How Not To Be

Gaby

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Commit to action in the present moment and give your full attention to it. Putting things off increases fear and you lose your confidence in your capability for response-ability. It weights you down. Overwhelm yourself with compassion and unconditional love towards yourself and others which will fuel your actions. Rise every time you fall and you will be fine. You will see yourself as a person who has integrity which will then make you feel respect for your cause.

The more you think about long-term consequences of your actions or lack of them, the more likely you will do the right thing in the here and now. So ask yourself, what's important right now? Accept responsibility for your life, it is not a rehearsal for something else. You are the main character of your life and if you are going to be in the driver's seat, you have to take responsibility for your life and your actions or lack of them. It is really not possible to accept responsibility and remain feeling helpless and blocked at the same time. Understand that this is your choice and decision. Take responsibility for the emotions you are going through as a result of your choices.

As Bertrand Russel said, the very best proof that something can be done is that someone else has already done it. I think that cognitive psychotherapy is a good idea, but also the writing exercises, it would put you on the driver's seat of your life-story.

Making the decision to get better by investing in yourself, on your writing exercises, and doing EE is an excellent investment.

parallel said:
You will have start searching for that inner valiant knight that is prepared to give what it takes to discern and survive this world and become real, and that starts with knowing what rules you.

And even though subjectively it might feel as impossible, objectively it is really that simple. Strive for objectivity and truth in all your endeavors in life, including your feelings at the issue at hand, your personality, needs, talents, limitations, family wounding, personal history and the impact of your part experience in your current problems.

All of us have low moments when we feel powerless, afraid, trapped, blocked. It is like a huge bill from our ungrieved past calling for our full attention. But when compassion and consciousness connects our present feelings to its childhood determinants, we gain a sense of meaning and experience that allows to self-soothe and move forwards. So upwards and onwards we go.
 
Psyche said:
Commit to action in the present moment and give your full attention to it. Putting things off increases fear and you lose your confidence in your capability for response-ability. It weights you down. Overwhelm yourself with compassion and unconditional love towards yourself and others which will fuel your actions. Rise every time you fall and you will be fine. You will see yourself as a person who has integrity which will then make you feel respect for your cause.

The more you think about long-term consequences of your actions or lack of them, the more likely you will do the right thing in the here and now. So ask yourself, what's important right now? Accept responsibility for your life, it is not a rehearsal for something else. You are the main character of your life and if you are going to be in the driver's seat, you have to take responsibility for your life and your actions or lack of them. It is really not possible to accept responsibility and remain feeling helpless and blocked at the same time. Understand that this is your choice and decision. Take responsibility for the emotions you are going through as a result of your choices.

As Bertrand Russel said, the very best proof that something can be done is that someone else has already done it. I think that cognitive psychotherapy is a good idea, but also the writing exercises, it would put you on the driver's seat of your life-story.

Making the decision to get better by investing in yourself, on your writing exercises, and doing EE is an excellent investment.

parallel said:
You will have start searching for that inner valiant knight that is prepared to give what it takes to discern and survive this world and become real, and that starts with knowing what rules you.

And even though subjectively it might feel as impossible, objectively it is really that simple. Strive for objectivity and truth in all your endeavors in life, including your feelings at the issue at hand, your personality, needs, talents, limitations, family wounding, personal history and the impact of your part experience in your current problems.

All of us have low moments when we feel powerless, afraid, trapped, blocked. It is like a huge bill from our ungrieved past calling for our full attention. But when compassion and consciousness connects our present feelings to its childhood determinants, we gain a sense of meaning and experience that allows to self-soothe and move forwards. So upwards and onwards we go.

At least part of the above is taken from David Richo's book "How to Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving". Maybe Psyche could point to the source of the rest of it so that those interested can have the opportunity to read the books.
 
Perceval said:
At least part of the above is taken from David Richo's book "How to Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving". Maybe Psyche could point to the source of the rest of it so that those interested can have the opportunity to read the books.

I've written notes in my journal as I'm reading it. As I write it down, I imagine I've offered this advice to myself, helping me as I go through my life-story, assimilating the words. As slow as the process is, I find that it helps to problem solve and re-write narratives. I can start a thread and post all my notes as time permits. I think that would be fun and very helpful.
 
Psyche said:
Perceval said:
At least part of the above is taken from David Richo's book "How to Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving". Maybe Psyche could point to the source of the rest of it so that those interested can have the opportunity to read the books.

