Today, I gobbled down two chicken-halves and some mashed potatoes. That was a lot. The other time I was still hungry after a single half, and this time around I was stressing out over barely finishing the meal. I needed to sit down for a bit. I picked a sunny spot. Me being me I took some time to meditate and suddenly I had an epiphany: “We are afraid of ourselves, and that is what life is.". Believe me, this was not the chicken talk, but I had finally figured something out. Let me elaborate…
Each of the following life-lessons are generally known individually. I ordered them by topic for better structure.
- Inside is outside
- We are responsible for our own experiences. We have something to do with what is happening to us and what we struggle with.
- From psychology we also know that we try to explain new experiences based off of past experiences. We project what we know onto the unknown to be able to fathom it. Especially in social situations, we project what we know about ourselves onto others. If we are honest, or restrict ourselves to honesty, we are surprised or even pissed off if we encounter dishonesty.
- If we can change our perceptions, we can change the world. This is because it is through our experience that we see the world. If we change that, the world changes.
- We hold ourselves back from moving on
- From a background of psychology, we know that we need problems. In “Conversations with God” the authors states rightly that we often wouldn’t actually dare to get rid of our problems. They are vital to our lifes. They give us direction and overcoming them becomes our meaning. Losing them could be fatal.
- We move on from things when we are “ready” to do so. This is especially true when moving on from an ended relationship, and this is equally true for other obstacles which we are finally able to move on from. There is no restriction from outside on the pace of this, but we do this ourselves, one way or another.
- Advice is often felt as a nuisance. We want to figure stuff out ourselves, and we sometimes get annoyed about unwanted help. People who generally give advice are not necessary liked. We are in different forms of misery, but we don’t want to get catapulted out of that. Or maybe we think we want that and then we find an excuse to get off the catapult.
- Moving on involves directed action and overcoming fear
- You may recall from your own life experience, sometimes it’s easier to live with a dirty lie, than to face the overwhelming truth (this is where fear comes in!). It takes courage, self-reflection and the will to grow to do so. You take the next steps, and it is like taking off a chain, which you put upon yourself. Maybe the environment inclined you to do so, but you took the action. You always do.
- A similarity can be seen in chiropractics. The practitioner may adjust our spine, but our own day-to-day behavior will revert this, if we don’t change our habits. We’ll fall into the same old pattern, into the misery that we created but reject.
If we’re merely experiencing ourselves in others, any problem that we face, be it outside or inside is a problem with ourselves. If we on some level pick our problems to stay safe and move on when we feel ready, while facing the truth and overcoming a problem involves facing fear, this means we are afraid of the Truth. While again every problem is more or less a part of ourselves, or at least strongly related to ourselves, this leaves one logical conclusion: We are afraid of ourselves.
We are afraid of ourselves. This is the only reason we don’t move on from everything entirely and instantly. The reason we’re not enlightened, so to say. It is because we are afraid, and not because of what is out there, but from ourselves.
All the self-revelation and this learning-process we’re in, is just that: Learning to lose the fear of our own self. Not being you, or what can be called “your full potential” is just that: You’re still afraid to be the things that you are.
This is a great conundrum of life.