keyhole lightThere’s just no way around it. If we want something to happen, we have to show up for it. We delude ourselves into believing that somehow we can remain hidden and what needs to happen will happen.

What needs to happen can only happen if we show up both to make it happen and/or to receive what emerges. If we’re being helped by family or a friend, a therapist, healer or coach, that person can’t be effective unless we’re there in the same moment with them.  It begins and ends with us. We have to show up, before anyone else can for us or with us. Then we must stay, present with ourselves and our life.

There’s a space, not physical, a space in the psyche that’s full of power and the unmanifest. When we’re there, everything we need is there with us. It’s not an external location. It’s internal, and universal. The universe and our inner resources recognize when we ‘arrive’ and release the goods. The degree to which this happens depends on several factors.

One of the most important is our staying power. The initial willingness to show up must be supported by commitment. Commitment to the process, the relationship, our own integrity, and the intention that initiated our action. This may be seeking help, wanting to improve a relationship, career path, personal growth, healing, or spiritual development.

What increases staying power is patience, detachment, being enriched by each step, and a value system that doesn’t shortchange macro changes for immediate results.

If you have a spiritual practice in your life, you’re actually showing up for your life. — John Tarrant

Showing up on a consistent basis means we have to recognize any fears involved and make them conscious. Fear is what keeps us hidden and unavailable. One thing is guaranteed: being conscious means an inventory of all we are, a clear-eyed, detached observation.

We tend to avoid fear at all cost. Often our fears are unconscious. Becoming a conscious being means we at least identify the fear. Then something can be done.

Being present means our feelings are there with us. We’re self-aware and choosing not to be numb to whatever we’d rather not feel or have in our mind. This is risky because making this choice involves possible pain, noticing unsavory traits, or we’re just not ready to put in the work.

Yet we want certain benefits. Happiness, health, success, fulfillment, inner peace. We have tickets to the symphony of life, but we still have to drive to the concert hall, take our seats and pay attention for the duration.

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things. — Jack Kornfield

The more intimate we are with our inner life, the greater our chances to suffer less.

Showing up means we’re visible and that can be very scary. We must have the courage to be visible. Personal evolution and healing is a process of becoming more and more visible. Our work is to come forward without holding back our gifts, talents and creative uniqueness.

The authentic self is the soul made visible. — Sarah Ban Breathnach

If we show up, what we want has the opportunity to show up as well. If we’re absent, so is our aspiration. It’s not up to our aspirations to locate us. We must first locate ourselves. We have to be available so the coordinates are known.

When we source our life’s creations from our authentic self, there’s much less struggle, confusion and panic.

Once the coordinates are known life arranges to bring us the good and the beautiful.

It takes courage to live as your authentic self where what others see is who you are inside. — Don Shapiro

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To Show Up Authentically

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