I've written notes in my journal as I'm reading it. As I write it down, I imagine I've offered this advice to myself, helping me as I go through my life-story, assimilating the words. As slow as the process is, I find that it helps to problem solve and re-write narratives. I can start a thread and post all my notes as time permits. I think that would be fun and very helpful.

If you just post links to whichever books the above quotes come from, that would be enough.
 
Psyche said:
Overwhelm yourself with compassion and unconditional love towards yourself and others which will fuel your actions.

How exactly do you overwhelm yourself with compassion and unconditional love towards yourself? And is it really a useful thing to do in all cases? I'm sorry but it sounds a little airy-fairy to me.

Psyche said:
You will see yourself as a person who has integrity which will then make you feel respect for your cause.

If you use tricks to just see yourself as a person with integrity rather than finding a way to be integral, doesn't it amount to narcissism and self importance?

Psyche said:
All of us have low moments when we feel powerless, afraid, trapped, blocked. It is like a huge bill from our ungrieved past calling for our full attention.

I think you left out pertinent and important parts of the original quote here.

How to Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving by David Richop. 134 said:
All of us experience moments of feeling powerless, scared, trapped, compelled, and out of control. We are hearing the voice of inner child calling for our attention and our adult intercession.

Psyche said:
But when compassion and consciousness connects our present feelings to its childhood determinants, we gain a sense of meaning and experience that allows to self-soothe and move forwards. So upwards and onwards we go.

How to Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving by David Richop. 134 said:
When consciousness connects our present experiences to its childhood determinants, we gain a sense of expanded meaning in our life experience. This is part of our capacity to self-soothe.

Another slight misquote above that makes it look as if you are overemphasizing and justifying self-pity and self-calming.

Psyche said:
I've written notes in my journal as I'm reading it. As I write it down, I imagine I've offered this advice to myself, helping me as I go through my life-story, assimilating the words. As slow as the process is, I find that it helps to problem solve and re-write narratives.

It appears as if you have been assimilating words - but imposing a not so helpful meaning/narrative on them.


Psyche said:
I can start a thread and post all my notes as time permits. I think that would be fun and very helpful.

I don't think that would be fun or helpful. I think that you should not be giving advice until you actually have a better understanding of what is helpful.
 
Laura said:
Psyche said:
Overwhelm yourself with compassion and unconditional love towards yourself and others which will fuel your actions.

How exactly do you overwhelm yourself with compassion and unconditional love towards yourself? And is it really a useful thing to do in all cases? I'm sorry but it sounds a little airy-fairy to me.

Yes, I have trouble with this sort of concept also. As Barbara Hort (sp?) says in Unholy Hungers[paraphrasing], it is damn sad that we got bitten by vampires (the wounds from our parents/environment in childhood), but getting bitten by a vampire only makes us vampires (like them) ourselves. What effect would "overwhelming compassion and unconditional love" have on our usually dominant vampiric aspects? None whatsoever. It takes brutal honesty and ongoing vigilance to observe and see those aspects in ourselves, and very painful not-doing-what-it-wants-to-do behavior management. Throw the vampire some love and compassion and it will make it stronger and give it more power to hold whatever else might be inside of us hostage!
 
I apologize for the lack of sincerity and give thanks for the opportunity that is offered to me with this feedback. God knows I need it.

Laura said:
Psyche said:
Overwhelm yourself with compassion and unconditional love towards yourself and others which will fuel your actions.

How exactly do you overwhelm yourself with compassion and unconditional love towards yourself? And is it really a useful thing to do in all cases? I'm sorry but it sounds a little airy-fairy to me.

It is airy-fairy. I have so many unsorted feelings that in trying hard to sort them out, they overwhelm my thinking and then I end-up twisting words to self-calm myself and on it goes. It is overwhelming indeed.

I have this inner rigidity that I try so hard to unbend, that it ends up manifesting even more. I take my notebooks out, write things down from this book or other stuff I read and it does help me to get up in the morning and face the day. But taking the step to just take my journal out and go through my lifestory has been very difficult to say the least, although I'm not sure if that explains it. It is not that difficult, it is really very liberating, but somehow getting to do it still is. As I write, it is like re-living the whole thing again and in retrospect I've seen how I skipped through entires chapters of my life. Then I have to go back again and arm myself with courage to face what I fear to face. It is overwhelming sadness that is too much to bear and then I shift between self-calming, arming myself with courage and on it goes. I don't even know if this is normal or proportionate to what I lived. Maybe there is nothing logical to it and that is my problem. I still try to find some logic on it.

