Jessica Bahr at
<http://soulshaping.com/soulshaping/the-awakening-woman-a-portrait-of-possibility-for-humankind-by-jessica-bahr/>
and Jeff Brown at <http://www.spiritofmaat.com/jul11/the_awakening_man.html> )
I thought I would share it today, because I feel like we are always in a process of unfolding, and when we are periodically "called to", whether it's a call to practice, a call to worship, etc. it's good to remember that there's a reason for the calling.
Awakening Beings
Awakening Beings strive toward self-awareness and staying fully present with themselves and their environment. They are rooted in the past and growing into the future through the richness of Now. This presence extends out into a holistic consciousness of all that is. Awakening Beings are aware of their constant communion with the universe.
Awakening Beings are connected to nature and know the wonder and magic that the universe holds for them. Awakening Beings are active in co-creation and living. They know how to be, do and have whatever they need.
Awakening Beings know when to create and accept opportunity. They are not opportunistic in a vacuum. They do not compete for competition's sake. Awakening Beings do not succumb to materialism and unconscious consumerism. They create more than they consume, they transform more than they destroy, and do all of which responsibly – mindfully choosing what is nourishing and not harmful.
Awakening Beings choose the depths of experience over the impulse to skim the very thin surface they are offered. They are not content with the shallow gratifications of accumulation, attention and stimulation.
Awakening Beings have shifted focus from an isolated and ethnocentric perspective to a wholarchic framework of perception. Their community is the biosphere. Rooted in the relational, the Awakening Being's sense of responsibility extends well beyond a localized self or community. Where possible, their choice-making is fuelled by an expansive vision of possibility for all of humankind. Not every person for oneself, but for self as an integrated part of humanity, which is an integrated part of the ecosystem.
Awakening Beings have reverence for Mother Earth. They have reverence for animals. They never imagine themselves superior or distinct from the natural world. Awakening Beings understand the interconnected and interdependent nature of reality. They know that if they do damage to the environment, they do damage to themselves. The Awakening Being treads carefully, with intention, awareness and appreciation.
Awakening Beings are conscious, integrating environment, mind, body, spirit and heart. They have an extra- sensory experience of consciousness, rather than an isolated intellect. It is an ever-expanding awareness of feeling that moves from the soul outward. The Awakening Being is always in process of becoming, through a deepening interface with the world. Awakening Beings continually approach a more heartfelt and inclusive awareness.
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Awakening Beings have integrity within themselves and with others. They are accountable, self-determining and above all, self-accepting. The Awakening Being is respectful of others but not defined by them. Each has become their own benchmark, valuing authenticity over image. They are the sculptors of their own reality. They find ways to answer the calling of their individual vocation and continually expand into it.
Awakening Beings are willing to support others in working toward manifesting the explicitly stated wishes about their self-actualization. Awakening Beings are interdependent and symbiotic, living through conscious, deliberate and forthright reciprocation. Awakening Beings have integrity both individually and within community. This means that all aspects of self work well together, as well as functioning holistically with others.
Awakening Beings see areas of strength and potential instead of faults and seek to improve upon challenges with learning and practice.
Awakening Beings lead a purpose-full existence. Each has heard the call to a deeper life. Not satisfied with survival alone, their ambitions are rooted in higher considerations, namely the excavation and actualization of a sacred purpose. Awakening Beings are energized by this purpose, rather than an unhealthy ego driven by gratification alone. They are saturated in an authenticity of purpose that peers through the veils to what really matters. Purpose is the Awakening Being's path. In charting their course, They are mindful of their impact on humanity. They are empowered but do not exploit power. Awakening Beings derive power from their connection to source, not from power over others. Where possible, they share the abundance, gifting back to humanity. They work hard to bridge the world as it is with a world of divine possibility.
Awakening Beings see the value that ethical decisions have in their internal lives and in the world around them, and make informed lifestyle choices.
Awakening Beings seek to face issues and unconscious patterns directly with intuition and articulate them in order to transform them. Awakening Beings acknowledge and are accountable for self-avoidant tendencies and honour the wisdom at the heart of personal pain.
Awakening Beings acknowledge their trauma and the trauma of others which they have participated in. They use these experiences as learning tools and choose to no longer contribute to the pain that separates us.
Awakening Beings know when to ask for help without guilt or shame. They also ask for protection, which they freely take and freely give when it is necessary. Awakening Beings work to come from a place of abundance rather than scarcity.
