Our mind serves us. It provides us with the opportunity to learn from our past, and it enables us to become truly responsible for planning our future, based on the lessons learned. All that, to ensure survival.
SURVIVAL, however, isn't what we should be focusing on ALL THE TIME.
Replaying our past mistakes, living in regrets, feeling guilty, we get easily caught up in a LOOP of unproductive and negative thinking. Not knowing how to learn our lessons and move on, we are likely to live in constant fear due to negative thinking patterns. We cannot change what happened yesterday, and focusing on that prevents us from focusing on what is happening right now. It prevents us from feeling the joy of Life. We can completely miss the plot if we are not careful, if we don't learn about how our mind drives our life, not being aware of its ruling in the first place.
If you think that you don't have an Ego, or you don't care to know because you think you know better, it is your Ego talking. It is a clear sign that it completely rules you, that you no longer are in the driver's seat of your own Life, and that you became your Ego's SERVANT.
Re-living the past or worrying about the future in our minds is a learned habit, which like any habit can be RE-LEARNED... changed.... IF we can see that there is something wrong and are willing enough.
Awareness of a problem and determination to change it are two keys in breaking our pattern of habitual thinking: thinking WITHOUT using our intellect to deliver a solution.
If we don't learn the lesson from our mistakes, who shall?
If we don't forgive ourselves with compassion, who will?
If we don't make the decision to changes, who will?
How many times do we want to travel the same road we know all too well??
Many of us have not correctly grasped the true role of our Ego. We have misunderstood it, and misused it to gain a false sense of power. TRUE POWER is intrinsic and does not need to control another! It is felt in our Being as a knowing. Knowing that we understood life and discovered the secret of living happy. There is NO need to rule others because we have a total power over ourselves, including our Ego.
For many of us, our mind's power has grown in an incorrect direction. It no longer serves us well. Rather, it became CANCEROUS. It's survival role - to PRESERVE Life, is now serving to its destruction.
Top pharmaceutical companies are currently spending more on marketing than they are investing in research of drugs and cure. Politicians funding wars. Big food companies killing other species and destroying the planet's eco-systems by deforestation, overfishing natural habitats.
Ego's means of survival has become hunger for power.
Sadly, where there is the NEED for power there is Ego ruling others, covering up for it's weaknesses...
NOT KNOWING who we truly are, not being understanding of how our mind rules us, is the biggest weakness of our species. Because what makes us human is using our heart, having compassion for our own shortcomings, and for the shortcomings of others. True forgiveness cannot happen without understanding our own weaknesses first and foremost.
And for that we have to OWN our weaknesses.
The day I decided to ADMIT to myself that I have made mistakes, that I was wrong, that I indeed had Ego, I paradoxically felt stronger. It was because I took power away from my Ego, and back into my own hands. And yes, it brought many unpleasant feelings towards the surface. But when they washed over me and passed, I felt relieved. Relieved that I stopped lying to myself pretending who I was not. Do you know how much ENERGY it requires to keep lying to yourself?
I got my true power back. Power to deal with the lessons I was facing. Power to say 'No more lies.' Power to see what Life was trying to teach me and make appropriate changes. Power to accept true responsibility for my new choices knowing that no matter what happens, I refuse to pretend.
I knew that if I choose to lie to myself, I will never learn. I will never advance, evolve.
I knew that I would effectively DIE.... and I wanted to live.
Thank you for reading. If my article contributed to understanding yourself, please be generous and share it with others.
Copyright © 2016 Michaela Patel