{"id":3367,"date":"2014-05-19T12:00:51","date_gmt":"2014-05-19T16:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/?p=3367"},"modified":"2014-05-18T22:46:02","modified_gmt":"2014-05-19T02:46:02","slug":"uncovering-the-secret-treasure-of-your-true-self","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2014\/05\/uncovering-the-secret-treasure-of-your-true-self.html","title":{"rendered":"Uncovering the Secret Treasure of Your True Self"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We are not meant to live in time. When we think about ourselves, when we think about things we want \u2013 what we call that which will fulfill us &#8212; even when we imagine something we think we&#8217;ve never had, we are still looking at images that our mind has picked up from TV, or a book, or from someone else. We have simply ascribed ourselves to what we imagine it would be like to have that. We imagine the pleasure and we experience the pleasure as we have stored in those images. As we live that pleasure, we think: &#8220;This is what I have to have to be my True Self, because now I feel confident. Now I feel strong.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Any time a person goes into thought in order to define themselves in any way, they have confined themselves. This is the golden rule relative to our True Nature: <i>As we define ourselves, we confine ourselves<\/i>. All of those things that we define ourselves by are things in the world that are transitory. They pass, and so they are not a lasting treasure. Yes, those things appear out in the world. There is that fine automobile. There is that beautiful home. There is that job where we are recognized as an authority of some kind. There are those places and positions, but they only exist out there as an important thing to us because of the idea that we hold of them in our mind.<\/p>\n<p>The idea of the possession, the idea of the position gives me a sense of myself, of being real and secure, having a bright future, and being worthwhile. But because this image is connected to conditions outside of myself, as soon as any of that even starts to change, the whole way in which I&#8217;ve known myself starts to rattle and roll, and now I&#8217;ve become afraid\u2026 because unless I can keep the world the way I want it to be \u2013 controlling people and positions \u2013 I&#8217;m going to lose who I have taken myself to be. Our True Self cannot get lost that way because it never finds itself in anything that it defines itself by.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are not meant to live in time. When we think about ourselves, when we think about things we want \u2013 what we call that which will fulfill us &#8212; even when we imagine something we think we&#8217;ve never had, we are still looking at images that our mind has picked up from TV, or&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[672,3],"tags":[387,363,1156,344,1925,117],"class_list":["post-3367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-changetransformation","category-fear-fearlessness","tag-control","tag-destiny","tag-graduation","tag-possessions","tag-self-image","tag-success"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Uncovering the Secret Treasure of Your True 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\/2014\/05\/uncovering-the-secret-treasure-of-your-true-self.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Uncovering the Secret Treasure of Your True Self  - Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We are not meant to live in time. When we think about ourselves, when we think about things we want \u2013 what we call that which will fulfill us &#8212; even when we imagine something we think we&#8217;ve never had, we are still looking at images that our mind has picked up from TV, or&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2014\/05\/uncovering-the-secret-treasure-of-your-true-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=\"2014-05-19T16:00:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-19T02:46:02+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":"Uncovering the Secret Treasure of Your True 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\/2014\/05\/uncovering-the-secret-treasure-of-your-true-self.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Uncovering the Secret Treasure of Your True Self  - Letting Go with Guy Finley","og_description":"We are not meant to live in time. When we think about ourselves, when we think about things we want \u2013 what we call that which will fulfill us &#8212; even when we imagine something we think we&#8217;ve never had, we are still looking at images that our mind has picked up from TV, or&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2014\/05\/uncovering-the-secret-treasure-of-your-true-self.html","og_site_name":"Letting Go with Guy Finley","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/","article_published_time":"2014-05-19T16:00:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-05-19T02:46:02+00:00","author":"Guy Finley","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@guy_finley","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2014\/05\/uncovering-the-secret-treasure-of-your-true-self.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2014\/05\/uncovering-the-secret-treasure-of-your-true-self.html","name":"Uncovering the Secret Treasure of Your True Self - Letting Go with Guy Finley","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-05-19T16:00:51+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-19T02:46:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/1e80afed42f91bae3eb4ca59666c1d16"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2014\/05\/uncovering-the-secret-treasure-of-your-true-self.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2014\/05\/uncovering-the-secret-treasure-of-your-true-self.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2014\/05\/uncovering-the-secret-treasure-of-your-true-self.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Uncovering the Secret Treasure of Your True Self"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/","name":"Letting Go with Guy Finley","description":"Holistic, Mental Health and Emotional Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/1e80afed42f91bae3eb4ca59666c1d16","name":"Guy Finley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/308\/3082f4cd4990377da62358c5c69fd4e1x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/308\/3082f4cd4990377da62358c5c69fd4e1x96.jpg","caption":"Guy Finley"},"description":"Bestselling \"Letting Go\" author Guy Finley's encouraging and accessible message is one of the true bright lights in our world today. 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\/3367","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=3367"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3368,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3367\/revisions\/3368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}