Awakening Beings distinguish between the healthy and unhealthy polarities and extremes of identity. They see polar energies as complimentary and necessary to the co-creative force that brings balance to self, relationships and to the planet.
Awakening Beings know that equality is fundamental to all forms of reciprocity, and strive toward a culture of equal rights and opportunities. They do not perpetuate oppression by using it as a tool for reverse discrimination. Rather, Awakening Beings challenge those wounds as a lens for each to see their own co-created obstacles and overcome them together.
Awakening Beings have compassion and empathy for the wounds of traditional gender roles and reverence for the healthy expression of gender. Awakening Beings seek union and equality with others where they are at, and acknowledge and express gratitude for those times they have had to call on the feminine or masculine energies in their lives.
Awakening Beings move beyond the culture of exploitation. They make a habit of no longer exploiting themselves, others, or the resources and environments around them. Awakening beings take nothing for granted, always accepting consent with gratitude and leaving something behind.
Awakening Beings prioritize conscious relationship as a spiritual practice. They work through any obstructions to intimacy and stand firm in the heartfire.
Awakening Beings do not manipulate others with sexuality, nor reinforce gender roles, traditional or modern. They make individual, personal, conscious decisions about sex, romance, beauty, and relationships. They see sexuality as having its own value, therefore Awakening Beings do not use sex as a means of gaining love, money, power, intimacy or fringe benefits.
Awakening Beings know how to openly give and receive love, without losing oneself in another. They will not settle for a love partner who is not their equal and also awakening.
Awakening Beings nurture themselves, keeping their mind, body, spirit, heart, and relationships in good order.
Awakening Beings move from the inside out. As interested in inner expansion as outer achievement, they cultivate and honour intuition and potential. They explore and develop the inner geography, with an intuitive understanding that the microcosm of self is a map of the macrocosm that is the conscious, living universe. Awakening Beings are psychonauts, adventuring deep within, integrating the treasures they excavate into ways of being. They seek congruity between the internal life and the outer manifestation.
Awakening Beings are self-parenting and protect the inner child. They make it a priority to find some refuge in a world that can feel insecure. Awakening Beings co-create a world where anyone can feel safe to move freely. They do not tolerate emotional or physical abuse. Awakening beings are self-responsible, taking time to play, have fun, laugh, celebrate, learn, stay active, eat nutritious food, and sleep well. They look at the world with a sense of awe and curiosity. They take breaks, go outside, get creative, use their imaginations, feel their emotions, act spontaneously and get excited. Awakening Beings protect everyone's right to behave accordingly and are accountable for their youthful behaviours.
Awakening Beings are emotionally literate. They courageously work on a vast array of emotional processes. They do not apologize for having feelings and express them healthily towards self and others. They clear emotional debris through identification, recapitulation and strengths discovery. Awakening Beings shed their armour, choosing to condition the soul through experiencing emotions in their richness. They are honest with themselves and others but not entirely transparent. Awakening beings do not make themselves unnecessarily vulnerable, rather they are open.
Awakening beings are comfortable in their vulnerability. They participate in their own revealing. They are not afraid of surrendering to reality, love or truth. This is not a weakened form of surrender, but one that is emblazoned with courage. It takes more courage to surrender than to numb. Awakening Beings openly explore their capacities for receptivity and tenderness as part of the human experience.
Awakening Beings see that how they receive feelings is within their own personal power and based on their subjective interpretation. Awakening Beings refrain from displacing or suppressing anger or other emotions, and do not project these or other personal qualities onto others. Awakening Beings actively identify and integrate the disowned parts of themselves.
Awakening Beings will not carry others’ emotions for them, instead holding a loving, compassionate, non-judgemental space for them when possible. They ask for others to be responsible with and for their emotions so as to not engender co-dependency.
Awakening Beings are intimate with fear, knowing when to let it guide them and when to confront it and move through it; they use it and other emotions as sacred keys to unlock the depths of the soul. Awakening Beings push their boundaries to the edge, yet honour their and others' limitations without judgment or shame.
Awakening Beings know when and how to establish healthy boundaries that honour both their freedom to and freedom from. They clearly articulate these limits and take action when those are crossed.
Awakening Beings are spiritually tolerant, inclusive and respectful. They honour all paths to God, as long as they are respectful of others. They accept those who believe in something and those who don't. Awakening Beings condemn any path that uses religious differences as a justification for destruction.
