The Mind, Guilt and Shame- Sunday, Febraury 17, 2008

It’s okay to be who and what you are. Do you believe this?

When we were younger we felt if we could just do everything right then all our doubts about ourselves would be untrue. Where does this doubt come from anyway? For some of us, it was passed down from our parents, but many had no such parental inscriptions. I don’t even know how prevalent this is in other cultures but this lack of basic esteem and striving for perfection is rampant here in the US. It is evident in our drinking and addiction rates and even the massive amount of people who have safeguarded themselves in the box of a fundamental religion. We don’t feel good about ourselves and need a way out of this pain.

Many try to use mind control but some of us find this a futile struggle. The constant retraining of thoughts and beliefs is tiring and does it ever end? It seems something is wrong at a core level or something is right at the core level that isn’t being recognized. What if all you understand about who you are is not quite true? If real growth and learning come from what we do NOT know, then we somehow need to open to a new way of seeing ourselves and our world.

The trees say we are the creators and masters of our own lives. I squirmed at this for a long time when I first heard it. It felt way too big and the opposite of everything I’d been taught. How can I have power over my own life when I feel so buffeted by everything around me? How can I control what I feel and think? Won’t I just turn into an obnoxious egotistic brat? Well it really is a step by step process of understanding something new and the tools to implement it. A new way to be with the guilt, shame and disbelief of the mind is taught. The way out of pain (and out of trying to control everything so that you are not in pain) is elucidated step by step. It did not happen overnight for me, even though I had the trees talking in my ears most nights; it took months. I love this because I am not trying to control my thinking, which seemed like an impossible thing to do anyway.

Deep in my being there is a feeling of wholeness and deep joy. There is freedom and gratitude for this deep gift from The Council of Trees. The teachings come at our understanding of who and what we are from other ways besides the intellect. We are much much bigger than what we can grasp in our minds. We love our imperfections, our humanness and our lives. We stop running away from ourselves and embrace our lives and the fullness within.
Blessings,
Laurel