self-actualization

The human brain, being the most powerful organ in the body, is always striving to reach the transcendent state of self-fulfillment,

or self-actualization.

Once we reach this higher level of consciousness, we become aware of everything. We remember everything. We realize we are all pure consciousness. We understand how we are connected to everything, and how everything is connected to us. We learn the truth.

However, this self-actualization state will only occur after we complete our own personal journey. The unique experiences and lessons of each person help that person continue to advance towards self-actualization. How long a personal journey takes depends on the encounters within each lifetime. That’s why a soul is re-incarnated from lifetime to lifetime. Self-actualization only occurs once a soul experiences everything and learns every lesson necessary for enlightenment. This enlightenment is every soul’s life purpose. It is my life’s purpose. It is my meaning of life.

Using the terms of experience and lessons

are truly minimalizing the personal

journeys we have.

These experiences are the drivers behind our emotions. They are the markers we use to denote time passing. The people we have in our lives deliver lessons in terms of choices we make in life. There are choices we make that may lend to making our journey more difficult. There are choices made for us by those in our lives that may lend to making our journey more difficult. Regardless of where we find ourselves in the journey, what matters most is what happens next. The past is the past. We no control over what is in the past. We do have the power to control the future. The future is determined by the choices we make today.

It is important to understand the way we

make choices is influenced by or prioritized

by items found in the “needs” categories in the model below which known as

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:

This model was developed after Maslow wrote his paper in 1943. It’s a good representation of how the brain motivates us into moving into higher levels of achievement.

This model was first introduced to me when I was an education major at university. It was used to help explain why some children struggle with learning when they are not receiving the most basic of needs at home or if they are not getting their psychological needs met in some other way. The brain simply stops motivating the child to achieve until those basic and/or psychological needs are met. The same is true for any human at any stage of life.

As an example, consider an adult who experienced homelessness when they were a child with their single mom. That moment in time created a trauma event which may be causing the brain to stop moving to the next level of achievement or ultimately achieving self-actualization.

There may be many layers of trauma within each level of the needs triangle that need to be healed …which is why the journey could be long for some. Everyone experiences traumas throughout life. Some are more damaging than others. These are the lessons we are presented to learn along our journey to self-actualization.

Personally, these past four years have been all about finding my layers of trauma to heal… about finding my lessons to learn since I didn’t recognize what they were at the time. As I reflected and processed over the experiences throughout my life, there were times it was difficult to be honest with myself and with others around me (especially those I loved most).

Until I faced those very difficult emotions, though, I was literally stuck on the pyramid in the green psychological needs layer. My definition of love and intimacy needed to change because mine was built my trauma experiences. I needed to heal and redefine those terms in a healthy way so I could progress into the next level of motivational achievement. I needed to heal my emotional (psychological) trauma to continue to make progress toward the self-actualization.

As I made progress, I began to realize more and more of my true reality. I began to understand why I had been feeling like there was more to life than I thought. I began to understand how to use my brain to help me with my healing process even.

Once I had the realization that we are all connected, and we are all part of the same universe… the same consciousness… I understood I could tap into that energy… Source energy… the source of the universe. I understood the energy that flows through all is the same that flows through me.

I was able to use Source energy to heal my injured neck. The neck injury from when I passed out 5 months earlier. I envisioned my bulging discs going back to normal size and going back into position within the vertebrae sections along my neck. I could actually feel the movement of the discs sliding back into place.

When I think back to that moment, I realize my ability to tap into Source energy was more about my ability to expand my thinking beyond what I thought was possible. For months, I had undergone medical treatments from MRIs to physical therapy to medicine management (anti-inflammatories and pain control). I was told it would take time. The pain continued to get worse until my doctor made a referral to a pain specialist. I did not want to become another patient who relied on pain management methods to live my life. I wanted to heal my injury permanently. I wanted to find something besides the pain specialist to help me. I kept searching because I was convinced there was another route.

Now I realize it was my higher self who convinced me. It was me who told me to keep searching. The version of me who has already lived this lifetime and now comes back to help me continue on my journey to self-actualization.

How does this work? Think back to a moment in time when you felt helpless or felt overwhelmed or felt like you would never get past that moment. Now think about what you would tell yourself if this version of you were beside that version of you. What advice or encouragement would you give to you to help get you through that moment in time? You just helped your past self. You are a higher version of you than that version of you from the past. Do you see how that works? If you believe you have the wisdom from living through that moment of time that would help the past version of yourself as of right now… then you can believe there is a higher version of yourself helping this version of you as of right now too. I find that to be so comforting. I now have a regular habit of talking to myself when I’m looking in a mirror. I like to ask for advice now instead of waiting on my higher version self to bring it to me.

Everyone is capable of making the same connection to Source energy. However, when the basic needs or psychological needs are taking priority in life, it is dang near impossible to think about more than those needs. That’s why making choices to ensure the basic needs and psychological needs are obtained is most important. When choices are made in order to progress to self-actualization, we are choosing to create our own future and take control of our own perception of reality.