Laura said:
Psyche said:
You will see yourself as a person who has integrity which will then make you feel respect for your cause.

If you use tricks to just see yourself as a person with integrity rather than finding a way to be integral, doesn't it amount to narcissism and self importance?

And it does. I feel like a freak for being narcissistic wounded that in trying so hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel I just end up turning the other way around and then it is all dark again.

Laura said:
Psyche said:
All of us have low moments when we feel powerless, afraid, trapped, blocked. It is like a huge bill from our ungrieved past calling for our full attention.

I think you left out pertinent and important parts of the original quote here.

How to Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving by David Richop. 134 said:
All of us experience moments of feeling powerless, scared, trapped, compelled, and out of control. We are hearing the voice of inner child calling for our attention and our adult intercession.

I don't know what I chose to leave that out. In my lack of sincerity, I thought that all it took was our full attention among the lines of the advice in the last session. But I think that the real problem is that I pushed back the real adult in me by feeling overwhelmed of the lack of responsible adult models as I grew up. It is so blinding that I fail to see that the responsible and positive good models are right in front my eyes: in this forum. It makes cry to see how I stifle myself from real and true feeling of the horror of the situation.

Laura said:
Psyche said:
But when compassion and consciousness connects our present feelings to its childhood determinants, we gain a sense of meaning and experience that allows to self-soothe and move forwards. So upwards and onwards we go.

How to Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving by David Richop. 134 said:
When consciousness connects our present experiences to its childhood determinants, we gain a sense of expanded meaning in our life experience. This is part of our capacity to self-soothe.

Another slight misquote above that makes it look as if you are overemphasizing and justifying self-pity and self-calming.

It was incredibly self-pitying and self-calming and I apologize on HowToBe for taking over his thread. I saw his username and then connected it with my short code for the book I'm reading "How To Be" and without thinking it twice, I knew I had to force myself to write something, anything down no matter what.

Laura said:
Psyche said:
I've written notes in my journal as I'm reading it. As I write it down, I imagine I've offered this advice to myself, helping me as I go through my life-story, assimilating the words. As slow as the process is, I find that it helps to problem solve and re-write narratives.

It appears as if you have been assimilating words - but imposing a not so helpful meaning/narrative on them.

Indeed I've been.

Laura said:
Psyche said:
I can start a thread and post all my notes as time permits. I think that would be fun and very helpful.

I don't think that would be fun or helpful. I think that you should not be giving advice until you actually have a better understanding of what is helpful.

I couldn't agree more.
 
Thank you Psyche for bravely revealing your process here and thank you Laura for your insightful analysis. Having people model their struggles and receive rational feedback on the process is priceless and highlights again the value of this network.

Psyche
I apologize for the lack of sincerity and give thanks for the opportunity that is offered to me with this feedback. God knows I need it.

If I may be so bold as to make an absolute statement--we all need it.
take care dear,
shellycheval
 
Psyche said:
It is airy-fairy. I have so many unsorted feelings that in trying hard to sort them out, they overwhelm my thinking and then I end-up twisting words to self-calm myself and on it goes. It is overwhelming indeed.

Psyche, I think it would help enormously if you would just use your own words. It's a little unsettling to watch you quote passages from books and articles as if you wrote them yourself. Most people who haven't read the books or articles, or have forgotten certain passages, would have no idea that you're quoting verbatim, so they take these words as yours when they are not (even using quotation marks would help!). In short, you're pretending and it's vitally important to not pretend here.


p said:
I have this inner rigidity that I try so hard to unbend, that it ends up manifesting even more. I take my notebooks out, write things down from this book or other stuff I read and it does help me to get up in the morning and face the day. But taking the step to just take my journal out and go through my lifestory has been very difficult to say the least, although I'm not sure if that explains it. It is not that difficult, it is really very liberating, but somehow getting to do it still is. As I write, it is like re-living the whole thing again and in retrospect I've seen how I skipped through entires chapters of my life. Then I have to go back again and arm myself with courage to face what I fear to face. It is overwhelming sadness that is too much to bear and then I shift between self-calming, arming myself with courage and on it goes. I don't even know if this is normal or proportionate to what I lived. Maybe there is nothing logical to it and that is my problem. I still try to find some logic on it.

