Your Higher Self Is Calling
You may think you see yourself as you really are, but if you’re like most people, your self-view is clouded. To truly see yourself as you really are, you need to understand and connect to your higher self … because your higher self is who you truly are.
The higher self is whispering to you softly in the silence between your thoughts.
What a Fictional Madman Can Teach You About Seeing Yourself as You Really Are
Last Sunday was a rainy day here in Flagstaff, so we decided it would be movie day. After flipping through Prime’s video selection, we settled on watching The Man of La Mancha, the 1972 musical starring Peter O’Toole and Sophia Loren.
While I wanted to watch the movie, mostly so I could hear the song The Impossible Dream, I really didn’t know much about this classic novel turned Broadway play turned movie. I’d heard about it, but had never seen the movie or read the book.
Frankly, it was a little boring at first and I almost bailed on it. I’m glad I didn’t. I found there were many subtle yet beautiful lessons in the story bout how to see yourself as you really are (which is often not even close to what you think you are!).
If you’re not familiar with the tale of Don Quixote, it was a classic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. The story is about a nobleman, Alonso Quixano, who becomes enchanted with chivalric romances, gradually loses his sanity, and sets upon a quest along with his loyal servant Sancho Panza to live the life of a chivalrous knight. He dubs himself Don Quixote de la Mancha.
The ideals of the mad, imaginary knight Don Quixote are (in my interpretation anyway), the higher self of the man Alonso Quixano. Alonso’s higher self can best be understood in the song Don Quixote sings … The Impossible Dream. Here’s a snippet of the lyrics (view full lyrics).
To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star
This is my quest to follow that star
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far
To fight for the right without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell for a heavenly cause
And I know if I’ll only be true to this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I’m laid to my rest
© music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion)
The facts of Don Quixote’s life are that he is not a great knight. Yet, the ideals Don Quixote holds dear embody great truth and the manner in which Don Quixote leads his life is an example of a man living as his highest self.
He doesn’t let the troubles of the world defeat him, rather he sets out to defeat those troubles and make the world a better place. for that is who Don Quixote is. That is who Alonso Quixano really is … it is his highest self.
When you see yourself through the eyes of your higher self, you see yourself as you really are.
Your true self is not weak; it is strong. Who you really are is a person who can handle all the challenges that come your way with grace and dignity. Who you really are is a confident person who can live a beautiful, bold life while at the same time serving the world to help make it a better place.
When you are living as your higher self, your thoughts rise above the worries of the day and you allow your life to be guided by higher truths.
Your higher self is always nudging you toward a resolution of the conflicts that you experience in your life so that you will have room for serenity and harmony
What Gets in the Way of Seeing Yourself As You Really Are?
When you live your life according to the way the world teaches you to live your life, it’s easy for you to lose sight of who you really are.
Life teaches us all sorts of things about ourselves that simply aren’t true. It’s as if your true self is straight ahead and the people and situations you face in life keep turning your head to the right and left so you never see who you truly are.
When you’re young, life teaches you how to interpret who you are. We tell ourselves we’re the good girl, or the difficult boy because other people decide who we are based on a few tendencies we project … or based on who they want us to be.
You believe these people because they are your parents, siblings, teachers, role models, or other authority figures who must be right about you. After all, you reason, you’re just a kid, what do you know?
Then you start making friends, or encounter bullies, who tell you who you are or show you who you want to be … or who you don’t want to be.
Lastly, few of us escape the influence of pop culture and the media. The media bombards us with images of what it takes to be loved, happy, and successful. Most of us buy into the dribble that the magazines, movies, television shows, and celebrities are constantly shoveling out to us.
These outside influencers project the “rules” for living a wonderful life. Women are to be thin, beautiful, gentle, sexy, cheerful and sweet. Men are to be strong, tall, and make a lot of money (and they’re never, ever, ever allowed to cry, unless it’s at a funeral, and even it’s only deemed okay if the deceased was someone close to them).
Most of us become a creation we came up with to get our needs met. You no longer see yourself as you really are; there are too many fake layers on top, layers that can be both stifling and exhausting.
By learning to trust your intuition, miracles seem to happen. Intuitive thoughts are gifts from the higher self,
Why Do You Listen to All These People and Cultural Signals?
Your deep inner need for love prompts you to do whatever it takes to belong. You become certain that the choices you’re making to be liked and accepted is the path to the happiness and love that you yearn for … what everyone yearns for.
You become who you think you should be rather than choosing to see yourself as you really are. Your true self gets buried so deep, you wouldn’t even recognize him or her if you were standing face to face with your real self.
The Cruel Irony of Believing What The World Has Told You About Who You Really Are
The cruel irony of listening to all the voices that tell you who you really are is that when you’re not actually being who you were made to be, then you can never experience a true sense of belonging because you’re playing a part … you’re not being authentic.
The real you goes unnoticed and unloved and neglected not because others have rejected you, but because you’ve become too scared to show your real self to the world.
By the time you’re an adult, how you see yourself is locked in tight. Your beliefs are often not conscious beliefs, but rather thoughts about yourself that have been so tightly held for so many years that they’re rooted deep in your subconscious mind.
You think you see yourself as you really are, but you’re actually out of touch with your higher self.
If you want to learn to trust your vibes, you must maintain a peaceful and relatively calm attitude. When you’re tense, nervous, or anxious, your energy gets tangled up and blocked and you can’t enter your heart, where your higher self and your vibes communicate.
You’re Freakin’ Amazing: Own It!
Your higher self knows things about you that your lower self doesn’t; namely, that you’re more capable, lovable, and amazing than what you’re giving yourself credit for.
