Before we can choose not to compromise ourselves, we must first become acutely aware of those thoughts of ours that may be holding some secret seed of self-defeat. If we don’t know we’re doing this kind of compromised thinking — or acting out their emotional counterparts — what else can follow but to receive the defeat that they embody?<\/p>\n
For example, these harmful inner voices and emotional forces may tell us to resent someone or to hate our life; or to give up, and accept fear as a way of life. Our own thoughts may instruct us, without our ever knowing it, to cling to doubts or to jump headlong into pools of self-pity. And because we don’t know there’s any alternative, we do as we’re instructed.<\/p>\n
We can wake up right in the middle of these mental ordeals. Working with self-observation, we can actually see, for ourselves, that these self-compromising thoughts are just that: thoughts. They have no real authority, which means their unconscious direction does not have to be our destiny.<\/p>\n
To begin with, always take a conscious step back from anything that howls at you from within. Now see that any shriek of discomfort, worry, anxiety, or shame, can never be a part of who you really are. Become an observer of yourself, watchful of both the content — and the intent — of everything arising from your own mind and heart.<\/p>\n
Allow the following three higher facts to help you develop your practice of self-observation.<\/p>\n
1. Casually, but definitely, consciously defy any feeling that tells you you’re stuck with it.<\/p>\n
2. Stepping back from your own thoughts and learning to watch them is the same as stepping up to a free mind.<\/p>\n
3. Being receptive to a higher fact about yourself lifts you to the level of that insight where the fact you once feared no longer frightens you, just as eagles don’t fear sharks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Before we can choose not to compromise ourselves, we must first become acutely aware of those thoughts of ours that may be holding some secret seed of self-defeat. If we don’t know we’re doing this kind of compromised thinking — or acting out their emotional counterparts — what else can follow but to receive the…<\/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],"tags":[1759,567,426,1758,784,24,565,257],"class_list":["post-2886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enlightenment-self-realization","category-fear-fearlessness","tag-being-conscious","tag-dark-thoughts","tag-giving-up","tag-harmful-inner-voices","tag-hating-life","tag-self-compromise","tag-self-defeat","tag-self-observation"],"yoast_head":"\n