Perhaps staying alert for a tendency to indulge in pain and suffering would be beneficial. As Don Juan says, "A warrior acknowledges his pain but he doesn't indulge in it." You appear to be diving in very deep, swimming around and reveling in it.

Psyche said:
And it does. I feel like a freak for being narcissistic wounded that in trying so hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel I just end up turning the other way around and then it is all dark again.

A freak? Isn't that a bit melodramatic? Pretty much everyone here is narcissistically wounded. Perhaps it would help to take the focus a bit off yourself and really start to think about others, realizing that everyone struggles as hard or harder than you do.

Psyche said:
I don't know what I chose to leave that out. In my lack of sincerity, I thought that all it took was our full attention among the lines of the advice in the last session. But I think that the real problem is that I pushed back the real adult in me by feeling overwhelmed of the lack of responsible adult models as I grew up. It is so blinding that I fail to see that the responsible and positive good models are right in front my eyes: in this forum. It makes cry to see how I stifle myself from real and true feeling of the horror of the situation.

Instead of crying, why not work on stopping yourself from pretending and using other people's words instead of your own? That might be more productive.

psyche said:
It was incredibly self-pitying and self-calming and I apologize on HowToBe for taking over his thread. I saw his username and then connected it with my short code for the book I'm reading "How To Be" and without thinking it twice, I knew I had to force myself to write something, anything down no matter what.

That sounds extremely mechanical. Going through the motions isn't the point, just like using other peoples quotes as if they are your own isn't the point. The point is learning to be Real and the only way to start to head in that direction is to stop pretending to understand things you don't understand and to use your own words, your current understanding, in order to "grow it".
 
Psyche said:
I apologize for the lack of sincerity and give thanks for the opportunity that is offered to me with this feedback. God knows I need it.

We all need it, the question is whether we are willing to pay the price for truth and not just wallow in self-pity.

It is airy-fairy. I have so many unsorted feelings that in trying hard to sort them out, they overwhelm my thinking and then I end-up twisting words to self-calm myself and on it goes. It is overwhelming indeed.

Self-pity.

I have this inner rigidity that I try so hard to unbend, that it ends up manifesting even more. I take my notebooks out, write things down from this book or other stuff I read and it does help me to get up in the morning and face the day. But taking the step to just take my journal out and go through my lifestory has been very difficult to say the least, although I'm not sure if that explains it. It is not that difficult, it is really very liberating, but somehow getting to do it still is. As I write, it is like re-living the whole thing again and in retrospect I've seen how I skipped through entires chapters of my life. Then I have to go back again and arm myself with courage to face what I fear to face. It is overwhelming sadness that is too much to bear and then I shift between self-calming, arming myself with courage and on it goes. I don't even know if this is normal or proportionate to what I lived. Maybe there is nothing logical to it and that is my problem. I still try to find some logic on it.

This is more self-pity. You seem to spend an awful lot of time thinking about the past. But the "inner child" in us is also a little brat that we need to discipline.


And it does. I feel like a freak for being narcissistic wounded that in trying so hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel I just end up turning the other way around and then it is all dark again.


Oh boy, more self-pity and litte action IMO.


I don't know what I chose to leave that out. In my lack of sincerity, I thought that all it took was our full attention among the lines of the advice in the last session. But I think that the real problem is that I pushed back the real adult in me by feeling overwhelmed of the lack of responsible adult models as I grew up. It is so blinding that I fail to see that the responsible and positive good models are right in front my eyes: in this forum. It makes cry to see how I stifle myself from real and true feeling of the horror of the situation.

More blaming others, and more self-pity.


It was incredibly self-pitying and self-calming and I apologize on HowToBe for taking over his thread. I saw his username and then connected it with my short code for the book I'm reading "How To Be" and without thinking it twice, I knew I had to force myself to write something, anything down no matter what.

More self-pity. It is "nice" to wallow in our own suffering, and it is done by choice.

The point you seem to be missing is that not only did you "highjack" HowtoBe's thread, but you also made it sound like you KNEW what you were talking about, when clearly from your last reply, you do not. That is manipulative and against what we try to do on this forum. And so is self-pity to this extent, actually. In fact, self-pity makes it all about you, and instead of healing the "narcissistically wounded part", you just become more narcissistic and self-centered, as witnessed in your posts. That's my take on it, FWIW.
 
