“The soul is a treasure chest; hidden inside of it are priceless jewels.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo
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There is treasure inside of you, yes, you! How do you find it? Get fascinated by discovering yourself. Approach it as a mystery to be solved, watch for clues, see the patterns, piece together the big picture.

The point is to get interested, even fascinated in exploring your inner self because this is who you came here to be, to express, to explore and to offer the world. You are the only one of you, the only one who can offer to the world the particular brand of genius that is yours to give.

I love this idea because I’ve spent much of my life feeling that others were more interesting than me, more lovable and with more to offer. I’ve spent most of my life figuring out how to please others, learning how to read their moods and their motivations. I’ve mostly ignored or sought to be free of my own moods, my own motivations, feeling unworthy of attention, believing that others deserved my attention more.

Yet, as we open to Spirit, we grow to believe in the I AM, our God Selves, our intuitive guidance and inner wisdom. We grow to believe that our own happiness and inspiration are our guide.

Think of the great artists, musicians, painters and writers. They all have something in common, a drive to explore inside, bringing out to the world what is within themselves. They are fascinated with that inner exploration and treasure hunt. It is as if they are painting their soul for the world to see, composing their essence for the world to hear, going deeper and deeper until they are expressing their pure energy here and now.

Each one's soul is constantly changing and evolving and that is why we are never finished creating. When the great science fiction writer, Isaac Asimov, was asked what he would do if he only had weeks to live, he answered, “I would write faster.” Clearly, he had much more of himself to bring forth.

Can we too get fascinated with the exploration of what is right there inside of us? Can we discover new and amazing views within and around each corner of our inner landscapes? Can we allow ourselves to become fascinated by what is inside waiting to be expressed with each new day?

Is this what it means to fall in love with your Self? Your Self is that part of you which is God expressing through you. Can we become fascinated, intrigued, attracted, even a little obsessed with expressing more and more of our Selves?

It's a treasure hunt for the myriad expressions of our Selves. Finding the clues, piecing together the puzzle. Seeking God’s expression through our everyday lives. Focusing our attention upon our Selves, rather than our small, ego selves.

Distracted by the demands and details of daily living most of us focus our attention on the ego self, in an attempt to fix and make better, stay organized and on top of things. Now we can turn that around. We can allow our ego selves to do what they do, taking care of the details of daily living. We can love our egos for the role they play. Yet we can focus predominantly upon our Self-expression, the expression of our Higher Selves in daily life.

Doing this we can look for and pay attention to the expressions, messages, inspirations, movement, joy, attractions, and guidance of our Higher Selves. We can be like the great artists and explorers and make each day a treasure hunt for our Selves, bringing forth more and more of who we truly are.

“When your inner child feels secure with you and you mend that relationship, you mend that connection with intimacy, love, respect, trust, and speaking the truth with each other. When that occurs your whole life shifts.”
-Red Feather
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Red Feather looked at me through Maitreya Zohar’s eyes, at the channeled group I attended recently. He asked me,

“Holly, where in your life are you not keeping your commitments to yourself?”

I thought about it. I had several choices. I gave my answer, avoiding the obvious choice. I wasn’t ready to face that one publicly yet.

I’m ready to face it now.

Several years ago, I lost twenty-five pounds using EFT, tapping on the statement, “I choose to eat only when I’m hungry, and stop when I’m a little bit full.” I made healthy food choices, exercised and did whatever else I felt inspired to do at the time.

I enjoyed the changes in my body throughout the whole process. I felt proud of my accomplishment. It felt wonderful to follow-through with my choice to lose weight.

Over this past year or so, I’ve gained thirteen of those pounds back and I’ve felt frustrated and angry with myself. Clearly, I hit my upper limit for feeling good about myself. Read more about upper limits in the post, “Is Bliss Too Scary?”

My commitment to myself was to lose the weight and keep it off. I have not kept that commitment. At least, not yet.

I happened upon a YouTube video of Esther Hicks channeling Abraham and discussing weight loss. Abraham spoke of keeping your promise to yourself to take the actions that make you feel that you are doing the right thing for your body.

Because you feel better as a result of taking these actions you raise your vibration. This allows ideas, guidance and inspiration to flow. You put yourself in a place where you can receive what you need to manifest what you want in your life.

The key is keeping your commitment to yourself by consistently doing the actions you have chosen to do.

