“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom” — Lao Tzu
Know thyself
These are the words that the Greek philosopher Socrates spoke millennia ago and, whilst seemingly archaic now, nevertheless, they remain profoundly wise and wildly apt for any who wish to be the authors of their lives.
Why should you get to know yourself? Because you cannot design your best life until you do.
Choosing a path in life requires that you first know what you want. Do you know where you are now and where you want to go? Perhaps you are seeking self-improvement, but what is that based upon if you are not truly aware of your needs, goals, and desires?
To know who you really are—why you think the way you do, feel the way you do, and act the way you do—means looking deep inside and unpacking what you find. It’s not always simple or easy, but this is the foundational work we all need to do to get to know ourselves, so we can create the life we want to lead and be who we want to be.
It takes a certain mindset
What’s yours? Maybe you haven’t thought about what it means when someone talks about developing the right mindset, so you don’t really know how this is useful.
Your mindset is created by all your attitudes, values, beliefs, worries and fears, thoughts, views, and perceptions. You are the sum of all your experiences, decisions, and choices up until now. Imagine this as being like an unbroken, woven meta-thread that will continue to form as you move into the future, one day at a time. All these threads—these hidden influences—create a lens through which you view life and others and how you see and relate to yourself. And all of this directs your choices.
Many of us do not know what all these threads are—until we start to explore them. But even then, it’s not always simple to get to know ourselves as the mind can play tricks on us, and we create stories about who we are that we then believe. Indeed, many of these threads, particularly your core beliefs, may have formed so far back in the past that you may not even be consciously aware of them—yet they influence you, nonetheless. Why is this a potential problem? Because some of these threads can get in the way of you reaching your highest potential until you find them, unpack them, and decide if they really serve you or not.
What needs to change?
Developing awareness of your past self (what and who you used to be) and your current self (what and who you are now) can help inform your future self, the path you will walk upon, and the person you will be as you do so.
Who do you want to be?
Right now, you are creating the foundation upon which the next period in your life will be built. Knowing who you are and where you have come from offers you the opportunity to choose to change and design the life you want to lead—to bring forth the best of who you are and to grow from a place of self-knowledge and compassionate understanding.
“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened” — Lao Tzu
When beginning this journey of self-exploration, I think it may be Aristotle who put it best when he said, “knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom”. And whilst he may have been referring to knowing your mind, I suggest that your relationship with yourself is not limited to only knowing your thought processes and perceptions; it can reach more deeply into the unconscious. You can also learn how to sense and connect to the subtle energies that run through and around you.
All this might seem a little profound or easier said than done; nevertheless, self-awareness is an ongoing process and one that transpersonal kinesiology can assist with—often quite rapidly and in a way that other therapies cannot.
How so?
Biofeedback 101
Whilst you reside in physical form, biofeedback is a method you can tap into. There is a saying that the “body doesn’t lie”, which applies to the processes used in a transpersonal kinesiology session. Simply put, your psyche knows what it needs and wants, but this information may be hidden and unclear to your conscious mind. However, as a challenge or goal is discussed in a session, a single word spoken may resonate with your psyche in a way that elicits a stress response in your body—and when it does, your muscles will respond. This unseen stress is detectable using muscle testing because there is an energetic connection between your body-mind and spirit or soul-consciousness via your subtle anatomy—in this case, the meridian system. However, there are other energy flows at play that can also be tapped into.
When your subtle anatomy (the energetic fields and flows in and around you) is disrupted somehow, this shows up as an imbalance in your muscles’ integrity that can be felt if you know what to look for.
What can be most interesting about this method is whilst you may be very good at convincing yourself of one thing or another, your muscles will reveal it when something is ‘not quite right’. Though it may seem confronting or surprising at the time, this is a beautiful opportunity to look more closely and unpack what your muscular response is all about.
The benefits of kinesiology for life design
In a nutshell, a transpersonal kinesiology session allows us to connect to the psyche, the spirit, and all the energetic resonance you are made up of and explore what is presented so you can get to the heart of the matter, whatever that may be. Perhaps it is a decision to be made, an obstacle to be overcome, or an ‘aha’ moment when you understand some facet of behaviour you seek to change. Indeed, in each session, you are offered an opportunity for meaning making, either during the session or when reflecting later.
And though the process of learning during a session can be the most enlightening part, and that which can enable you to design your best path forward at any given moment in time, it’s not the only benefit of a kinesiology ‘balance’. Indeed, there are remedial techniques that can help balance your energetic ‘self’ using acupressure points or other strategies so your whole system resonates better moving forward.
Knowing this, maybe now is the time to ask yourself how you would like to design your life moving forwards. What might it look like, and do you know which strengths you could call upon and which inner obstacles it is time to set aside?
If you are unclear on any of this, it may be time to get muscle testing and see what comes up for you!
Feature image by Patrick Fore on Unsplash
