This past fall a class gathered to take a deep dive into the topics of Autonomy and Authority. Eleven of us from around the world took on the challenges and the promise of this work. First we opened up to an audacious concept that infinite possibilities are available to us at any moment. It is amazing to tap into this energy — that all you can imagine already exists waiting for you to grasp it! Then we had to examine deeply what is in our way of actually doing so. Each of us looked and felt our young emotional dependency, waiting for a parental figure, a gate keeper, to give us the permission we felt we needed as children. In this mindset someone or something was in the way of what we wanted — of all that was possible. We each had to answer the question — what do I really want when I wait and lean on another for all that is already waiting for me? This was a vulnerable place. I could feel each of us literally grow up a bit as we began to activate in our selves what we wanted from another.
Next we embraced another huge, expansive idea. If you focus inward and are willing to go through the uncomfortable emptiness, you will find everything! This is a challenging practice. We found constant distractions. And then we found that what was in our way was how we all give over our attention to outward authorities and wrestle with them instead of finding our own inner authority. The promise of an ongoing practice of turning inward versus reaching out is that we will experience vibrancy, aliveness and an unleashing of our innate creativity….