Why is keeping your promises to yourself so important? Who’s to know but you?

And that is the crux of the matter – you know.

When you keep the promises you make to yourself, you learn to trust yourself. When you know you can trust yourself, you can feel good about yourself.

“I will do this for myself.” And you do it. “I choose to take care of myself in this way.” And you do. “I choose these actions to support myself.” And you follow through, doing those actions.

Trust builds up over time. The more that you can trust yourself, the safer you feel within and the better you feel about yourself. The better you feel about yourself, the higher your energetic vibration and the more you open yourself to guidance, inspiration and ease of creating what you want in your life.

How do we first learn trust? We learn from the adults in our lives when we were children.

When you make a promise to a young child it is important to follow through on that commitment. For example, when I tell my grandchildren that I will take them to their favorite playground today, I do my utmost to follow through on that promise. If for some reason I cannot, I explain why and then make sure that we go to the playground as soon as possible.
Why is that so important? They will play happily wherever they are. Does it really matter if we go to the promised playground?

Yes, because it is about keeping commitments, not about the playground.

When I keep my promises to my grandchildren, they learn that when I say I will do something I do it. Through that modeling, they learn responsible behavior. They learn that commitments made, matter. They can feel safe in this knowledge. They learn that promises made to them are important, because of this, they learn that they are important. They learn self-worth by the adults in their lives following through on promises made.

It is the same when we make a promise to ourselves. For who are we really making that promise too? Our inner child. Our inner child needs to know that we will follow through on promises made. In this way our inner child can feel safe. She can feel that she matters. She can know that she is worthy.  She gains in self-respect.

Speaking the truth with your inner child is all about keeping commitments made. You say you are going to do something and you do it.

When you offer yourself that level of commitment each day, you build trust and self-worth each day. One day at a time, as Red Feather says, “your whole life shifts.”

“I have free will, but not of my own choice. I have never freely chosen to have free will. I have to have free will, whether I like it or not!”
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-Raymond Smullyan,  Is God A Taoist? from The Tao is Silent


Our last two posts in Know Thyself  covered the basics of the subconscious mind according to Huna teachings. Now we’ll move on to a short description of the conscious mind and a more in-depth look at the superconscious or higher-self as taught in Huna.

The conscious mind is our logical “adult” self. It is reasonable and intelligent. It is the planner, the organizer and the thinker. It is unemotional. The conscious mind communicates well with words, speaking its thoughts both internally and out loud. Of your three minds, you may be most familiar with your conscious mind because this is where most of us live on a day-to-day basis. If the subconscious mind is the gas in the engine of your car, the conscious mind is the driver, steering your life this way and that according to your consciously determined desires.

Huna philosophy teaches that the higher self or superconscious self is our God/Goddess-within. The higher self is that divine spark living within each of us. It is also so much more, more than it is possible to understand from our current level of development. However, it is possible to understand some functions of the higher self related to creating what we want in our lives.

The higher self is your master of energy. If you imagine for a moment the 3-D world we live in as an enormous holographic construct, the higher self is the computer genius who creates, programs and updates all the files manifesting as your life. However, and this is important to understand, because of the Law of Free Will, it is you, your conscious and your subconscious, that determine what is being programmed.

The higher self is also your source of guidance and inspiration. It has the ability to communicate with the higher selves of all other beings, and so bring you unlimited ideas, support, and synchronicities in your outer world. Your higher self is able to act as a sort of telephone operator allowing you to receive information and guidance from higher spiritual levels.

The language of the higher self is symbolic. It communicates through dream symbolism, bodily responses (chills, tingles, feelings, as interpreted through the subconscious), intuitive understanding, visual images, and symbols in your outer world.

Your higher self may do all this for you, but because of the Law of Free Will it may not do so unless invited by you. This is an invitation only party and your higher self may only watch lovingly from the sidelines until invited to participate.

The difficult piece for most of us is that in the absence of a positive, consciously intended and supportive belief system the subconscious may ‘ask’ without conscious awareness, so that the higher self will manifest the wounded beliefs of the subconscious, thereby supporting the supposed truth of those beliefs. Free will is just that, free.

Our lesson and our opportunity according to Huna, is to learn to use our free will in a positive way rather than have it determined for us by negative beliefs and old wounds buried in the subconscious mind.
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In our next post we’ll explore the Huna method for communicating with your higher self through the practice of breath supported prayer.