As humanity approaches the brink of its own extinction, my thoughts have turned to a single question: What if anything will save them? The answer is simple but is likely not something humanity wants to hear or do because the answer lies, not outside of them, but within.

Along with casting blame outside of them, humanity also loves projecting solutions. They’re waiting for a messiah, a savior, the Second Coming – really anyone other than themselves to fix what is wrong and make everything right again.

The problem is that humanity did this to themselves by forgetting who they are while denying the inherent power they have within. Instead, they have attributed this power to gods, kings, priests, and popes. In this grand forfeiture, humanity created a hierarchy assigning value according to one’s place within the hierarchy, leaving most human beings out of the equation – thereby reducing themselves to slaves.

Humanity has become enslaved to the very people they gave their power to. The only way out of this imprisonment is for humanity to take their own power back, by remembering who they are. (Change NEVER comes from those who benefit from keeping humanity small.)

Remembering who we are, however, is easier said than done. It’s not something you can purchase from the latest new age teacher or shaman, neither is it something that can be completed in a weekend workshop or retreat. Instead, true remembrance can only be accomplished through a many-years long practice requiring discipline, persistence, diligence, and radical personal accountability.

Remembering who we are is a slow and patient process of identifying and stripping away the layers of who we are not in order to uncover the treasure of who we are. Then we have to practice what we are remembering until it is no longer just a practice, but becomes fully integrated within us.

Remembering who we are leads us to answering the following questions:

• Who am I?
• Whose am I?
• What are my unique gifts and how am I called to engage in them for my own fulfillment and then share them for the betterment of the world?

In a nutshell, remembering who we are is about identifying our gifts and then healing the infinite number of layers of woundedness, trauma, betrayal, rejection, and societal conditioning that has told us we aren’t gifted and our gifts don’t matter (have no value).

Remembering our gifts requires radical accountability, humility, and the willingness to be vulnerable. In this search, we become aware of the defense mechanisms we have honed so that we might have the illusion of being safe in an unsafe world. Those defense mechanisms might include: jealousy, self-righteousness, prejudice, racism (conscious or unconscious), sexism, a compulsion toward revenge, pride, manipulation, and more. We are also invited to explore our own place within the hierarchy and the privilege we gain from that, along with how we might use that privilege to elevate ourselves while repressing others.

Remembering who we are is the true hero’s journey. It takes courage, determination (often to the point of being stubborn), and the willingness to learn from our failures.  Because, fail we will. Remembering and Being/Living are two different things.

Failure is predictable. When we gain a glimpse of remembrance, all our resistance to change rises up to challenge us. More than death, humanity fears change. As such, we cling to our defense mechanisms, we hang on to the status quo, we are terrified at the prospect of losing who and what we know.

Loss is integral to the journey of remembrance. More specifically – letting go. In order to live more and more fully as our true selves, we must let go of all that which hinders that remembrance.  This includes friends, jobs, relationships, places of perceived belonging, perceived status, etc. While we may find some measure of comfort in the familiar, there is no liberation or freedom there.

If humanity truly wants to be free, it must remember itself because at the heart of this remembrance is LOVE. Love, more than anything, is who we are. When we remember the Love that we are, it changes everything – how we move in the world, how we treat fellow human beings, how we come together in cooperation as a species, and how we treat our world.

Love is humanity’s only hope and is the key for each individually to find contentment in this life regardless of what is happening “out there.”