “Does this feel more like Ego or Essence?”

In Wholeness,

Michael

One of the most important things that I wish to convey through my work is the connection to everything and all that is around us. When we are truly whole, we experience the sense that we are part of an evolutionary process of love, expressed through greater potential, and complexity. Wholeness is happening NOW and ALL AROUND US within every molecule, cell, organ, human being, family, culture, country, world, solar system, galaxy and beyond. Why is this sense of aliveness that surrounds us so hard to experience?

Imagine this conversation: “Hi I’m Joe, Joe Molecule” He says to the cell where he resides, “Hey, you cell guys are so clueless. What’s really going on is here at the atomic level. Without me and my sub buds, you are nothing!”

Cell, responds, “What?! You gotta be kidding me. You molecules are lowly simpletons. Not at all like us highly evolved cell types.”

Then, all of the organs that make up the body jump into the debate, “ You Cells are irrelevant! One tiny cell provides no real benefit. Can you tell me one real function you play in keeping this body alive? Being an organ is where it’s at.”

“Yes”, declares the brain. “I agree, but some organs, the brain in particular, are far superior to any of the other, lesser organs. Brains control everything.”

“Wow, I guess you are right. I am just a lowly molecule,” sighs Joe.

It is ridiculous to imagine this conversation and we can clearly see that every molecule, cell and organ are vital to the function of the body. We can identify with the human body and its massive collection of cells and organs that occupy it. We think we are the separate person that lives in this body. Yet, as individuals, we are part of the whole of life. We are vital to its function. We have an important role to play and can never be truly fulfilled until we begin to express our unique self as part of the greater force, the whole of life.

Our ego attempts to convince us we are separate from the whole of life. We convince ourselves that we are “just an individual” or that we are better than others not as special as some. This kind of thinking cuts us off from the connection and the aliveness of the whole.

Bottom line is this: Everything is both whole AND a part of something greater. With every evolutionary leap, there is an increase in complexity and potential, an increase of consciousness. It is just like the molecule that becomes a cell that divides until it becomes a person. The evolutionary leap we human beings have been gifted is the capacity for self-awareness and the ability to choose our behavior according to values. Every time we choose to use this self-awareness and respond from our essence, we transcend our ego. We expand and become more complex and more self-aware. With this increase in consciousness comes the realization that we are already whole AND part of the whole of life.

As surely as Joe is whole yet also a part of the cell in your body where he resides, YOU are a cell in the body of God!

Eros, the Greek god of love is also a psychological term that refers to romantic or sexual love. One way to connect with Spirit is through the romantic love. Yet, as we will see, we can connect with Eros in many unique ways and through each chakra.

The first chakra, the root, located at the base of the spine is associated with physical survival- food, shelter and comfort. One core desire is for physical satisfaction often through taste. We’ve all had those moments of ecstasy through a delicious bite of chocolate, an exquisitely ripe strawberry or half pint of Ben and Jerry’s (the first few bites anyway).  Eros loves to penetrate us here, but less is more and quality over quantity. Next time you taste something that almost sends you over the edge, notice how tight your perineum gets as you moan your mmmmm.

The second chakra, the sacral, located in the pelvic region. A core desire for the sacral chakra is for emotional connection through sexual satisfaction. Reserve a blocks of time for you and your beloved to spend time alone and re-connect physically and you will be an easy target for Eros sharp arrow.

The third chakra, the solar, located at the solar plexus is associated with a core desire for power and glory. This is both the positive and negative times in our lives when we won, saved the day, had the right answer or received the sincere acknowledgment of someone that we deeply respected. One special gift you can give someone is to acknowledge what a powerful role s/he is your life and the impact s/he has made on you. Do this and Eros will find your solar plexus.

While the first three chakras are driven by the need to satisfy basic survival impulses, the fourth chakra, the heart chakra is associated with receiving and expressing love. Many scholars say this is where meaning originates. The core desire for the heart chakra is to love and be loved. It’s the feeling of finally finding our soul mate, a feeling of familiarity — like we’ve known this person before. Spiritually, it’s the mystical experience that many Christian saints and Sufi poets refer to as the relationship with the Beloved Spirit.  It can also be the awe and wonder of our heart being broken open by witnessing the birth of a new born baby or a spontaneous act of kindness. Practicing moments of authentic vulnerability and  random acts of kindness will open your heart to be a target to be penetrated by the arrow of Eros.

The fifth,  throat chakra is associated with a core desire to creatively express Essence. Eros is experienced through the creation of song, word, dance, a painting, sculpture, a beautifully decorated room, a dinner presentation or just looking your best for your beloved. Find uniquely creative ways to be and  express yourself from your essence and regularly attend performances where others are doing so and Eros will send an arrow through your throat that will leave you breathless at the awe and wonder of such beauty and grace.

The sixth chakra, the third eye, is located at the center of the forehead is associated with the core desire of having true insight. Eros is experienced by a moment of spiritual insight or an experience of awe. Regular time in spiritual study, writing or gazing at the stars while contemplating  the vastness of our universe and Eros will pierce  your third eye, in the center of your forehead during a moment of penetrating insight.

The seventh chakra, the crown, located at the top of the head, is most open to the connection with Spirit, The Tao, Christ Consciousness, Presence and many other names all  pointing to the same higher level of consciousness. The core desire is reunion with Source.  In rare and special moments of meditation, breathwork,  spiritual contemplation or in Nature, Eros occasionally sends an arrow that cuts through the illusion of our separate ego self to split our consciousness  wide open to  the mystical truth of our Unity-Oneness-Wholeness.

Quick summary of Eros through each chakras creating moments of rapture when we allow Cupid to penetrate us with his arrow of erotic pleasure:

1st-The ecstatic taste of that bite of  amazing food or drink.

2nd-The sexual pleasure of the BIG O

3rd-The Glory of the great shot, the big win, the acknowledgement of a job well done.

4th-The awe and wonder of our broken open while witnessing the birth of a new born baby or a spontaneous act of kindness.

5th-A  moment of creative expression from essence.

6th-The ah ha moment of brilliant insight or intuitive illumination.

7th- The mystical moments of revelation that we and our Creator are One.

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.