{"id":2549,"date":"2013-05-29T03:00:56","date_gmt":"2013-05-29T07:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lettinggo\/?p=2549"},"modified":"2013-05-26T10:49:14","modified_gmt":"2013-05-26T14:49:14","slug":"go-beyond-the-experience-of-self","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2013\/05\/go-beyond-the-experience-of-self.html","title":{"rendered":"Go Beyond the Experience of Self"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our experience of life is somewhat like a game of ping pong. Someone says something to us that we perceive as negative, and a certain \u201cI\u201d pops up that we identify with. The content of that \u201cI\u201d then directs our thoughts and actions. The other person probably doesn\u2019t even have a clue that they said something that hurt us. In a split second, the content of self that knows why this happens appears\u2026 which separates us from the actual experience that\u2019s happening, and then it tells us what is going on. It cuts us off from real life and creates a false one. The ball bouncing (me) is confirming the experience that \u201cI\u201d says it\u2019s having. We call this experience \u201clife,\u201d but it\u2019s just a tiny part of real life.\u00a0Instead of going with the experience our \u201cI\u201d is explaining to us we\u2019re having, we can be in the moment and experience what is real, not what the \u201cI\u201d is telling us is there.<\/p>\n

We cannot change ourselves by following a \u201chow to\u201d program. Trying to fix the person or circumstances that causes us pain is not the way. The only way change can come is outside of the experience that produced it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our experience of life is somewhat like a game of ping pong. Someone says something to us that we perceive as negative, and a certain \u201cI\u201d pops up that we identify with. The content of that \u201cI\u201d then directs our thoughts and actions. The other person probably doesn\u2019t even have a clue that they said…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[672,1],"tags":[52,1646,1575,1647,79],"class_list":["post-2549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-changetransformation","category-enlightenment-self-realization","tag-pain","tag-painful-experiences","tag-painful-patterns","tag-ping-pong","tag-resentment"],"yoast_head":"\nGo Beyond the Experience of Self - 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\/2013\/05\/go-beyond-the-experience-of-self.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Go Beyond the Experience of Self - Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Our experience of life is somewhat like a game of ping pong. Someone says something to us that we perceive as negative, and a certain \u201cI\u201d pops up that we identify with. The content of that \u201cI\u201d then directs our thoughts and actions. The other person probably doesn\u2019t even have a clue that they said…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2013\/05\/go-beyond-the-experience-of-self.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-05-29T07:00:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-05-26T14:49:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@guy_finley\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Go Beyond the Experience of Self - Letting Go with Guy Finley","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2013\/05\/go-beyond-the-experience-of-self.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Go Beyond the Experience of Self - Letting Go with Guy Finley","og_description":"Our experience of life is somewhat like a game of ping pong. 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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. For more information about Life of Learning Foundation, Guy Finley, and their life-changing messages, visit guyfinley.org. \"Guy Finley is...one of the leading experts at the forefront of human potential.\" -Nightingale Conant \"Guy Finley has helped millions live fuller, more peaceable lives.\" -Barnes and Noble","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.guyfinley.org","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/","https:\/\/x.com\/guy_finley"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/author\/gfinley"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2550,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2549\/revisions\/2550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}