{"id":155,"date":"2011-01-21T06:55:10","date_gmt":"2011-01-21T06:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lettinggo\/2011\/01\/stop-seeking-approval-and-own-your-own-life.html"},"modified":"2011-01-21T06:55:10","modified_gmt":"2011-01-21T06:55:10","slug":"stop-seeking-approval-and-own-your-own-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2011\/01\/stop-seeking-approval-and-own-your-own-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Stop Seeking Approval and Own Your Own Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>QUESTION<\/b><\/p>\n<div><b><br \/><\/b><\/div>\n<div>I know it&#8217;s a mistake looking to someone else for a sense of myself, but how can I keep from giving myself away?<\/div>\n<div><b><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-weight: normal\"><br \/><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<b>ANSWER<\/b><\/p>\n<div><b><br \/><\/b><\/div>\n<div>What good is any feeling we may have about ourselves, if it only lasts as long as others agree to it? Seeking and receiving approval from others is like sitting down hungry to an imaginary meal. You&#8217;re invited to eat all you want, but no matter how much imaginary food is served, you can never get your fill. Your hunger remains. No fictional feast ever satisfies. But we still look to others for our sense of self even though <i>the very moment it&#8217;s received, it must be renewed<\/i>. No one can give us that which can only be found with our Self. No one can give us the approval we seek, because it isn&#8217;t his or hers to give. And the more we understand the truth of this higher fact, the less inclined we&#8217;ll be to give ourselves away. We must do the needed inner work, which alone leads to owning our own lives.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>QUESTION I know it&#8217;s a mistake looking to someone else for a sense of myself, but how can I keep from giving myself away?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,3,73],"tags":[395,396,342,397,398],"class_list":["post-155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enlightenment-self-realization","category-fear-fearlessness","category-love-relationships","tag-approval-from-others","tag-being-popular","tag-confidence","tag-fitting-in","tag-self-esteem"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Stop Seeking Approval and Own Your Own Life - Letting Go with Guy Finley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2011\/01\/stop-seeking-approval-and-own-your-own-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stop Seeking Approval and Own Your Own Life - 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His ideas cut straight to the heart of our most important personal and social issues - relationships, success, addiction, stress, peace, happiness, freedom - and lead the way to a higher life. Finley is the Founder and Director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit Center for Spiritual Discovery. He is the acclaimed author of \"The Secret of Letting Go\" and more than 45 other books and audio programs that have sold over two million copies in 26 languages worldwide. His work is widely endorsed by doctors, business professionals, celebrities, and religious leaders of all denominations. Through Life of Learning Foundation, Guy has presented over 5,000 unique self-realization seminars to thousands of grateful students throughout North America and Europe over the past 20 years and has been a guest on over 700 television and radio shows, including national appearances on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and NPR. The Foundation's popular Key Lesson e-mails featuring inspirational quotes by Guy are read each week by a hundred thousand subscribers in 142 countries. Guy speaks four times each week on inner-life principles at Life of Learning Foundation's home in Merlin, Oregon. These meetings are ongoing and open to the public. 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