Your Self Esteem
By Michel Fortin

“Perfect self expression will never be labor; but of such absorbing interest that it will seem almost like play.”
– Florence Scovel Shinn

In Succeeding Through Inner Strength, Dr. Nathaniel Branden says that people unconsciously lower their self-esteem through their goals.

They usually start by writing down some nebulous wish and may start working on it with the best of intentions. They may even know exactly what they want and work really hard in order to get it. However and more often than not, they quit and do so sometimes just as fast as they have written it down.

They feel that their goal is unachievable, abandon their efforts out of feeling belittled by such a lofty ambition, or quit due to the accumulation of stress and frustration they’ve acquired in the process. And the worst part is that they usually rationalize their decision by referring to the goal’s seeming unfeasibility or, worse yet, to their inability.

They say things, like, “I knew I couldn’t do it,” “it’s not for me,” “I’m just not cut out for it,” “I’m not worth it,” and so on. Seldom do they know that the problem has nothing to do with the goal in itself — or with themselves, for that matter. It’s in the “why,” not the “how.” It’s what they focused on to start with.

“Setting goals just isn’t enough,” Dr. Branden says. “Ask yourself: ‘What am I going to do next week in order to reach my goal? What about tomorrow? What about now?’ You must become consciously purposeful.”

The point is that you shouldn’t set a future goal and just leave it there. If you do that, I promise you that it will stay there. And the worst part is that it will, more often than not, take you away from your present moments.

Be mindful what’s important during every single moment of your life and not at some point in the future. In other words, make your priorities your goals and then make them a part of your life. Translate your priorities into activities. Make your goals your “conscious purposes,” as Dr. Branden says.

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Read the rest of Your Self Esteem (517 words)

© Remez Sasson for Remez Sasson Blog on Self Improvement and Spiritual Growth, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: goals, self realization

People often send me questions about various subjects covered in my website. Here is one of them, about the terms Consciousness, Life Force and the Universal Consciousness.

Question:

You are probably the only author I came across who cover both self-realization and law of attraction in the writings at the same time. When you talk about self-realization, mind and consciousness are used. Mind is a tool and consciousness is the real you. This view/model is the same as the ones adopted by Eckhart Tolle and Mouni Sadhu.

When you talk about law of attration, the terms Life Force and Universal Consciousness are mentioned. Most of LOA authors use this concept as well. Is Life Force the same as Consciousness in self-realzation model? Or this Life Force is some sort of Universal Mind, which is a bigger tool than individual mind?

Answer:

Here are two of the reasons why I write on both self-realization and the law of attraction:

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Read the rest of Consciousness, Life Force, Universal Consciousness (219 words)

© Remez Sasson for Remez Sasson Blog on Self Improvement and Spiritual Growth, 2008. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: consciousness, life force, self realization, universal consciousness

“When you know beyond all doubting that the same life flows through all that is and you are that life, you will love all naturally and spontaneously. When you realize the depth and fullness of your love of yourself, you know that every living being and the entire universe are included in your affection. But when you look at anything as separate from you, you cannot love it for you are afraid of it. Alienation causes fear and fear deepens alienation. It is a vicious circle. Only self-realization can break it.”

(An excerpt from “I am that”, talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.)

Read this paragraph again and again, and you will realize the deep truth within these words. 

© Remez Sasson for Remez Sasson Blog on Self Improvement and Spiritual Growth, 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Nisargadatta Maharaj, self realization

The great Rishi, Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi – unlike most yogis and many saints of the present day, does not recommend yogic practices as a condition for the highest and perennial spiritual achievement, called by him ‘Self-realisation’. He dismisses from that aim, all the cumbersome postures, breathing exercises, control of the pranic-currents (currents of the Prana in the human body and so of Nature itself), and so on. In fact, he seldom even mentioned them in his talks.

So the Direct Path to spiritual attainment, as shown by the Maharshi, does not require any unnatural body postures, often so difficult to perform for the majority of people; none of the efforts of Hatha Yoga, which can be dangerous unless practised under the direct supervision of a competent teacher, and no artificial mental practices of concentration. All such things lead nowhere unless accompanied by the elements of spiritual enlightenment, a fact which is firmly underlined by Sri Shankaracharya in his ‘Viveka Chudamani’.

Now I see clearly that these things belong to a closed and bewitched circle. For years, I and some of my closest occult friends practised many kinds of ‘outer-yogas’ but without any results worthy of our efforts. Of course, some of these exercises were good for our physical health, especially for stilling the nerves, cultivating a beautiful voice, and so forth. But these advantages only remained with us as long as we continued regularly to perform the exercises. A pause for even a few weeks deprived us of all the hard earned benefits we had gained at the cost of such effort and waste of time. No true and permanent peace of mind could be obtained, although for that purpose I made intense use of Japa (repetition) with the best mantras.

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© Remez Sasson for Remez Sasson Blog on Self Improvement and Spiritual Growth, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: mouni sadhu, self realization, Sri Ramana Maharshi