Alana said:
Laura said:
Psyche said:
Overwhelm yourself with compassion and unconditional love towards yourself and others which will fuel your actions.

How exactly do you overwhelm yourself with compassion and unconditional love towards yourself? And is it really a useful thing to do in all cases? I'm sorry but it sounds a little airy-fairy to me.

Yes, I have trouble with this sort of concept also. As Barbara Hort (sp?) says in Unholy Hungers[paraphrasing], it is damn sad that we got bitten by vampires (the wounds from our parents/environment in childhood), but getting bitten by a vampire only makes us vampires (like them) ourselves. What effect would "overwhelming compassion and unconditional love" have on our usually dominant vampiric aspects? None whatsoever. It takes brutal honesty and ongoing vigilance to observe and see those aspects in ourselves, and very painful not-doing-what-it-wants-to-do behavior management. Throw the vampire some love and compassion and it will make it stronger and give it more power to hold whatever else might be inside of us hostage!

And it has surely weighted me down for as far as I can remember. I don't want to live like this anymore. It is scary to see how all the buffers go in full action as I make the statement of not giving in. I have lived my life giving up in the face of them instead of making a concerted effort in not hearing them. Thoughts like, "you are so screwed up", "you don't have what it takes", "this is not normal". In loving my suffering, I just agree with it and behave as such. It is really all so wrong! Then I end up just screening my environment for confirmations of such thoughts and as I get it, there is the sick satisfaction of "see, you are so screwed up, may as well give up". But something inside of me will NOT GIVE UP.

I'm tired of the suffering, I don't want to give my life energy to this destructive force. I want to reach out and have the opportunity to be the kind of person who stands up amidst the fight. I don't want to be trapped in this prison anymore.

Why on Earth I set myself up with excuses that prevent me of speaking out and being open and forthcoming about my struggles, I do not know. Well, I do know. It all boils down to self-importance with matters of detail about my life and past experiences being really just that, matters of detail. It all boils down to self-importance.
 
anart said:
Psyche said:
It is airy-fairy. I have so many unsorted feelings that in trying hard to sort them out, they overwhelm my thinking and then I end-up twisting words to self-calm myself and on it goes. It is overwhelming indeed.

Psyche, I think it would help enormously if you would just use your own words. It's a little unsettling to watch you quote passages from books and articles as if you wrote them yourself. Most people who haven't read the books or articles, or have forgotten certain passages, would have no idea that you're quoting verbatim, so they take these words as yours when they are not (even using quotation marks would help!). In short, you're pretending and it's vitally important to not pretend here.

I apologize for the lack of sincerity. In not using my own voice, I just make things worse for everybody involved. Much less to the lies I believed that I wasn't allowed to use my own voice.

anart said:
p said:
I have this inner rigidity that I try so hard to unbend, that it ends up manifesting even more. I take my notebooks out, write things down from this book or other stuff I read and it does help me to get up in the morning and face the day. But taking the step to just take my journal out and go through my lifestory has been very difficult to say the least, although I'm not sure if that explains it. It is not that difficult, it is really very liberating, but somehow getting to do it still is. As I write, it is like re-living the whole thing again and in retrospect I've seen how I skipped through entires chapters of my life. Then I have to go back again and arm myself with courage to face what I fear to face. It is overwhelming sadness that is too much to bear and then I shift between self-calming, arming myself with courage and on it goes. I don't even know if this is normal or proportionate to what I lived. Maybe there is nothing logical to it and that is my problem. I still try to find some logic on it.

Perhaps staying alert for a tendency to indulge in pain and suffering would be beneficial. As Don Juan says, "A warrior acknowledges his pain but he doesn't indulge in it." You appear to be diving in very deep, swimming around and reveling in it.

I think you nailed down my chief feature. I wallow on self-pity. It makes me feel all righteous and justified in my pain, which is yet another lie. For being brought up in an atheist household, I surely did end up adopting the "martyr program".

anart said:
Psyche said:
And it does. I feel like a freak for being narcissistic wounded that in trying so hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel I just end up turning the other way around and then it is all dark again.

A freak? Isn't that a bit melodramatic? Pretty much everyone here is narcissistically wounded. Perhaps it would help to take the focus a bit off yourself and really start to think about others, realizing that everyone struggles as hard or harder than you do.

