Obstacles to Self Improvement-Part 6 of 6 - Pride

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Pride is a great obstacle to Self Improvement mainly because it is considered as one of the seven deadly sins. According to Wikipedia, "In Ancient Greece, instances of pride were termed hubris because of the added connotation that pride was a crime against the gods and would result in fatal retribution. The word was also used to describe those who considered themselves more important than the gods themselves."

I see pride as an important concept that is really being misused by our culture. I see it is being used as a psychological weapon to influence the masses into buying whatever ideas/things that are being "hawked " by the media; thereby, promoting "pride" as a status symbol of materialistic ownership.

This emotion grows/evolves into some of the other feelings that are part of pride such as: arrogance, judgmental, superior, unfeeling and vain. These are feelings of separateness. There are many historical incidents to support what eventually happens when pride consumes your psyche.

What is "Pride"? It is a verb frequently used in a reflexive sense of "congratulating oneself" [Online Etymology Dictionary @2010 Douglas Harper].

Using this context, taking pride in ones work and/or pride in ones accomplishments can be a good starting point in achieving self improvement. Not only have you done something that benefited you, you have given a unique and special gift, an example, to those around you. My first mentor always reminded me, "By example do we teach."

I also find inner peace through being grateful, not only for the opportunity and experience of learning/doing, but that I was able physically and mentally to meet and achieve my goals.

Take care!! Hope to see you next week with more insights in Self Improvement techniques that you can use.

Obstacles to Self Improvement-Part 5 of 6 - Anger

Good Morning and Welcome Back

In all honesty, "What is your "take" on anger?" Are you prone to get angry often? What is it that makes you angry?

Without being aware of it, many of us spend a great deal of time in the emotional world of anger. Several years ago, my mentor once told me that I lived in the emotional world of anger. I was dumbfounded; and, yes, my 'prideful" feelings were somewhat bruised.

"How could this be," I asked myself. What did I do to make him even suggest that I lived in the world of anger? I guess my error was that I always considered anger as being an outward manifestation of aggressive and belligerent behavior, hostile, outraged,vengeful and violent.

Anyway, I pondered this personal criticism for a long time. If the matter be known, I still ponder it from time to time only because I happen to believe our political environment, no matter what country you live in, cultivates a lot of our anger by nipping away our personal rights/freedoms in the name of religious beliefs or morality. This can and does create an overlying "cloud cover" of stress which effectively blocks the "feel good" emotion of the warm sunshine of the day and the clear starry skies at night.

So, where does this leave us? My own personal solution is to ignore the external influences in favor of seeking the inner peaceful place [heart/soul] of being. This takes a strong intention/determination; but, believe me, it is worth the effort. Unless you can free yourself of the baggage of false teachings/indoctrination, whatever its source, this euphoria of joy and inner peace will not happen.

This series on "Obstacles to Self Improvement" is almost finished. Part 6 of 6 will be related to "pride".

I welcome your feedback. Your feedback/comments are extremely important to me. If you have found these articles to be of help in understanding how these obstacles impact your well being and inner peace; or if you would like additional articles on "Obstacles to Self Improvement" or some other related aspect, please feel free to post a comment.

Until next week, please do take care.

Obstacles to Self Improvement-Part 4 of 6

Good Morning and Welcome Back

Lust is usually present when your daily life is full of hiccups with one stumbling block after another. When this is the case, be on the lookout for its subtle influences.

Lust is another big obstacle to the self improvement goals you wish to achieve. It is not limited to obsession with someone of the opposite sex. Lust is an emotional appetite for any thing you feel that "you can't live without".

Just the other day, I had a very interesting experience with this emotion.

I'm not sure exactly where to begin this story. Anyway, I was presented with an opportunity to change my life. This chance opportunity awakened a long-held dream I had had for several years. Perhaps, the Law of Attraction was working for me after all. All the details of my dream fitted into place. My infatuation grew with the idea of a new life filled with new adventures.

So I set about to make this happen. I literally wore myself out rearranging my life and/or "scheming" for five days.

This is how easy it is to allow/permit "lust" to take control. When the long-held dream failed to materialize for me, it was then, I was "shocked" and awakened to the realization; "Hey, I was really causing myself a great deal of stress in my desire to have this experience to come into my life." Immediately, at this moment, my inner peace was restored.

We need to be vigilant. Lust is ever present in our daily lives, and manifests itself when we are are not completely satisfied with our life "right here and now". It is very easy to lose control of these "I wants/needs"; and, as a result, you can easily become compulsive and manipulative in trying to satisfy your perceived needs. If you choose to ignore this emotion, you can quickly fall into the trap of addiction and loss of self esteem.

The grass on the other side of the fence may appear to be much greener, but it comes with a price, sometimes a very high price.

See you next week when I share some thoughts on the emotional attributes of anger.

Until then, take care, my friend!!