I believe that the ultimate in spiritual awareness is accepting and embracing every aspect of our humanity, which includes our monkey brain, inner critic, shadow self, etc. Accept it all! Without judgment, of course. Acceptance does not mean allowing our unconscious “loose threads” to control and define us. As long as these can stay hidden, they exert tremendous power over us. Yet, believing that the goal is to expunge these parts of ourselves, that arose from painful emotional experiences and are perfectly valid given our circumstances, actually keeps us from enlightenment, I believe.

Many have come to believe that the goal is to achieve a state akin to a perpetual magic mushroom experience. That’s not being human. Loving all of ourselves, even the parts that have caused us shame and embarrassment, and likely will again, seems a more human goal.