And that is the unbelievable thing. I make myself feel like a freak purposefully and thus behave more dysfunctional, yet, pretty much everybody is narcissistically wounded. I can see how everybody moves along, yet I twisted it for the benefit of even more sophisticated ways of non-useful suffering.

anart said:
Psyche said:
I don't know what I chose to leave that out. In my lack of sincerity, I thought that all it took was our full attention among the lines of the advice in the last session. But I think that the real problem is that I pushed back the real adult in me by feeling overwhelmed of the lack of responsible adult models as I grew up. It is so blinding that I fail to see that the responsible and positive good models are right in front my eyes: in this forum. It makes cry to see how I stifle myself from real and true feeling of the horror of the situation.

Instead of crying, why not work on stopping yourself from pretending and using other people's words instead of your own? That might be more productive.

I have withhold the tears and then lead them all out through lies, while the real cry for help is just to put an end to all of this suffering.

anart said:
psyche said:
It was incredibly self-pitying and self-calming and I apologize on HowToBe for taking over his thread. I saw his username and then connected it with my short code for the book I'm reading "How To Be" and without thinking it twice, I knew I had to force myself to write something, anything down no matter what.

That sounds extremely mechanical. Going through the motions isn't the point, just like using other peoples quotes as if they are your own isn't the point. The point is learning to be Real and the only way to start to head in that direction is to stop pretending to understand things you don't understand and to use your own words, your current understanding, in order to "grow it".

And this, I want the most. I want to outgrow the self-limitations I had imposed upon myself. A breakthrough. I want to be there for others and I know I'll never achieve it as long as I hold on to my own chains. I don't want to be so mechanical. I don't want to believe the lies I tell myself and which drag me down every time I take a step to move along. I want to be there for others when it is required the most.
 
Psyche said:
Why on Earth I set myself up with excuses that prevent me of speaking out and being open and forthcoming about my struggles, I do not know. Well, I do know. It all boils down to self-importance with matters of detail about my life and past experiences being really just that, matters of detail. It all boils down to self-importance.

Do you think it's possible that it comes down to not only self-importance but also that you've benefited greatly in your life by encouraging others to feel pity for you and to see you as one who has overcome such great odds to get where you are? In other words, perhaps you do it because it's worked so well for you thus far?
 
Psyche said:
I apologize for the lack of sincerity. In not using my own voice, I just make things worse for everybody involved. Much less to the lies I believed that I wasn't allowed to use my own voice.

That doesn't make much sense, though it seems to be employing a pity ploy again. There is really no need to be so melodramatic. All I'm pointing out is that using other peoples' quotes as if they are your own writing is a bit creepy, because it's not your own writing, so it makes it look like you're trying to pretend to be something you are not. But, perhaps that's what's really going on...



p said:
I think you nailed down my chief feature. I wallow on self-pity. It makes me feel all righteous and justified in my pain, which is yet another lie. For being brought up in an atheist household, I surely did end up adopting the "martyr program".

Then if you really don't like doing that, why not stop? Just so you know, you're not fooling anyone with it - it's really, really obvious.


Psyche said:
And that is the unbelievable thing. I make myself feel like a freak purposefully and thus behave more dysfunctional, yet, pretty much everybody is narcissistically wounded. I can see how everybody moves along, yet I twisted it for the benefit of even more sophisticated ways of non-useful suffering.

See, I don't think that you "make yourself feel like a freak" - I think that you try to convince others that you feel that way to evoke pity and there is a big difference. I say that because if you truly felt like a freak, then you would not have accomplished what you've accomplished in your life. People who really feel like freaks lack the confidence necessary to do what you've done. Thus, I think you use that as a pity ploy and there isn't really anything behind it at all. Just my take, of course.


Psyche said:
I have withhold the tears and then lead them all out through lies, while the real cry for help is just to put an end to all of this suffering.

