We are our greatest ally and we are also our most bitter rival.  As much as we have the potential for boundless creation and life, we possess the possibility for devastating destruction and death.  We have the inherent ability to inspire and support our selves and others.  We also have the learned inclination to thwart and disempower.  The extent of our existence is the measure of our expression, with whatever nature we choose to live.

Before our ego rises with the passage of our innocence, we possess a natural yearning to support those around us to thrive and expand their consciousness, thus fulfilling upon and relating to our own.  Though it would appear that the pendulum swings to and fro between our spirit’s aspiration to express this sacred service and our ego’s agenda to recover the power it believes it has lost.  This human equilibrium eventually lulls us into a hypnotic state of duality, entrapping us into the eager embrace of two-dimensional existence. Eventually, our personal power soon follows.

Many of us are unaware of the negative elements of our personality and behavioral patterns that may lead to our decline and eventual demise, let alone the positive qualities that guide us into the domains of our transformation and destiny.  Even more of us are oblivious to the impacts and influences these characteristics may have on our lives and the lives of others.  Whatever choice we make to be the best of ourselves or the worst of ourselves determines whether or not we are the heroes of our lives, or the villains.

Ever wonder why it seems like we are working against ourselves?  As though an unseen force stands between us and the life we were born to live?  A presence that hides in the darkest recesses of our being, waiting, ever watchful, ever patient and ever-present for the perfect opportunity to impose its force and influence over us.  It is our “INeME” (inner enemy).  As soon as we become conscious to its existence within us, it retreats back into the shadows to await another opportunity to wreak havoc upon our lives.

Many of us mistake our INeME as our “dark side,” “our evil,” or even depict these parts of our being as our “inner demons.”  When confronted with the truth of ourselves, most of us would opt to point the finger at others, thus furthering the contrary agendas of our INeME.  Yet this is false and in most cases may prove to be as harmful as our unchecked imaginations running away with our energy and our lives.

We would probably be amazed at how often during the course of a day this happens and how much of our personal power we sacrifice.  It is astonishing when we reflect upon how the quality of our life is diminished by the meanderings of our own willful perceptions, agendas and dramas.

Our INeME hypnotizes us through the monotony and triviality of daily life.  The clouds of our own collusion and indifference begin to form with our constant, catatonic consent.  We become lost in a dark forest of ourselves, reaching out and clinging to anything we may find in the hopes of making sense of our self-endorsed confusion.  We even begin to believe that there is worth in our drama to the degree that we defend it with everything we believe we are.  Eventually, we submit to the adversity, opposition and anarchy of our INeME.  We fall prey to its trappings, triggers and stimuli, as we hand over the last remnants of our personal power.

It is only with consciousness we may discover who the real oppressor is in our lives.  It is only then we may realize who we are truly up against.  An adversary that is second to none.  Someone we will never evade, defeat or escape.  We give our power over to our INeME whenever we fail to acknowledge, claim and express it.  The INeME is the part of us we rarely see or know exists.  It has been pulling our strings in ways more clever than we could have ever envisioned.  It is the veil we pull over our eyes that hides us from the truth of ourselves.

There is an eternal force within us that is similar to the current of a river.  For most of us, this current runs one way for the majority of our life, from our ego to the rest of our being.  It does not flow “our” way, though we condition ourselves to believe it does.  It directs us from a place intertwined within the multi-faceted intricacies of our mind.  It is a perfect internal storm of our base animal instincts, our unbridled thoughts and our unhealthy emotions associated with attachment, expectation and entitlement.

Amidst this inner storm, we may feel victimized and repressed.  Not by our family members, friends, employers, communities, society or reality.  Yet by our very own patterns and behaviors we have enabled and sustained through our unconscious and selfish desires and lifestyles.  This is a self-imposed illusion.  It only seems this way because of the power we give to our external experiences.  Beyond the linear perception of life and reality, we cannot just be the victims.  We are also the antagonists.  Though it may be difficult to identify and accept, we are our only INeME.

Our contemporary society simply does not prepare us to exercise the integrity and intention it requires to fulfill on the accountability and purpose of being human.  Nor does it preserve, encourage or value our responsibility to evolve, expand and express our consciousness.  Our world is rampant with distractions to draw the focus of our awareness away from transcending and exceeding our selves.  Yet, the distractions we may encounter around us are merely a reflection of the disruptions we invent and sustain within us to discourage us from confronting and overcoming our INeMe.

Our INeME is only as powerful as we enable it to be with our unconsciousness and fear.  It can be befriended.  Our very perception that it is against us grants it even more influence over us.  It is what we create it to be.  When we choose to accept it for what it really is, it becomes a potent ally.  The INeME is simply the mirror image we reflect to the world.  The greatest gift we can receive from our INeME is claiming the opportunity to transform it from our inner villain to our inner hero.  Only then will we emancipate from the slavery of our self.  Only then will we become who we truly are.

Iam Saums is an author of articles on community, consciousness, creativity, music and transformation.  He has been featured on numerous websites, publications and social media.  His vision is to empower and inspire community through creativity.

“We are only as conscious as we are present to being.”