Pulled Between Your Greatness and Your Smallness

(This article represents the main themes that inform the
Waking Up to the Heart of Care workshop)

Most of our waking moments are spent functioning between our most elevated greatness... and our reduced smallness.

Here's the thing.

We all live out our lives in the middle, average in relation to our full range of potential ways of experiencing, relating and behaving.

At our average, day-to-day level of functioning, we are operating in a somewhat mechanical way, on auto pilot and where comfort and balance are our main objectives.

At this average level of functioning, we are operating in a way that is generally appropriate for our level of development, neither consistently going above and beyond ourselves nor falling back and below ourselves.

For example, in any moment each of us could be
more or less tense,
more or less open,
more or less self-centered,
more or less aware,
more or less confused,
more or less generous,
more or less kind,
and more or less of a countless variety of other desirable and undesirable traits and states that define our present level of development and functioning.

We could almost always function better or worse than we usually do.
Period.

That is how it is, was, and will be, for each of us, until the day we die.

At the same time, we've also had experiences of greatness, when our deepest wisdom, love and kindness comes to the front of who we are.

Circumstances sometimes lead us to rise to our highest and most integrated ways of behaving and relating. At these higher levels of functioning, we have temporarily risen to embody our most mature and evolved ways of seeing and being.

In these experiences, we go beyond our everyday, normal selves, acting and speaking with a precision and compassion that seems out of character for us, even though it feels natural and effortless.

We seem to be in touch with a deeper or more complete kind of intelligence, where we function with a frictionless flow and our actions are spontaneous and graceful.

In these experiences, we may feel as if we have finally let go of the steering wheel of Life and are actually being lived by something larger than we are. We are expansive, fluid and open, larger than the boundaries that usually define us.

We have temporarily embodied our deeper potentials and are expressing who we are beyond fear, confusion and separation.

Alternatively, we've also had experiences of smallness, when our deepest fear, confusion and impulsiveness comes to the front of who we are. Circumstances (inner and outer) sometimes cause us to regress to old and less evolved ways of behaving and relating.

At these lower levels of functioning, we have temporarily lost our ground and fallen back to old and unhealthy ways of seeing and being.

We become stuck in patterns of impulse and reaction, where self preservation, safety and security are our deepest values.

In these experiences, we seem to shrink beneath our everyday, normal selves, acting and speaking with a confusion and closure that also seems out of character for us, even though it also feels so familiar.

We seem to be possessed and consumed by old ways of seeing and relating, where we function with a fearful clutching and grasping, frantically trying to restore the ground that feels like it has disappeared from beneath us.

In these experiences, we may feel as if we have gone to war with ourselves and our environment, and we are desperately battling something stronger and larger than we are. We are contracted, closed and smaller than the boundaries that usually define us.

We have temporarily regressed into our past ways of acting and reacting, becoming fearful, childish and impulsive.

We all function within a range of possibilities, from our average, day-to-day level of functioning, up to our very best, and down to our very worst.

In the examples of both our greatness and our smallness above, there are many factors or conditions that play a part in how those experiences unfold.

When the conditions are 'right', if you will, the possibility of our greatness or our smallness coming onto center stage are greatly enhanced.

What are the conditions that support us in our greatness and compel us to smallness, and can they be managed?

The answer is a resounding YES! I will show you how.

If this article rings true to you, maybe it's time to go deeper with the
Waking Up to the Heart of Care workshop

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* 2011 All Rights Reserved.

Aaron McNaught, aka "The Wake Up Guy", is the author of five books, a Life Coach and Transformational Speaker who practically owns the term. (Google "Transformational Speaker" in quotes and see for yourself). Aaron is known for his demonstration of awakeness and has committed his life to bringing light into the world.

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