Awakening Beings seek empowerment through the divinity within us all, as well as through self-knowledge and individuality. They work at shedding the parts of the ego that are no longer serving anyone, while developing the parts that do. They cultivate a healthy, moderate ego from self-awareness, rather than seeking the attention and affection of others to maintain confidence. Awakening Beings use direct communication in seeking to meet their needs. They affirm that interdependence is more than a simple transaction, it is as much supporting oneself in flourishing as it is providing or accessing the support of others.
Awakening Beings express their own truth. They speak up when things don’t feel right. They value their intuition and factual evidence over others’ reasoning. Awakening Beings keep their minds open to other opinions and seek to strengthen and clarify their own beliefs and values through learning about those of others. They do not shy away from healthy disagreements.
Awakening Beings do not turn a blind eye to challenge or conflict in favour of compatibility. They affirm the good qualities in another and address what isn’t working in a relationship. Awakening beings are proactive. They hold each other accountable and know when to step back from interactions that do not serve the whole. Awakening Beings are not concerned with changing people to suit their purposes. They engage with those who meet them where they are and allow others to walk their own paths. Awakening Beings move on.
When necessity arises, Awakening Beings are warriors of the heart. They take the clarifying sword inward, cutting away everything that is not compassionate. After too many lifetimes with weapons in hand, a benevolent warrior is being birthed at the core of the Awakening Being. They honour the warrior's capacity for assertiveness, and are not arbitrarily aggressive. They act from a place of love and compassion, but it is neither a passive nor pacifist expression of these.
Awakening Beings are not complacent. They do not settle for what is not good enough. Awakening Beings move away from the people-pleaser model. They do not behave like victims of circumstance. Awakening Beings use "NO." as a complete sentence and do not feel the need to over-justify oneself or pacify others for the sake of being ‘comfortable.’
Awakening Beings know that language carries great power, and do not use it frivolously. They honour their word, even at their own expense, holding oaths as sacred bonds. Awakening Beings move from a value system that is unwaveringly incorruptible. They recognize that success without ethics is karmically unsound and meaningless.
Awakening Beings know their own inherent value even when not contributing anything to others. Each Awakening Being is enough. Awakening Beings shed their sense of entitlement in favour of gratitude for their strengths. They do not let outside influences overshadow or dominate the inner voice and self-knowledge. Awakening Beings do not suppress themselves in order to be liked and accepted. They are willing to be alone in authenticity over being in dishonest company, and accept that being alone may be a part of the awakening journey.
Awakening Beings acknowledge and learn from past mistakes, patterns and unhealthy behaviours, instead of letting guilt and shame prevent them from actualizing the highest self. Awakening Beings do not side-step responsibility for the consequences of their actions or cast blame. Awakening Beings make a conscious and concerted effort to not repeat the things that have harmed either themselves or others. Awakening beings forgive themselves and accept the past. They walk their talk and admit and correct themselves when they falter. Awakening Beings know how and when to give a healthy apology for any misstep.
Awakening Beings embrace humour and laugh from the belly. They also cry and rage from this sacred center. They are not ashamed to relax, stand tall and breathe deeply, knowing that breath and posture nourish the organs as much as food. Awakening Beings put self care before self image and look deeply at their conditioning around body image.
Awakening Beings are comfortable in their skin. They are authentic, having no use for pretences nor participating in discriminatory judgements.
Awakening Beings love and honour their bodies. They are endlessly grateful for their bodies and how much they provide and facilitate. Awakening beings smile at the lines on their faces, knowing that’s how they got there to begin with. Awakening beings see that apparent physical imperfections are attractive and unique, giving voice to each person's story.
Awakening Beings endeavour to live in a state of perpetual gratitude. They are grateful for the gift of life. Awakening Beings are especially grateful for those ancestors who built the foundation that their expansion relies upon. They are grateful for those who encouraged them at times when they could not encourage themselves. Awakening Beings are grateful for those who stand beside them in this lifetime. They know that they do not stand alone.
Awakening Beings bring forward many of the qualities of the virtuous figures of the past. They are noble, responsible, productive, kind-hearted, protective, unswervingly honourable, down to earth, sturdy, flexible, realistic, and hopeful. Awakening Beings are wise, spiritual, visionary, courageous, integrated, steadfast, hospitable, moderate, and fertile. They are sensitive but not fragile, healthily egoic but not self-centred, and both practical and heightened at the same time. They ascend with both feet on the ground.
Awakening Beings are role models for humanity; the embodied potential of the divine as expressed through human form. They are here, right now; and though they often go unnoticed, they are helping to awaken us all.