The limits of self-empowerment

First: Why self-empowerment is necessary  

Self-empowerment is the recent rage, all the superheroes are doing it.  Everyone is learning to speak up, express themselves and reclaim those aspects of themselves that have been hidden or repressed.  This is a fundamental stepping stone in every human being’s development.

How does your sense of self develop?  Through your experiences and learned preferences.  You learn things that you are good at, you get praised for certain things, you discover what is hard for you, and your interests and passions, which all form your identity and who you think you are.

For most people there are aspects of ourselves that did not get acknowledged, praised or got shut down and therefore did not fully develop.  At a later age or time in our life we may have an underlying feeling that something is missing or lacking and it often becomes important to “reclaim” or find those aspects of ourselves.

Self-empowerment, as necessary and important as it is, also limits us.  It creates a separate self, a me that is separate from you.  It also keeps the focus on you.  You as an individual, a person, what you are creating, doing, being.  Again there is nothing wrong with this, however people seem to put all of their focus on creating and expressing themselves and there is so much more.

Beyond self-empowerment

What’s beyond the self

You must first become a self and embrace yourself before you transcend yourself.

So what lies beyond the self and how do you get there?  The first step is to develop a “strong” sense of self.  Reclaim every single part of yourself that you can find to reclaim and love it up like crazy (this is SRI stage 4).  As you do this more and more you will find that there is a hunger for something else, that all of this creation, manifestation and building, though clear in intention, is a never ending process.  You will reach an upper limit where you realize that all the accumulations of self are but an  illusion and you will begin to merge with and past the illusion your self (SRI stage 5).  As this occurs your internal engine begins to rev up for whatever is next (SRI stage 6), preparing yourself for resolution of self, dissolving of the self and that which does not serve (SRI stage 7).  In this process you will empty out of the self you have reclaimed, surrendering to something larger, mysterious, and unknown.  As you relinquish control you begin to move from self to no-self.  There is a stillness, emptiness which remains in the place that was previous filled by “you” or your sense of self (SRI stage 8).  In this still, emptiness of self your attention turns to awareness, love-light (SRI stage 9).  You begin to know yourself as awareness, love-light instead of as the person self you thought you were before and your “identity” is now merged as this (SRI stage 10).

As a being identified as awareness, love-light you experience connection to-as everything.  There is no separation.  With this perspective you now interact with your world, sharing this gift of knowing who you truly are and who everyone “else” is as well (SRI stage 11).  From here you can be of true service, giving, sharing and receiving the gifts of others as you.  This is beyond self-empowerment because there is no self present, however self-empowerment is an access point and pathway into realizing more of who you are and your true nature. This is transcendence of the self and into knowing yourself as God.

Dr. Amanda Hessel, Chiropractor, Network Spinal Analysis & Tomato-Respiratory Integration, Boulder, Colorado