I have regained my memory. – Bhaghavad Gita

Read the sacred writings of all the peoples on Earth. Through all of them runs, like a red thread, the hidden Science of attaining and maintaining wakefulness. – Gustav Meyrink

Early on we learn to give our power away. We sleepwalk through our choices and let others make some big decisions for us. There is always someone else who knows more or knows better and it seems easier to trust in them more than we do ourselves. But the truth is we are the final authority in our own lives and if we can trust our body, mind, and soul to know what is best for us the more we stand in our clarity and conviction.

But trusting our intuition or our gut isn’t always easy, instead we do what we are told, follow along with what everyone else is doing, or accumulate more hoping to fill the ever-widening gap within. We get lost in what others think or say and forget the possibility of deciphering our deepest longing and living from that truth. We forget to listen to the wisdom of the voice within and follow where it leads. Initiating ourselves is about actively reclaiming all the pieces of ourselves, it’s about listening to our authentic voice, honoring what we find, and integrating that into our everyday lives. It may be easier to look to another or an institution to do the heavy lifting but in the end the choices and chances to make real changes rest with us.

An important piece of the initiation into a more conscious way of living is remembering to trust ourselves above all others, to believe in the person we know ourselves to be without being swayed or lured by what others want from us or think about us. Our wholeness takes root when we are brave enough to trust our truest heart and live from there. To me this is what initiating ourselves is all about, remembering, and this is where the red thread comes in, it acts as a tangible reminder of all we are. It prods us to pay more attention and practice becoming more familiar with our inner voice until it becomes a reflex, second nature, our default. Living our truth is impossible if we don’t even remember the gifts we are capable of or already possess. If we remember to listen to our inner voice we’ll be pointed in the direction of what matters the most.

Initiating ourselves honors the passage from a time when we didn’t know who we were to a time when we are at home within ourselves. And now is the time to come home to the full truth of who we really are. It’s time to stop downplaying the wisdom we already possess. It’s time to remember and honor all the pieces of ourselves. The enlightened master Anandamayi Ma gave out the red thread as an initiation for women to remember their sacred divinity. Two thousand years of patriarchal usurping of religious authority has left women out of the divine loop even though for centuries she’d been at the heart of it. But the truth is all of us have forgotten our essential selves in almost every aspect of our lives. Remembering these missing pieces makes them more concrete and allows us to live that knowledge and in turn that knowledge has the power to reshape our lives.

What is it you need to initiate yourself into? More wholeness, more personal power, more love? Today is the day, initiate yourself into a life that holds deep meaning for you and start inhabiting every inch of yourself. Tie the red thread around your left wrist, or wear an ancestral piece of jewelry, or put a sticky note on your bathroom mirror. Keep reminding yourself of all you really are.

Remembering is the initiation. This is how we wake up. This is how we come home to ourselves.

kb