“Inner work” is an equal facet of our inspired work

It’s been a year. On a global scale, the stress, the worry, the uncertainty, the power struggles, the cruelty, the volatility, the crises have put us into a state. On a more granular level, many fear for their job security or business longevity, and most fret about their financial future. To contend with this reality, some have escalated their striving and efforting, or are “doubling down” in an attempt to cling onto some sense of control. However, others have come to the realization – this is not working. Instead, they have chosen to withdraw their focus from the outer world and free fall into the abyss of their inner work.

Inner work abounds

I have the good fortune of being able to work with numerous different individuals on a regular basis over the course of many months and, for some, years. This offers me the advantage of a broader perspective. When almost every person I connect with chronicles similar experiences at similar times, the pattern of what is transpiring at the level of consciousness becomes apparent. This awareness gives me context for the kind of support I can offer and also helps us all be comforted in knowing we are not alone.

Over this past year, with the greatest concentration being in the most recent months, it has been reported to me repeatedly that people have been immersed in a profound well of inner work. They’ve been confronting their most deeply embedded, old and unserving patterns – be they personal wounds, familial stories, cultural beliefs, or ancestral karma – and bringing them to resolution. They’ve been challenging the overlays of their identity, using terms like “shedding”, “releasing”, “dropping”, “ending”, and “letting go”.

Many have been confronting their most deeply embedded, old and unserving patterns and bringing them to resolution.

It seems we are the generations who are extricating ourselves from the oppression of our past individual and collective traumas. Whichever belief system you interpret this experience through (e.g. numerology, astrology, aspectology, etc.), this emancipation is happening throughout humanity. The only difference between any of us is how consciously aware we are that it is happening and what we will choose to do with our newfound freedom.

“Letting go” is allowing it to let go of us

A friend questioned me once, “What does it mean to ‘let go’ of something?” She wanted to know how does one do that exactly and where does the thing we let go of go? I don’t think she was actually seeking an answer from me, she had her own philosophy. However, for me, “letting go” is not about moving something away from us. Rather, it is about moving closer to ourselves.

We each have old patterns that historically we have used to enshroud ourselves for the sake of self-preservation. Those patterns once served an important protective function, however, at this stage in our personal evolution, we are recognizing that function is no longer effective nor is it necessary. In fact, it has been inhibiting us from embodying our true nature. So, in this regard, I perceive “letting go” as another way of saying “I choose to stop engaging with that which no longer serves me”.

“Letting go” is saying “I choose to stop engaging with that which no longer serves me”.

To stop engaging with those old patterns means that we simply stop giving them our attention. As we begin to relate to ourselves in new ways, the old patterns that once upheld our reality, which had seemed so immutable, then begin to break apart. The more we disengage from who we were, the more those patterns simply “let go” of us. Examples of this include:

• Our childhood wounds no longer sting. Others may still try to poke at them, but they no longer provoke any pain.
• Family dramas become uninteresting plays that are acted out by other players. We may still be involved, but we have rewritten our part of the script.
• Systemic beliefs that we previously accepted as “normal” no longer align with our world view. Though, we refrain from waging war with others who hold contrary beliefs because we know their beliefs do not determine our experience.
• The suffering that had been passed down through generations, which we wore like a customary cloak, no longer suits us. As we reconcile the truth within ourselves, the torment our ancestors endured transmutes into peace.

The fascinating thing about these shifts is that there is no effort involved other than turning our attention away from the old patterns. They just fade into obscurity on their own. This left me to ponder the question of not how do we let go, but who is doing the letting go?

The righting of the relationship with our whole selves

Our existence is a dance between all the dimensions of our being – our human being, our inner being, and the source of all being (i.e. God, The Universe, Source, etc.). As the patterns that used to form the outer shell of our identity dissolve, we enter into a more direct relationship with our whole selves. In my own personal journey, one of the key insights that has enabled me to let go of some of my old patterns was to get into right relationship with the various dimensions of myself.

I used to think it was the job of the “human” to accomplish all the inner work. But forcing the human part of myself to do the work that was never meant to be its role was ineffective, and often left me depressed. This only reinforced the message there was “something wrong with me”. When I finally surrendered my inner work to the realm of my inner being, it was like the weight of the world had been lifted. The irony is that my inner being had been the one doing the inner work all along. My human being had only been getting in the way. When I became consciously aware of this, my human self returned to its proper role, which is to be the dreamer, the one who imagines.

I also used to believe that it was the job of the human to realize the outcomes of my dreams. The effect of this belief was that I attempted to achieve results through sheer will and action alone. This made life extremely difficult and exhausting, and yielded piddly results. Now I understand that generating reality is the role of source. It uses the gift of energy to conjure that which the human has dreamed up so that we can experience it in our lives.

Of course, the above is all an oversimplified account of how we effect reality, but my point here is that it is a three-being game – and the game is much more fun when all the players are involved. If I were to summarize the roles of each of our beings in relation to our work, I would outline it as such:

• Human being: to dream, allow, and experience
• Inner being: to self-realize, integrate, and create
• Source of being: to respond, generate, and evolve

In recognizing ourselves as all three of these dimensions, we begin to treat ourselves in the way that we actually deserve – with respect, value, and love. The energies then form new patterns that allow us to experience a new reality as the sovereign beings that we are. For many of us, this is a new way of approaching our work.

The effect on our outer work

Over this past year, numerous people have also expressed to me, “I’m not really focussing on my work right now as I am contending with my ‘inner work’.” However, I believe it’s important to reiterate that to be occupied with our inner work still means we are doing our inspired work. Our inspired work is comprised of both facets: “inner work” and “outer work”. They are synergistic. They inform each other.

One of the main benefits of doing our work in the world is that it helps to mirror where we are holding ourselves in limitation within so that we can liberate ourselves from those old patterns. As they let go, it can take time to reintegrate those aspects within ourselves, which is also a very important part of our inner work. The more we recognize ourselves to be whole, the more fully we can show up in our outer work.

The core value of our inner work is that is allows us more direct access to our inspiration. Instead of working from necessity or in an attempt to overcome our limitations, we are able to allow what wants to come forth from the level of pure consciousness.

Instead of working from necessity or in an attempt to overcome our limitations, we are able to allow what wants to come forth from the level of pure consciousness.

So long as we maintain right relationship with our whole being, our work flows through us more effortlessly. The natural result is that our outer work becomes more abundant and more creative. Because we allow its creation to happen from an aligned place within, we can trust that our work is also in its highest service to us and to humanity itself.

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It’s been a year. An incredible year of growth and evolution for many of us. As the world around us crumbles, so, too, have our old patterns. The grip of fear is being replaced with the hope of a bright new world. A world where we all live in ease and flow. With it, we welcome a new paradigm of work, one where what we do in the world is a joyful expression of who we are. May we all be so blessed as to live our inspired work.