Integrity sounds like a moral issue, but it really isn't. It's just plain common sense. Integrity means wholeness, completeness. A person with wholeness can focus their energies in one direction. A whole person achieves their life's purpose without the dissipation of energies caused by internal conflicts. They get things done with ease, and then move on to the next activity which further pursues their sense of inner joy.

Imagine, if you worked for an employer who really should have given you a raise in salary many months ago. You want to go and ask for your long-overdue raise, but you're thinking, "Oh, God, I feel so guilty!" You may as well give up! At least, until you've resolved the issue of guilt.

Guilt and fear are, of course, part of the tradition that we have inherited from our forebears. That tradition is one of separateness. Separation of people into sexes, races, colors, religions. Then there's the separation of cities via competing sports teams, the separation of nations through battles and war. Even consciousness has been separated into subconscious, superconscious and regular waking states.

Separation is the opposite of wholeness. Separation divides, while integrity unifies. It's the difference in viewpoints between, for example, "Is your community Protestant or Catholic?" and the response, "Our community contains both Protestants and Catholics."

Integrity is inclusive. Separation is exclusive. Integrity is the ability to say "and" instead of "or." Integrity is wholeness, or completeness. Wholeness allows your energies to be directed towards any activity without them being dissipated by inner conflicts. Integrity, therefore, empowers effectiveness.

Integrity of mind, body and spirit begins with spiritual integrity. The traditions of guilt and fear come from the old reality, which is one of separation. Guilt and fear were primarily tools used to control other people. In the dawning new reality, we find it our responsibility to transform these tools of the dark ages. When your spirit feels crushed by a heavy feeling of guilt or fear, you can either:

a) Go into therapy. In highly stressful or severe cases, professional help should always be your first course of action.

b) Go into meditation to trace the feeling back to its source and find out who originally put that feeling fear or guilt in you. Then, when you understand the original purpose of that programming and its inappropriateness today, you can let it go.

c) Blow it away now, regardless of where it came from, using a statement of freedom, such as: "I now release this old reality and replace it with the unconditional love which flows through all of Creation. I am Infinite Being."

Today's inherited cultural baggage includes many subconscious archetypes. Among these are the ideas of oaths of obedience, poverty and chastity. Whether you have made these oaths in previous incarnations as a monk or a nun, or just inherited them along with today's cultural mindset, they can be equally debilitating. It is time for these unconscious, outmoded restrictions to go.

Oaths of obedience serve only those in charge of an institution. It has always been easier to be in charge as the anointed leader if no-one asks silly questions, like, "Do you really know what you're doing?"

Chastity reduces emotional problems in monasteries. However, in otherwise happy marriages, the same sense of chastity creates problems. Release any deep, inner suspicions that you should be "chaste for life" before your partner wonders if you're distancing yourself from them because you don't love them any more. Then, instead, you can be chased for life!

Poverty allows monks and nuns to focus on serving their institution. In today's commercial world, however, it causes ineffectiveness. If you harbor the suspicion that your bank account should be perpetually empty, then letting go of that belief in poverty will open up huge doors of personal freedom. In today's world, you can only pursue your greatest joys, especially during retirement, if you have the necessary resources. Travel, study, adventures and hobbies all take funds. At one time, a vow of poverty let you focus on your purpose. Today, however, it makes you miss out on most of the potential fun in life.

Here's how to release outdated, subconscious oaths of obedience, chastity, poverty, and anything else that crimps your modern-day lifestyle. When the time feels right for your own personal Declaration of Independence, enter a quiet state, and then declare: "By the power vested in me by my existence within Infinite Being, I now cancel all of those unconscious vows and obligations which no longer serve me. I release these now, and I replace them with the unconditional love which flows through all of Creation. I am Infinite Being."

Owen Waters is editor and cofounder of Infinite Being LLC. He promotes a philosophy of spiritual empowerment through inner connection to the source of your ultimate potential. For more Spiritual Words of Empowerment subscribe to his free weekly newsletter. For the full picture, read Owen's book, The Shift: The Revolution in Human Consciousness.

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