{"id":6249,"date":"2019-06-05T05:00:02","date_gmt":"2019-06-05T09:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/?p=6249"},"modified":"2019-06-03T00:42:21","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T04:42:21","slug":"new-self-knowledge-next-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2019\/06\/new-self-knowledge-next-step.html","title":{"rendered":"New Self-Knowledge and the Next Step"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s obvious that each of us grows physically without any real inner struggle on our part. Our bodies mature; we learn to tie our shoes, and dance, and do gymnastics. Social skills develop naturally. We grow in our mental abilities as well: we learn a new language, expand our knowledge to grasp a scientific theory, or learn a set of mathematical axioms. This, too, is natural.<\/p>\n<p>However, inwardly, emotionally for instance, while we may develop better ways of covering up the turmoil in our hearts and minds, we never quite outgrow these same old fears and angers, the same doubts and worries. And there is a reason why we don&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike our physical self which, being under the mechanical laws of evolution, realizes its eventual maturity virtually without any effort, the development of our spiritual self is not evolutionary. It is voluntary. Make no mistake. It requires a conscious choice and effort on our part. Genuine inner growth is the pearl of great price, the journey of a thousand steps, the quest of a lifetime. Every one of us is given the opportunity to embark on this great adventure within, but first we must recognize the necessity of it for a complete and fulfilling life. We must fervently desire it. Then we must be willing to go through the necessary self-shocks that this special kind of growth requires. But you won&#8217;t be alone in this new struggle with yourself as you have been in your old ones. You will have as many strong allies as you&#8217;re willing to embrace what is true.<\/p>\n<p>Our new self-knowledge enables us to win in life in a new way by revealing that the only time any event can defeat us is when we get tricked into retreating into old reactions and beliefs; when instead of facing the necessary life lessons, we run away by explaining our conflict to ourselves in terms of our old knowledge. As a result, we fail to acquire the true facts that alone lead to our self-liberation. We need no longer experience this kind of defeat at our own hands. A way out does exist, but it begins with developing a new approach to life based in higher self-knowledge.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/?attachment_id=6252\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6252\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6252\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/92\/2019\/06\/60337748_10161761455135634_1752855537378131968_n-1.jpg\" alt=\"sunset, layers of mountains\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s obvious that each of us grows physically without any real inner struggle on our part. Our bodies mature; we learn to tie our shoes, and dance, and do gymnastics. Social skills develop naturally. We grow in our mental abilities as well: we learn a new language, expand our knowledge to grasp a scientific theory,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[672,6],"tags":[3224,3225,1172,3226,844,161,67],"class_list":["post-6249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-changetransformation","category-new-beginnings-fresh-start","tag-development-of-spiritual-self","tag-letting-go-of-old-beliefs","tag-life-lessons","tag-new-approach-to-life","tag-self-knowledge","tag-self-liberation","tag-spiritual-growth"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New Self-Knowledge and the Next Step - Letting Go with Guy Finley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Self-Knowledge and the Next Step - Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It&#8217;s obvious that each of us grows physically without any real inner struggle on our part. Our bodies mature; we learn to tie our shoes, and dance, and do gymnastics. Social skills develop naturally. We grow in our mental abilities as well: we learn a new language, expand our knowledge to grasp a scientific theory,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2019\/06\/new-self-knowledge-next-step.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=\"2019-06-05T09:00:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-03T04:42:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/files\/2019\/06\/60337748_10161761455135634_1752855537378131968_n-1.jpg\" \/>\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":"New Self-Knowledge and the Next Step - Letting Go with Guy Finley","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New Self-Knowledge and the Next Step - Letting Go with Guy Finley","og_description":"It&#8217;s obvious that each of us grows physically without any real inner struggle on our part. 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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\/6249","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=6249"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6253,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6249\/revisions\/6253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}