Over the years I have come to realize that there are two primary inner voices that direct the unfolding journey of our lives. These two forces are the Self of our higher nature and the self that is ego-guided. To make this distinction within us and to understand its impact on humanity is of the greatest importance. The following is a sharing of insight to encourage more personal awareness about the Self and the self:

Each of you has a higher nature. That Self can be understood as your wise mind, your soul, and the part of you that is infinite and eternal. This expanded Self is your onboard direct link to the source of all creation (aka God, Great Spirit, Allah, Divine Mother, Source Energy and by many other names).

This Higher Self communicates to you through your intuition, gut instincts, the knowing of your heart, and through the quiet voice of wisdom. You can hear it if you slow down and listen carefully. Most awareness, creativity and inspiration come from this Self. The part of you that seeks to fully express who you are and live with purpose is guided by this Self. This Higher Knowing understands you are connected to all life and to a greater universal force.

Each of you also has a self, a personality, an ego, which is usually the dominating internal voice in your life. The ego-mind’s survival mindset and a whispering current of self-doubt often drive this self.

This is the voice of fear inside - the voice of the inner critic. Listening to this voice you may hear worry or statements of not deserving and not being enough. The ego-self is also the part of you that is judging of others and is drawn into politics and religion as a way to make sense of the world. Its only sense of the infinite is borrowed ideas from the truths of others.

Now that you understand some of the basics of self and Self, let’s explore how this plays out on the bigger picture of the human journey here on the planet. The dominating mindset presently directing humanity is the self. This ego-driven way of seeing the world can be viewed every day on the news programs usually dominated by fear and the opinions of many who are sure they are right.

The power of fear has been used to influence human beings for thousands of years. When the ego is afraid, it wants nothing more than to survive. This is why government, corporations, politics and religion have mastered this art of spreading fear.

These influential social structures do their best to remind you of what you should be afraid of: terrorist, other beliefs and points of view, eternal damnation, socialist, cancer, fuel shortages, acid reflux, and on and on. The media has become a fear-spreading machine and most of us have fallen under its trance.

When you are afraid, you seek security. This is human nature. This is the ego-self running your life. This self is neither good nor bad or right or wrong; it is just about survival.

In this survival mind:

You are willing to give up freedom for security
You fear others, protect your family, and close your heart
You become angry because that is what fear thoughts create
You give up power to those who will protect you
You close your mind to ideas that make you uneasy or disrupt the status quo
You seek the safety of beliefs that others tell you will be better for you
You make other compromises that rob you of your innate aliveness, wisdom, wonder and joy.

The Higher Self is more a watcher, an objective observer. This Self is not pulled into fear or anger. It is centered in a peaceful stillness of trust in the greater human possibility and in the infinite wisdom and resources of the universe. You can feel this Self in moments of peace, of compassion, of insight and awareness, in the appreciation of beauty, while sensing the joy of the moment, when you are inspired in your creative expression and other times when you feel fully alive, purposeful and loving.

This Self has no fear because death is not an end but a mysterious doorway. Once you have a moments glance into the true magnificence of your own nature, fear drops away and you welcome what is in this moment.

Now that you have an idea of what these two aspects of yourself are like and how they act, you have the awareness you need to take greater control over which forces are driving you down the highway of life.

Here are ways to the see the two selves in interaction with the world:

The Self is a collaborator; the self is in competition with everyone.

The Self is about finding solutions that benefit us all; the self obsesses over problems, gets stuck in blaming and is almost exclusively concern about what benefits him or her.

The Self can step back and see its way around the dramas and barriers of life; the self slams directly into what is in the way and wonders why life is such a headache.

The Self is inclusive and compassionate; the self is exclusive and guarded.

The Self questions and has charge over its thoughts; the self blindly believes and is run by its own thoughts.

The Self lives in peace with itself and the world; the self runs madly about hoping to control everyone and everything.

This list can go on for a long time. The obvious point is the Self is a more positive and useful force in your life. You have already given the self plenty of practice to get things right. If you pay attention you see things usually become more of a mess.

So now the choice is yours, you can live in the light of the Higher Self or continue down the hit and miss path of the self. What will it be?

In the next month I am going to share with you an opportunity to further understand these concepts of self and Self. I am also going to offer you several ways to integrate this important information more fully into your life. The shift from self to Self as the directing force of your life will enrich your life in more ways than you can even imagine.