Again, no need to be melodramatic. I mean, realistically, it's all up to you - you choose whether or not to "suffer". The reality is that if you were truly suffering, though, you'd probably have changed this behavior pattern by now, since the only time most people really change things is when the suffering reaches a level they can no longer tolerate. Perhaps yours hasn't reached that level.


psyche said:
And this, I want the most. I want to outgrow the self-limitations I had imposed upon myself. A breakthrough.
Again, I'm having some trouble believing that. I know a bit about you and one of the things I know is that you are very willful - so much so that when you put your mind to it, you can accomplish pretty much anything. It's quite impressive, really. So, if you really wanted this "the most", it would already be done. There is nothing you couldn't accomplish if you put your mind to it, so, I think the above is more hyperbole - an extreme over-statement of the reality of the situation.


p said:
I want to be there for others and I know I'll never achieve it as long as I hold on to my own chains. I don't want to be so mechanical. I don't want to believe the lies I tell myself and which drag me down every time I take a step to move along. I want to be there for others when it is required the most.

I think a more realistic 'want' would be to understand yourself. The grandiose thoughts of saving others should be left for another day (those are, again, a little melodramatic). Perhaps if you start with the first step of actually working to understand yourself, other things will follow.
 
Ailén said:
Psyche said:
I apologize for the lack of sincerity and give thanks for the opportunity that is offered to me with this feedback. God knows I need it.

We all need it, the question is whether we are willing to pay the price for truth and not just wallow in self-pity.

I'm willing to pay any price to stop the self-pity trap. Whatever resources I have or think I may have, or build them up. The thought of yet many more life-times in endless self-pity is just something I can not accept.

Ailén said:
It is airy-fairy. I have so many unsorted feelings that in trying hard to sort them out, they overwhelm my thinking and then I end-up twisting words to self-calm myself and on it goes. It is overwhelming indeed.

Self-pity.

The real pity is that I allowed myself to live my life this way when it didn't had to be that way.

Ailén said:
I have this inner rigidity that I try so hard to unbend, that it ends up manifesting even more. I take my notebooks out, write things down from this book or other stuff I read and it does help me to get up in the morning and face the day. But taking the step to just take my journal out and go through my lifestory has been very difficult to say the least, although I'm not sure if that explains it. It is not that difficult, it is really very liberating, but somehow getting to do it still is. As I write, it is like re-living the whole thing again and in retrospect I've seen how I skipped through entires chapters of my life. Then I have to go back again and arm myself with courage to face what I fear to face. It is overwhelming sadness that is too much to bear and then I shift between self-calming, arming myself with courage and on it goes. I don't even know if this is normal or proportionate to what I lived. Maybe there is nothing logical to it and that is my problem. I still try to find some logic on it.

This is more self-pity. You seem to spend an awful lot of time thinking about the past. But the "inner child" in us is also a little brat that we need to discipline.

She has so much rage that she simply doesn't want to let it go. Indeed, the most useful thing I can do for my "inner child" is to allow for her to just let it go. I think she is feeling very relieved with the idea. After all, this is the treatment she received from others: it was all from people who didn't let go the rage.

Ailén said:
And it does. I feel like a freak for being narcissistic wounded that in trying so hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel I just end up turning the other way around and then it is all dark again.

Oh boy, more self-pity and litte action IMO.

And it has been the chief feature that has defined my whole life.

Ailén said:
I don't know what I chose to leave that out. In my lack of sincerity, I thought that all it took was our full attention among the lines of the advice in the last session. But I think that the real problem is that I pushed back the real adult in me by feeling overwhelmed of the lack of responsible adult models as I grew up. It is so blinding that I fail to see that the responsible and positive good models are right in front my eyes: in this forum. It makes cry to see how I stifle myself from real and true feeling of the horror of the situation.

More blaming others, and more self-pity.

Now it makes sense why I can't never seem to get over with the suffering and the powerless feelings. It is more lies that had prevented me to just let go.

Ailén said:
It was incredibly self-pitying and self-calming and I apologize on HowToBe for taking over his thread. I saw his username and then connected it with my short code for the book I'm reading "How To Be" and without thinking it twice, I knew I had to force myself to write something, anything down no matter what.

More self-pity. It is "nice" to wallow in our own suffering, and it is done by choice.

It is not nice indeed to be the example of How Not to Be.

Ailén said:
The point you seem to be missing is that not only did you "highjack" HowtoBe's thread, but you also made it sound like you KNEW what you were talking about, when clearly from your last reply, you do not. That is manipulative and against what we try to do on this forum. And so is self-pity to this extent, actually. In fact, self-pity makes it all about you, and instead of healing the "narcissistically wounded part", you just become more narcissistic and self-centered, as witnessed in your posts. That's my take on it, FWIW.

Thank you for your take on it. It was incredibly helpful.
 

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