Arjuna said, My dear Krishna…my illusion is now gone. I have regained my memory by Your mercy, and I am now firm and free from doubt and am prepared to act. – Bhaghavad Gita

This quote is about seeing the unvarnished truth of who we are. Life lessons are how we collect the pieces of ourselves that really belong to us and show us what we’re made of. On the journey of life we meet people we connect with, find what we love to do, and come across new ideas. We begin to garner the strength to speak up, to venture out, to discover what resonates. We collect the courage to believe in ourselves, stop looking to others to complete us, and make more authentic choices. Then slowly we begin to remember the parts of our self that make us more of who we really are at a soul level. It can take a lifetime to remember and weave together all these threads of ourselves.

This is how we regain our memory, but it is complicated work. We never know what may trigger the truth and shatter the illusion. We can start by holding onto what has meaning and letting go of what doesn’t. Aligning ourselves with the things that click internally is how we start to build a deeper understanding of who we are. This is how we attune ourselves to the language our soul is speaking and navigate the deeper reality we so often gloss over or completely ignore.

Regaining our memory is simply waking up to who we really are and trusting that. I think of Julia Roberts in Runaway Bride cooking all those eggs to see which way she really likes instead of eating them the way her man-at-the-time does. This shift comes from paying more attention to what we really feel and what matters to us. Delicately following each of these threads is how we come back into communication with that force of nature that is deeper than our rational thinking, the layer that carries a magical and unknowable quality. Everything is revealed to us all the time, we just have to be alert enough to see what’s being shown.

Perhaps we can feel all we’ve forgotten hiding out there in the periphery, just out of sight, waiting and wanting to be remembered. There is a sadness in forgetting and an indescribable feeling when finally coming home to something long forgotten. Perhaps this time we understand a piece of ourselves at a deeper level or from a different perspective. This last line, I’ve regained my memory, is an ah-ha. It’s the moment when everything we are finally makes perfect sense. There is a healing that takes place when we remember these lost mysteries. Really it is the truth of ourselves that is the lost mystery.

The goal is to remember the true essence of our self that gets lost so easily in the chaos of wanting, desiring, loving and living. It is remembering that we have always been whole. The quiet still-point within us has all the answers locked away. We only need to listen to the subtler pull of our soul. (The whole of this blog is wrapped up in the infinite ways we can answer this question.) We each have our own unique path, we just have to begin listening to the small voice within. There are many things to help us find this quiet center, meditation, mindfulness, kindness, reading, walking in nature. The list is endless. The only things that are required are curiosity and follow through.

It’s finally time to remember the totality of who you truly are.

kb