Becoming The best version of you in 2022

By Jojopahmaria Nsoroma

My self-shaming talk showed up, and for about 5 minutes I consciously believed that there was something wrong with me for being three times his age and not as financially fit. After that momentary and most-human lapse of sanity, I came back to my right mind—and to the truth: Being successful in life has very little to do with how wealthy or how economically challenged you are.

Recently, my Google News streamed me an article about the youngest self-made billionaire in America. He is currently 26 years old, and his estimated net worth is 3.2 billion dollars. Austin Russell’s company, which he founded when he was 17 years old, designs laser-based radar sensors for self-driving cars. Reading the article, which was all about his newly acquired 83-million-dollar mansion, had me immediately respond with jealousy and judgment. Then my self-shaming talk showed up, and for about 5 minutes I consciously believed that there was something wrong with me for being three times his age and not as financially fit. After that momentary and most-human lapse of sanity, I came back to my right mind—and to the truth: Being successful in life has very little to do with how wealthy or how economically challenged you are.

Although most of us want to believe that being wealthy and financially fit is the best version of ourselves, this is an illusion. The accumulation of wealth as a determinant of who is valuable in life (and who is not) is a very old paradigm and dysfunctional social conditioning. Ancient war lords oppressed and ruled over farmers just as medieval monarchs did to peasants, and plantation owners and other captains of industry did to slaves and paid laborers. History, and our hearts and souls, tell us that materialism is not a true measure of human achievement.

And yes, we currently live in a global culture where economic intelligence is necessary for having your basic needs met, accessing educational and health resources, or being a successful entrepreneur. Despite all of that, being the best version of you is not just about what you have or what you do in life. Being your best is truly about how loving, kind, compassionate, supportive, and truthful you are to others; and to yourSelf. It is also about how you choose to respond to the unexpected and unrequested troubles and challenges of life. One of my favorite quotes from the 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz, illustrates this beautifully. It is what the Wizard says to the Tin Man after he awards him a heart.

And remember, my sentimental friend, a heart is not measured by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.

​The year 2022, from an indigenous wisdom perspective, is the third part of the radical evolutionary shift in human consciousness that was set off by the arrival of the 2020 global pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, and undeniable impact of climate change. In the second part of this current shift, 2021, we experienced even more disruption and upheaval to life as we knew it before 2020, and even more awakening to and accepting of the fact that there is no going back. Now in 2022, we have the opportunity to establish new ways of having, doing, and being that is respectfully responsive to our new situation. By taking on the challenge to consciously become the best of who we are, we will automatically be creating a new Earth experience that is centered in love, not fear.

To become the best version of you, especially in 2022, you will need more than financial strength.

​You will need to embark on an emotional, spiritual, and physical learning journey. Why? Because being your best is not just an intellectual process. In the Epilogue of her best-selling memoir, Becoming, Michelle Obama shares her deep understanding of what becoming the best version of you truly means:

“For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. . . It’s all a process, steps along a path. Becoming requires equal parts patience and rigor. Becoming is never giving up on the idea that there’s more growing to be done.” (Becoming, Michelle Obama, Epilogue, pp.419-HC)

This journey of forward motion to which Michelle Obama alludes can also be understood as the natural evolutionary impulse of our Universe. We are here on this Earth to heal, grow, and transform. This also means that we will be given blocks to overcome, and which Michelle says we can overcome through patience, rigor, and a commitment to continuous learning.

I believe there are three universal blocks to our collective and individual forward motion, which are (1) ancestral wounds, (2) the dominance dynamic, and (3) stuck emotional pain. I also believe that 2022 brings a powerful energy to support us in the work we need to do to free ourselves from what was, so we can confidently, collectively, and healthily experience the best of who we are as humans. Below are my suggestions for how we can intend to move beyond each of these blocks:

1. Healing ancestral wounds: according to the science of epigenetics -- what we inherit non-physically from DNA, our individual wounds from our life experiences are rooted in the ancestral wounds that we carry. Unlike our ancestors, who had to focus solely on surviving through genocide, slavery, immigration, poverty, plagues, and centuries of war, we now have the luxury and the methods to consciously learn how to heal from those and any historical traumas.
2. Growing beyond dominance dynamics: the belief that only one group, one gender, one race, one country, one religion, one financial system, one living situation, or one perspective about life is more valuable than any other, has got to come to an end. We must dismantle this belief system that is detrimental and in direct opposition to societal well-being. We can consciously choose to grow and reprogram our minds to embrace the cosmic and spiritual truth that there are no disposable persons and that each one of us is here for a reason; and, too, that each one of us can ultimately contribute to making this beautiful planet a source of fulfillment for all.
3. Transforming stuck emotional pain: transformation refers to the experience of becoming more of what is a true reflection of our souls and our divine selves. Our essential purpose in life is to love and be loved in return. Any negative, painful, upsetting, or unloving situation we experience from others, do to others, and to ourselves, is evidence of our pain body (read Chapter 5 in A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle). This stuck emotional pain lives in our subconscious mind and grows very fast, until we choose to accept that any pain not transformed is being transferred. Transformation of the pain body is always possible, just like the miraculous transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. We can uncover how adverse childhood experiences have informed our unconscious self-image, consider how what we think, say, and do affects others, and go beyond the limitations and unhealthy conditioning of materialism as the measure of our success in life.

Becoming the best version of you is not an easy task, but it is a necessary one. I will conclude with this quote from renowned teacher and bestselling author, Gary Zukav, from his latest book, Universal Human: Creating Authentic Power and the New Consciousness:

Change in the macro occurs in the micro. The world is the macro. You are the micro. If you want to change the world, you need to change yourself. Creating authentic power changes more than you. It changes every collective in which you participate from the smallest to the largest . . . It changes your family, city, country, and your world. (Zukav, Universal Human, pp.6 HC)

About Jojopahmaria Nsoroma

​Jojopahmaria Nsoroma, owner and steward of Higher Expectations Consulting Collaborative, is a shamanic healer and innovator/influencer of human and organizational change. Since 1979, she has made significant contributions as a human services professional through a wide variety of educational and program leadership roles. In addition to her organizational and professional development work, Jojopah also provides spiritual coaching and guidance to individuals, broadcasts a weekly internet radio program (Wisdom Walk Talk), is a YouTube influencer (Wisdom Walk to Self-Mastery), and has published her first book, (Wisdom Walk to Self-Mastery: ancient wisdom for transforming pain). She currently resides in Santa Monica, CA where she can easily walk to the ocean, practice her skills as a classical pianist, and visit restored movie palaces in Hollywood.