Self Responsibility is one of the most foundational concepts that the Pathwork teaches.
This means our spiritual path is a journey inward, meeting everything that lives in the shadows along the way home to our Real Self, and our connection with the greater reality.
Rather than blaming our external circumstances for our suffering, confusion, and our lack of fulfillment, we look inward to find how we have contributed to the creation of something that is less than desirable.
When we really commit to “Let it Begin with Me,” we open up the space for unlimited possibilities.
In order to effectively embark on a self responsible journey devoted to truth and love, we begin by strengthening the muscles that will support us on the adventure that awaits.
But if we never venture past that foundation, we can get caught body-building into eternity and never discover the new territory that we worked so hard to prepare for.
At some point along the way, if we have remained true to our commitment to self-responsibility, we come to understand that as long as our primary goal is to improve life for “me,” there will never be enough. The healing will never be complete, nothing we can ever attain will fill the hole that lives inside.
If we look around at our society today, we sees this reflected in the consumerism, greed, and narcissism that has metastasized across every aspect of life. The Native Americans even had a word for this: they encountered the white man and his compulsion to acquire anything and everything at all cost, and they viewed him as possessed by a psychic entity they called “Wetiko.”
Wetiko has infected not only our corporate culture but our spiritual and religious culture as well.
We can recognize this has invaded our psyche when we become addicted to gathering an unending supply of powerful emotional and spiritual experiences, magical cures and amazing insights that we believe will heal our wounds without requiring us to let go of our limited ideas of self, deeply experience our emotions, or relate intimately with another human being.
This can make us vulnerable to following blindly down a path someone else has told us to take, rather than one we have forged through our willingness to explore our inner territory and trust our inner guidance. We wind up where we started, with the same empty hole, and we can fall into despair and disillusionment. Other times we might end up feeling betrayed, a pawn in someone else’s ego trip, wondering where and how we lost our way, and frequently projecting the blame onto others.
Self-responsibility doesn’t give power over to another, and doesn’t give in to self-indulgence and self-centeredness. Self-Responsibility is the act of channeling the positive aspect of self-will in service of surrendering to a power greater than it can initially comprehend. Self-Responsibility acknowledges the interconnection of all creation, and our obligation to live from that truth.
Living from the truth of our interconnectedness invites us to open our hearts to others, and to allow others to see us, know us, and love us — warts and all. There is a relational power that a group has in exponentially expanding our transformation in ways that would not happen by just sitting by ourselves in meditation or working one on one with a Pathwork Helper. We need each other. And so while self-responsibility doesn’t give away power to another, it does invite the support of others to co-create healing and transformation in community.
That is why Cindy Haney and I have created a profoundly intimate group offering that combines online meetings and two in person retreats to open up space for us to come together in self responsibility and interdependence to fulfill our deepest longing to open to the expression of our Real Self in this world.
- Are you ready to step into a larger experience of who you are and what you have to offer to this world?
- Are you inspired by the invitation to “Let it Begin With Me?”
- Do you feel the calling to say “Yes” to the challenge, transformation, and fulfillment that comes with self-responsibility?
If something inside you comes alive at this invitation, I urge you to listen to that and join Cindy and I for this upcoming group beginning in January 2019:
Let it Begin With Me: Igniting the Flame, Spreading the Fire of Transformation
Together we can nurture the spark of transformation that will spread like wildfire!
You can find details here.
