Multiple Versions of Myself

Every person wins the trophy for being the most f&^k%$d (messed) up.??Most of us have thousands of neuroses running at any given moment.??

Most of us think we could be doing it better, that we’re not enough, and that at any point now, someone is going to figure out that we’re just figuring it out as we go along.??

We’re also all geniuses, specifically and uniquely created with no identical version in all the multi-verse.? We are all exquisite.??We are art in motion. We are all incredible creations, luminescent stardust spinning atoms into the dance of life.??We cannot program a single robot to intuit, to derive or make meaning, to dream, to love, or to write poetry.??And, yet, the sum total of your stardust can make this type of magic easily.?????

I’ve been thinking about self-discovery lately.??It’s strange growing older.??You start to really understand how slow and painful lessons can be.??Sometimes, it takes years to fully circle your own orbits and loops, to have the same conversations again and again, before something just clicks, and you don’t have to travel that road any longer.?? Me, I tend to take longer than most.

Self-discovery takes many paths.??

• You can take the pain path.? It’s ok. ??You will find yourself by finding what frees you from pain.???
• You can take the conflict path.??You will find yourself by what gives you peace.??
• You can take the service path.?You will find yourself as you learn to serve yourself also.??

You can take any road you want.??For me, I’ve always chosen the harder road; others around me are always baffled that I chose the stairs rather than the escalator right beside me.??I’m sometimes baffled myself.??

I think part of coming to our whole is learning our parts.

• The animal version of you likes to work.? It wants to move. It likes release from tension.? It likes to relax.??It wants to eat and have sex.??It's taken me until 43 years old to finally understand that my animal really, really impacts my psychological wellness. My animal needs regular walks in the park, less chocolate, and more water. And, a few other things. I grumble about these needs, but damn if they don't show up again and again, as much as I would like to deny that I'm still just a big, dumb animal.
• The mind wants to be entertained.?The mind wants to be noticed.?The mind wants to be heard, understood.? And, the mind wants release as well.?We watch movies and lose our minds in dance or the slow drumming of the shower on our backs. Why? -- to find freedom from constant thinking.?

We have many “parts” to us.??In the Eastern traditions, they define consciousness as existing in “layers” – called Koshas.??

1. You have the body layer (the annamaya kosha) – literally: “the food layer.”??Ever had the experience of just eating a whole tub of ice cream??Yep.?You were stuck at the animal level of consciousness.??I have some high school friends who never went up from this level.
2. The second layer is the pranamaya kosha (the energy layer).??Ever had a day when you felt “low energy” or “high vibe”???Isn’t that a level of consciousness??How do you feel after reading an uplifting story??Or setting goals???Or deep breathing???Or watching puppy videos?
3. The third layer is the manomaya kosha (the mind layer).??This is really the mind / heart layer, as it includes emotions as well. This layer integrates the former two and reports on it.? It’s the narrator in your head and the feeling in your heart.??Have you ever had an hour going by just thinking??Have you been lost in a mood? Yep, you were stuck at that level of consciousness.??
4. The fourth??The Vijnanamaya Kosha – the higher mind, the true north compass, the Holy Spirit, the wise part of you that guides you.???Ever been deeply and soulfully inspired or had a "knowing" without words? Most of us only have glimpses of this part of ourselves.? In deep meditation, it’s there.?It’s not mind-based though, so it’s language isn’t expressed with words, but instead, it speaks in “knowings.”???
5. Finally, the anandamaya kosha is is wordless bliss.??This is the feeling of deep connectedness that comes from moments of pure Flow states, significant life moments like the birth of your child, in the peak of ecstatic dancing, or after a psychedelic opening.??This state of reality is wordless, the perfume of which is Love, Peace, and Joy.???People finding this layer of experience report a sense of connectivity to all life and a simultaneous feeling that we're all One, all is going to be ok, and life is basically Love expressing itself in millions upon millions of forms.

So many things are a paradox.??We exist as many layers all at once.?Part of human development, in my opinion, is coming to terms with each of these layers and using them wisely.??

• We can make better use of our body – eating better, sleeping more, exercising daily.??
• We can make better use of our energy – resting when needed, breathing more deeply, noticing when people or situations are vampirically sucking us.??
• We can use our mind directly – using more conscious language, setting goals or affirmations, re-directing negative thought loops.??
• We can seek more wisdom – from books, teachers, temples, churches, or from our own meditation practice.??
• And, finally, we can try to Love more deeply – in every moment possible.?

What would it be like if employee development programs focused on the WHOLE self of a being, not just the manomaya kosha? What if we helped our employees thrive at the level of their body, their energy, their mind, and even to grow into their higher wisdom through acts of service. What if employee development was focused on ALL our parts, not just one dimension of our expression?

Food for Thought (or your manomaya kosha)...

Cheers, Ryan Pride

**** Dr. Ryan Pride is the Co-Founder of theMokshaGroup.com - a Consulting Firm working with Fortune 500 companies across the world to create thriving workplaces and better HR departments. Innovation in the People space has been SEVERELY lacking. We're here to show companies the POWER and PERFORMANCE of empowering and optimizing human flourishing.