PERSONAL SOVEREIGNTY 3 – Overcoming Life’s hurdles and Becoming Happy and Free yet still Connecting, Contributing and Creating Positively 

I have informally counseled many people over the years.  By far the most popular comment that always comes up is that everyone feels a need to do something ‘useful’ in life and the big question, “Why am I here and what is my purpose?”  This is usually spurred on by recognition over the mundaneness of everyday life and from the 9-5 kind of job where things seem OK, but deep down you know that you are meant for something bigger and better than just surviving and being an insignificant cog in a monstrous machine.  Everyone years for freedom.  If you are indoctrinated into the current hyper-consumer lifestyle you will automatically think that just means more money.  If, however, you are starting to sense something beyond the veil of lies and deceit that is this lifestyle, then you’ll understand what I mean by needing something more intrinsic.

The elite hierarchy’s plan for separation (their divide to control strategy) isn’t about you becoming an individual, but more about you becoming one of the herd, losing your freedom, and being separated from what makes you whole.  Moving to a path of Sustainable Living isn’t about losing your individuality to become part of a new community, but gaining your individuality and becoming part of the whole.  As a metaphor example, every one of the 100 trillion cells in your body is autonomous, yet as a whole they make up your body.  An organism isn’t simply a mix of individual cells serving a hierarchy, like an Ant colony.  It’s a collection of unique individuals working together to create something bigger for the benefit of the whole that is more than the sum of the individuals.  In my post ‘Wisdom of the Ancestors – 3’ I talk about a quote by Daniel Quinn who says, “If you can only be free on a mountain top or desert island, then you’re less than free.”  It’s not about being a free individual or about being part of a group.  It’s being both as an actualized person.

Abraham Maslow was one of the first researchers to study wellness, and his conclusion was that the pinnacle of each person’s achievements and what made them happy and fulfilled was “Self-Actualization.”  The thing that Maslow said was descriptive of a self-actualized person was ‘Chosen work’ – a ‘vocation,’ work a person finds intrinsically rewarding and that is of service to others.  Some 10% of people have found this already, but despite being in the vocation and feeling an intrinsic impulse to do, may find resistance to what they do or that what they do is unappreciated by those around them.  They just need to find a community that values their work and efforts.  The other 90% are simply existing – merely earning money – this large group needs to find what motivates them, what attracts them to feel fulfilled, that unique creative aspect we all carry within us.  As Barbara Marx Hubbard would ask, “What is your deepest hearts desire”?  It is unlikely that you may know this off-hand.  When I was a university academic, I often asked this question of students that I was advising who ‘seemed lost’ in their life focus.  What I found was that students would take some time pondering what I had asked of them and then slowly, like a flower bud unfurling, the ‘Ah Ha’ realization would reveal itself to them.  Of course, many said, “I can’t do that,” and another round of discussion would ensue where I had to break through entrenched belief systems that kept them boxed in and confined to a world of limitations imposed upon them by our socio-cultural systems.

If you are raised by Buddhist parents, you grow up with a Buddhist view of life.  If you grow up in a Catholic family, you have a Catholic view of life.  The same with Hindu, Muslim, atheist . . . whatever.  The formative years of your life were spent subjected to a particular set of influences, which literally boxed you in. Obviously, you cannot be in a box and be free. While you hold strongly to any beliefs, you are attached, and attachment is not freedom! It takes courage to step out of a box that may well contain your whole family, but if you are on your spiritual path truly, you have no choice. As soon as you dogmatically resist, you are in another box. It is the same old story . . . surrender it all, release it all.  Michael Roads.

Some of the most successful people became successful because they didn’t see, or ignored, the barriers in front of them.  Some dispensed with the self-imposed psychological box they felt trapped within.  What sets them apart is that they made choices that work for them and didn’t just blindly follow the dictates of social norms imposed on them.  One of the biggest reasons f or not acting on your own behalf if that of security and aversion to life-change risk.  I mentioned Maslow’s self-actualization above and how that describes our needs and   I cover this in my Environmental Communication’ textbook, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1943) is the most well-known needs theory and posits that humans have a hierarchical arrangement of needs.  The flow of these needs tends to be from basic needs to self-actualization:

Basic Needs

1. Survival (shelter, food, water, and warmth)
2. Safety (freedom from physical or psychological threat),
3. Belonging (love and acceptance from others)
4. Self-esteem (recognition and self-worth).

Self-actualization needs

5. Intellectual Achievement (knowing and understanding)
6. Aesthetics (order, truth, and beauty)
7. Self-actualization (philosophical thinking, spirituality, self-fulfillment).

“Alderfer’s Existence/Relatedness/Growth needs theory includes two extra components of ‘frustration-regression’ and ‘satisfaction-progression’ which control levels of need at which a person remains. Therefore, a person acts on needs that are under frustration since these needs take precedence over ones that are already satisfied. When a need is satisfied, the person will want to progress further. If a need is frustrated, then a person will regress and prioritize that need until it is satisfied again. This does not imply that other needs are disregarded, rather it suggests frustration needs will be answered before other need.” Jurin.   The elites go to great lengths to keep you in the frustration level and as low on the needs hierarchy by their manipulation of media and culturally negative stories.

In segmentation of groups, early change agents, such as innovators, early adopters or true blue-greens, could be equated to those operating at higher and already satisfied needs levels (see earlier post Adopting a new way of thinking and living – Adopter Theory). This allows them to contemplate becoming involved in new situations. They are not preoccupied with their basic needs.  Alternatively, those categorized as laggards or basic browns may be more concerned with everyday needs and are unlikely to find time or energy to devote to esoteric issues, which they also feel unempowered to affect anyway.

Generally, each person is his or her own greatest challenge. Put simply, this means unconditional Self acceptance.  There are two layers to this. The most basic layer is to accept yourself for the everyday person that you are, warts and all.  This level of self-acceptance implies that on looking in the mirror, you feel acceptance for your body, your features, for all of you.  It also means no self-criticism!  The next layer is the acceptance of Self. No point in looking for Self in the mirror.  This layer is only found when the necessary level of self-acceptance has been achieved. Be gentle with yourself.  Be appreciative for all that you are.  Too many people focus on what they could be, with resultant discontent. And discontent always generates yet more discontentment. You grow and develop Self-acceptance by consciously . . . choosing Love!  Michael Roads

There is nothing you need to do or be, except to be yourself using whatever ‘gifts’ are yours to co-create your life.  And none of this is age related.  Whether you are a teenager or a long-retired person, creativity is what you do, not who you are.   “Be patient with all things, but especially with yourself.”  The research shows us that being a creative individual that contributes to the well-being of others is one of the highest ideals of a self-actualized person.  When more of us start to self-actualize we can begin to forge new types of communities that allow us to express our creative abilities – and communities that evolve beyond the control of the elites (who we will no longer need).  We can cultivate a flourishing future and not a dystopian one.