Let It Begin from Within in 2010.

It's a cute jingle but what does it really mean anyway? How can this be helpful to you in your real life?

The intention of this article is to provide you with something that is both inspirational to feel and practical to do to begin from within in 2010.

We human beings occupy a unique place in the world. We're said to have both an animal nature and divine nature. Think about it, like animals, we certainly have survival needs, desire to experience pleasure and want to be powerful. Don't you? This corresponds with the lower three chakras that we share with the animal kingdom. Yet, we can and often do feel compassion for others who have no direct connection to us, are at least occasionally creative and have the capacity for self refection. This corresponds with the upper chakras, or our higher nature. As far as we know, there is no evidence that animals have developed this kind of higher nature, yet (our own pets excluded, of course).

This is the year to fully embrace your full nature. Embrace your wholeness! As a unique human being you are designed to experience meaning, aliveness, pleasure and to put to use your unique strengths to work in the in world in ways that add life to your years and years to your life. If you don't regularly experience all three domains of meaning, passionate aliveness and pleasure, you're not living your fullest life. And, research in the field of positive psychology reveals that the number one way to live a happy and fulfilling life is to find ways to utilize your strengths in ways that are meaningful.

You can begin from within in 2010 by taking these simple and practical steps:

Discover your unique gifts and strengths. Then investigate unique ways to develop and express them. You can take a brief signature strengths inventory for free by registering at AuthenticHappiness.com.
Consider the activities that provide you with the most meaning in your life. Take a moment now to determine specifically what these activities are? Write a few of them down. Then, inquire into the essence of what makes these activities so meaningful. Once you've discovered this, you can let yourself wonder about what other meaningful activities to engage in this year.
You can do the same process with the activities that cause you to feel passionate alive and those that you find most pleasurable. Get the idea?
No matter what your outer circumstances, you can find meaning, aliveness, pleasure and learn to utilize your strengths in creative ways that will provide you with the peace, passion, purpose, power and presence of radical wholeness.

For a fuller experience, including your own personal MAP for utilizing your strengths to bring more Meaning, Aliveness and Pleasure into your life in 2010, check the MAPSS to Radical Wholeness One Day Workshop on the 16th at The Body awareness Center. Visit SOULutions website to learn more.

Author's Bio: 

Michael Casteel is an expert in emotional healing and transformation. His practice, SOULutions is also a transpersonal practice. This means that we incorporate the spiritual self that each one of us has and use these beliefs and experiences in the therapy. In short, we deal in matters of the heart, soul and Spirit. We work with our clients to find a complete state of wholeness which is the integration of the mind, body and soul.

"In my role as Transformational Life Coach, I think of myself as a sculptor of sorts. You may have heard the famous line by Michael Angelo when asked how he created the magnificent statue of David out of a simple block of stone, he responded: "He was in there waiting. All I did was the excavating. I just chipped away all that did not belong." So, with my clients, I play the role of being a soul sculptor; partnering with them to delicately chip away all that does not belong.We do this by softening the edges of old wounds and chipping away the self- limiting lies blocking them from realizing and revealing the magnificence of who they already are, in their Essence."

Michael has 30-plus years of experience studying and working with transformational psychology and emotional healing practices. His highly original and creative approach to emotional healing and life transformation blends modern psychology with the ancient wisdom of religious practices. He brings considerable passion to his work helping people release their emotional pain and end the feeling of being stuck and disconnected.

As the innovator of safe and unique transformational processes, Michael has guided many people to authentic spiritual experiences providing a new level of peace and awareness in their daily lives. He has extensively studied and personally experienced the healing effects of every part of his programs, practices and techniques used by SOULutions.

Michael holds degrees and certifications in many healing modalities including psychology, life coaching, theology, advanced hypnotherapy, rebirthing, energy medicine, breath therapy meditations, yoga, emotional release practices, Enneagram studies and Neuro-Linguistic Programming. As designer of seminars like the FIRE of Wholeness Breakthrough Experience, Embrace Your Shadow and The Breath of Life, Michael has presented to thousands of people all over the country, including the 2006 Alliance for a New Humanity with Deepak Chopra.

Michael is on a mission to contribute to the conscious healing and evolution of our planet, one heart and soul at a time. He does this by helping people heal the emotional wound and self limiting lies preventing them from experiencing their authentic self. Traditional therapy spends years negotiating with the ego or false self. In Michael's work he moves people beyond their ego to meet their true self, what he calls their Essence. Once clients make this spiritual connection, they can release and heal the emotional wounds that block them from living their fullest life. Michael is a native of Atlanta and currently resides in a townhome overlooking the Chattahoochee River with his partner in love and life, Leslie.