Someone asked me a great question recently: “What is the purpose of self-realization.” It’s a big question and a deep one.

It’s good to ask questions, be curious, and appreciate the mystery in life and in us. To be inquisitive and to wonder are qualities never to outgrow. So it is with mystery, being comfortable with the things that mystify us–that seem beyond our grasp for this second anyway.

We are here on earth to realize and expand in spiritual potential while living in the earthly vehicle called our body temple. One of the main purposes of self-realization is to wake up and live from the fullness of our Divine inherent Spirit; to bless people and living expressions as we grow and evolve in self-understanding and awareness. We come to realize and express our innate and light-filled Spirit.

I offer an explanation of the word self-realization. The author of the quote, James Swartz, does not use the word definition. He states it is an explanation pointing to the meaning of self-realization: “The words self-realization and enlightenment are often used synonymously in spiritual literature to refer to the liberation of an individual from the sense of limitation brought about by identification with conditioned beliefs, opinions, fears, desires, and habits.”

On the journey of self-realization, life becomes less painful, more fulfilling. We tend to be spontaneous and less apt to worry, live in fear, and agree with negative reports and limiting beliefs. Tuned into our spiritual nature, fulfillment comes from within and less and less from the outer. Serving and supporting the well-being of others, springs from a consciousness centered in spiritual wisdom and love.

We can see the process of self-realization unfolding in the writings of well-known authors in the field of self-development such as Dr. Wayne Dyer. If you look at the titles and content of his books written through the years you see the steps to greater self-identification with his God nature. He called it the Source. Does not matter what he called it—he increasingly drew from and connected with the illumined Source of enlightened truth within himself.

Every one of us has vast inner potential and the Divine capacity for self-mastery and rising above ego. Likewise, an over-emphasis on materiality, outer labels and appearances lessen in us as we align with the Divinity within.

I recall a number of years ago meeting a gentleman who was hosting a church group one evening at his beautiful and spacious home in a well-to-do community. He told me it was the emptiness he felt within himself that led him to Unity Church. The gentleman’s life fit the definition of the American pinnacle—gorgeous home, car, well-paying and prestigious job. Yet he had a longing within for inner fulfillment the world was not giving him. He was beginning to feel a transformative and a transcendent liberating spirit inside his mind and heart. His eyes revealed happiness when he talked of being on a spiritual path.

The desire and design for self-realization already exist within us as our divine pattern of being and innate purpose. There is an eternal reminder inside us that whispers–there is more to us than materialization alone reveals. A New Thought teacher verbalized it this way: “You can only put off spiritual growth for so long.”

You are invited to a self-realization meditation in ‘Prayer of the Day,” dated July 24, 2015