The opportunity to awaken exists when we allow ourselves to feel both the unresolved pain of our childhood wounding and our innate yearning for honest expression and loving acceptance.
In adulthood, some will feel the desire to awaken. The opportunity to awaken exists when we allow ourselves to feel both the unresolved pain of our childhood wounding and our innate yearning for honest expression and loving acceptance. Once grown, the wounded adult child—an adult living with a wounded child’s world view—can choose to enlighten, or come into right relationship with Self. These courageous adult children will begin to seek truth, to prioritize their own well-being, and to claim their right to be themselves in the world.
As we enlighten, we work toward the ideal of behaving responsibly—first toward ourselves and then toward others. Recognizing our unmet childhood needs leads to taking responsibility for giving ourselves the caring, tenderness, and guidance we needed as children but didn’t have.
As we enlighten, we embrace the concept of paradox, which is an exploration of truth. Paradoxical thinking lets us know that two seemingly opposing points of view can both be true at the same time. In the context of therapy, it is crucial to understand that we can feel sad, scared, and/or angry at people and situations in our lives, and simultaneously love those same people and have relationships with them, if we so choose.
People who choose to enlighten have the awareness and humility to recognize their own issues and make a commitment to address their own emotional and spiritual health. Their priority becomes nurturing themselves into wholeness, for the good of themselves and for all that their whole Self can bring to the world.