When you make a higher-self connection, you stop living in worry and stress and start living in wonder and joy. You discover that everything that’s going on in your life offers you an opportunity for personal growth, and you surrender to the inner wisdom that guides you instead of allowing your frightened ego to take the wheel that’s directing your life.
When you start to see yourself as you really are, everything in your life changes.
What you love is a sign from your higher self of what you are to do.
5 Ways to Start Living Your Life as Your Higher Self
1 Start to See Yourself As You Really Are. Yes, you’re flawed, we all are. It’s called being human. But, you’re also a beautiful soul who deserves great joy and love in your life. Accept this as the truth of your life.
2 Consult With Your Inner Wisdom. You can call it intuition or gut instinct if you will, I prefer to call in the Divine-given wisdom deep inside me. This source of knowledge has great wisdom to share with you, but you cannot hear it if you do not listen for it.
The best way to hear your inner wisdom is to ignore the fearful ego and silence the mind, which tends to rattle on endlessly offering little helpful advice. Practice meditation. Go for a walk. Sit in a chair with some beautiful instrumental music on for 15 minutes a day.
3 Decide to Live Your Life Intentionally. Make a decision that you want to live your life in love, peace, and harmony; that you want to be a person who takes good care of yourself and offer your gifts to the world. Then, whenever faced with making a choice in life where you are unsure of the correct path, ask yourself “does the choice I’m about to make align with the decision I made about how I intend to live my life?” If it does, proceed. If it does not, adjust.
4 Make Loving Kindness a Priority — Both Towards Yourself and Others. When you have to make a choice between being right and being kind, be kind. Because being kind is always the right choice. And if your kindness and love don’t extend to yourself, then you are not living at your highest self.
5 View Difficult Emotions and Tough Times as a Call to Live With Greater Faith. Life comes with its fair share of challenges, including great losses, disappointments, and seemingly unfair changes that can rock your world. To fight with the flow of life is pointless; accept you will face difficult times and every time a difficult emotion rises, ask yourself,
- What is the message this emotion is sending to me?
- How can I respond to this difficult situation that will lead me to peace?
- What does this sudden change in my life make possible for me that would not have been possible before?
- How can I use this situation to live my absolute highest life?
The challenges of your life are not meant to destroy you. These times of your life contain lessons in grace and growth that you are meant to learn. Choose to seek the lessons rather than be buried by the pain that arises in difficult times.
In times of challenge and turmoil, your faith is not being tested, but you are being called to live in deeper faith; faith that you can and will handle whatever comes your way, and perhaps even experience something beautiful for having gone through the experience.
For many, life has become more about what they can’t do rather than what they can do. The truth, however, is that you are far greater than you think and have truly amazing potential. The key is to tap into your higher self and unleash your full capacity for success and happiness.
YouTube Lessons and Meditations on Embracing Your Higher Self
It’s kind of funny really; if I need to know how to fix a faucet, or create a website, or learn just about anything under the sun nowadays, YouTube is one of my first stops.
Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, I found several good Higher Self resources on YouTube when I was preparing to write this post. Here are a few I recommend you watch for both inspiration and insight; each, in its own way, will help you see yourself as you really are
How You See Yourself Matters: Your Higher Self Is Beckoning
How you see yourself decides EVERYTHING! You cannot rise higher than your what your self-perception will allow.
Instead of letting the world turn your head to the right or the left, look at yourself square-on, with nothing but love and appreciation for the beautiful soul you truly are. When you see yourself through the eyes of love and self-acceptance, your entire life will open up in amazing ways. When you see yourself as you really are, miracles being to unfold.
Tune Into Your Higher Self Now: See Yourself as You Really Are
Stop waiting until you “get around to it” to change your life for the better. Use the many resources and tools I’ve suggested here to begin your path to living your life at a higher level, listening to the wisdom within.
Your life won’t get better when the circumstances of your life change; it will get better when you start seeing yourself for the amazing person you really are and start living from that higher place each and every day.
Wish you much joy, love, and happiness on your journey! – J. Marie, Founder of Believe And Create.
Bonus Content
Book List for Seeing Yourself as You Really Are and Living as Your Higher Self
Your self-view is deeply embedded; it will take time and practice to correct the view and drop the habits and mindsets that have kept you locked in a cloudy and life-sabotaging self-perception.
I’ve already referred to several helpful books throughout this post (see book images in this post). I’ve also put together a short reading list for anyone who wants to begin the process of living from their higher self. It’s not a comprehensive list by any means, but it’s a good starter list.
My recommendation for you is read through the titles and see if any one or two are pulling you towards them. Your higher self often reveals itself through your intuition; if any of these books are calling to you, listen to your intuition … listen to your higher self and heed the call.
How to See Yourself as You Really Are By Dalai Lama (translated by Jeffrey Hopkins)
Beautiful You: A Guide to Radical Self-Acceptance by Rebeca Molinary
Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives by Dan Millman
The Power of Intention by Wayne Dyer
Do the Work: Overcome Resistance dn Get Out of Your Own Way by Stephen Pressfield
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want By Being Present to What You Have by Mark Nepo
Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life by Thich Nhat Hanh
The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Spiritual Growth: Being Your Higher Self by Sanaya Roman
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Transform Your Life with Self-Awareness and Mindfulness
This is a very useful lesson as we are so busy with life and our need to be functional and accessible to everyone but ourselves. I love the five ways to live your life as your higher self. I will have to laminate this and place it on my fridge so that I am reminded everyday that I am a priority. It is true that wisdom start from within; you cannot preach something so well unless you practice it yourself.