{"id":4284,"date":"2015-08-04T12:00:51","date_gmt":"2015-08-04T16:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/?p=4284"},"modified":"2015-08-02T21:34:22","modified_gmt":"2015-08-03T01:34:22","slug":"getting-past-self-justification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2015\/08\/getting-past-self-justification.html","title":{"rendered":"Getting Past Self-Justification"},"content":{"rendered":"

Question:<\/strong> When I look at myself, it seems that my most prevalent emotion is anger. It’s always there. I frequently find myself caught up in what you call “mental movies,” remembering all the cruelty and unfairness that seem to justify this anger. I know that indulging in this does no good, but I feel powerless to stop these raging thoughts. What can I do? I really am weary of my own out-of-control emotions.<\/p>\n

Answer:<\/strong> You already know that your anger is destroying you. It is \u2014 and it will. You also know, to your spiritual credit, that there is no justification for the endless self-defeat which giving yourself over to hostile feelings entails. The fact that you are tired of losing your life to these self-harming psychic states means you are ready for a change. Here is a new way to work with what’s been working you over.<\/p>\n

The next time some hostile state takes you over, either in thought \u2014 as in remembering something someone did to you in the past \u2014 or in an actual moment of conflict with someone standing before you, take the following inner steps as soon as you can remember yourself to do so. Start by seeing that something foreign to your true nature has imposed itself on you, taken over your life. Once having done this, do nothing else except realize that while you may be temporarily powerless to stop the lower state from possessing you, you are empowered to recognize the negative state as the intruder that it is. This awareness, this conscious, unself-justifying awareness of your true pained condition, is what it means to put the Light on the problem. That’s your job. The Light will do its part if you’ll do yours. Persist until you are free!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: When I look at myself, it seems that my most prevalent emotion is anger. It’s always there. I frequently find myself caught up in what you call “mental movies,” remembering all the cruelty and unfairness that seem to justify this anger. I know that indulging in this does no good, but I feel powerless…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[517,580],"tags":[11,286,184,2333,2332,52,2331,94,201],"class_list":["post-4284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anger-frustration","category-dark-thoughts-2","tag-awareness","tag-conflict","tag-justification","tag-mental-movies","tag-out-of-control-emotions","tag-pain","tag-self-seeing","tag-strength","tag-weakness"],"yoast_head":"\nGetting Past Self-Justification - 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\/2015\/08\/getting-past-self-justification.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Getting Past Self-Justification - Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Question: When I look at myself, it seems that my most prevalent emotion is anger. It’s always there. I frequently find myself caught up in what you call “mental movies,” remembering all the cruelty and unfairness that seem to justify this anger. I know that indulging in this does no good, but I feel powerless…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2015\/08\/getting-past-self-justification.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=\"2015-08-04T16:00:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-08-03T01:34:22+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":"Getting Past Self-Justification - 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\/2015\/08\/getting-past-self-justification.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Getting Past Self-Justification - Letting Go with Guy Finley","og_description":"Question: When I look at myself, it seems that my most prevalent emotion is anger. It’s always there. I frequently find myself caught up in what you call “mental movies,” remembering all the cruelty and unfairness that seem to justify this anger. I know that indulging in this does no good, but I feel powerless…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2015\/08\/getting-past-self-justification.html","og_site_name":"Letting Go with Guy Finley","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/","article_published_time":"2015-08-04T16:00:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-08-03T01:34:22+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\/2015\/08\/getting-past-self-justification.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2015\/08\/getting-past-self-justification.html","name":"Getting Past Self-Justification - Letting Go with Guy Finley","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-08-04T16:00:51+00:00","dateModified":"2015-08-03T01:34:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/1e80afed42f91bae3eb4ca59666c1d16"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2015\/08\/getting-past-self-justification.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2015\/08\/getting-past-self-justification.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2015\/08\/getting-past-self-justification.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Getting Past Self-Justification"}]},{"@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\/4284","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=4284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4285,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4284\/revisions\/4285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}