Self-Liberation

Liberating Everyday Genius p.354 Self-liberation, Mary Elaine Jacobsen

What does "liberate thyself" mean for us? It means taking ourselves seriously, embracing our differences, maturing our choices from outer control to inner rule, and doing the work and making the sacrifices necessary to live from the inside out. We don't reveal ourselves to gratify our ego, nor are we naive sacrificial lambs ready to be exploited for the wrong purpose. Rather, we are on our own, wholly free for the first time because we have reached the point where we no longer need to seek persmission from anyone or anything outside of our own soul.

This is the point of realization we've been working toward, when we have achieved both self-definition and self-mastery. We are finally safe to reveal ourselves, because our gifts of ability have been tested by experience and tempered by what we have learned and what we know we must do. The apparently random revelations that have occurred in seemingly unrelated moments are now clearly connected to our very center. What was once an unconscious pressure to reach a goal is now a conscious strategy to fulfill a distinct purpose. Before, we were fainthearted in the activation of our gifts; we stopped and started many times over the years, uncertain of our destination and purpose.

Because we have come to accept our First Nature traits, we can also accept the fact that Everyday Geniuses cannot escape the pull of personal destiny. The subtle messages of our inner agenda call us in quiet moments of the night and echo in scattered moments during our busy days. They call us to liberate our thoughts and abilities and to free ourselves from the glamours of the ego so that we may carry out the revolutionary acts of which we are capable. We sense this guiding presence and know it has immense power. Now that we've accepted our Mandated Mission, we're more focused than ever before. Over the years we come to recognize the mysterious force that provides us with direction whenever we get too far off course. Sometimes the wake-up call is like a practical joke. Oftentimes it is painful-the voice of truth that can be heard only when we've wandered into the wilderness.

Although we learn to accept the puzzling course of our destiny, even when we increase our consciousness and listen with great willingness to the soul's intentions, we are repeatedly frustrated by how unclear these revelations are. We get bits and pieces here and there-images, powerful emotional reactions, disappointments, and dreams. We may resonably wonder why the path of destiny must be so full of detours, especially those bumpy side roads we seem to travel until we learn to heed the stop signs. Wouldn't it all be so much easier if each of us came into the world fully assembled and with a toe tag that carried explicit directions? "This is a Type XZ300-4K Model. The purpose of this model is...For best results...Never...Handle with care."

And yet nothing so vital as personal destiny could ever be so simple. Which means there is no use in waiting to go forward until we are absolutely sure of our direction and filled with confidence, for as break-through thinkers called to stick our necks out and change the status quo, we never obtain that level of certainty. Uncertainty is the draw. It is the future. It is the realm of possibility.

We know this, and yet we all want to have it both ways-to forge agead daringly in our creative acts and yet proceed without fear of failure. To fulfill our high potential autonomously we are quite willing to take on the challenges of the world if we can do so comfortably, and with a reasonable promise of success.

Many times we feel just like my seventeen-year-old Everyday Genius client who complained: "If I'm supposed to be using my mind and talents to do something important, what's the point of having to grope around in the dark all the time? I'm listening, I'm willing, so why can't we just get on with it? Hand me the outline or a map or something, so I don't have to waste time looking in the wrong places and doing the wrong thing. I don't get it!"

We don't get it, and it does seem chaotic. It must be chaotic becuase the flip side of dynamic creativity-Revolutionary Action-is filled with confusion, uncertainty, and momentary despair. The journey of self-actualization is never an easy one. It is a long, unpredictable, and arduous trek, not a simple trip to the corner wisdom store, and certainly not a destination with reserved seating.