The full self is what you find every time you enter the now.

The tree of self grows from the humus or soil of your being: humility. In humility, the tree grows. Practically, this tree is your thoughts and behavior, the choices you make, and the situations in which you allow yourself to become involved. Once you are an adult, there is no aspect of this tree that is not your responsibility. But this responsibility is not so easy to manage. It requires a strong, clear sense of self.

The sense of self functions just like the sense of humor. A sense of humor is the ability to recognize funniness when you encounter it. With a strong sense of self you recognize yourself. You are able to find yourself at any given moment under all circumstances, manage your weaknesses, and access your strengths. You feel your way, reflexively, into the truth about yourself no matter what you feel, no matter what is happening around you. From the place of self you can endure or enjoy any situation fully.

The full self is what you find every time you enter the now. That's why going to the now is vital for inner growth. Only there can you see what you really need. Nature and life provide access to the now through pain, shock, sudden joy. But the sense of self helps you find your way back there on purpose. What you do every time you step into the present is reestablish your connection to yourself. A lie cannot live in the now, in the now there is only 'what is.' There is only truth. It's like a place we wander away from. While we're gone we experience all kinds of illusions, cravings, dissatisfactions, distractions. When we return we find reality happening. We find the truth. We find the self. It may be unpleasant, even unbearable, but it's real.

But the now is also the seed bed of realization. Any possibility is just a possibility until it takes root in the now. Once that happens, the merely possible becomes actual. Real change, real growth, real relief from suffering, real joy, take place only in the now. A strong sense of self is connection to the now, where all the information we ever need is available. With a feeble sense of self, all experience of the now is reduced to a default minimum and deliberate access to the now is difficult. As the sense of self grows, so does the ability to access and remain in the now. 

Rooted in the self, in the now, a person can distinguish between the subtle forces of distraction and the steady hum of reality unfolding. With strong sense of self the negative people and situations become easier to see, to manage or avoid. People who would hurt or manipulate you can't approach undetected. You will know that this man or woman is not for you, that this situation is not for you, and you will have the strength to act on your own behalf. In the same way, you will know and respond to good things, healthy situations. You become heliotropic toward the sun of healthy, creative life. 

Much of the difficulty endured by the weak sense of self simply disappears when that sense of self is strengthened. Bad situations are nipped in the bud and do not trouble you. You may not even recognize them. You may never have known them for what they were, but you will feel their absence in the form of freedom, peace, energy and a tendency toward joy. Life will still contain vicissitudes, but you will not confuse these vicissitudes with the length and breadth of reality. And you will not confuse them with yourself. This posture will become more and more stable as your sense of self grows. To cultivate the soil of humility is to nurture the sense of self. If you do this the weeds of distraction wither and die. Your weaknesses become accessible and available to development. Your strengths move to the surface and stand at the ready. The lies you have heard or told yourself about yourself are deactivated, gelded of power, and cease to be operative in your choices and attitudes. When you cultivate humility, you develop a soil in which only truth can grow.

Ever forward.

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