Monday, February 16, 2009

DEFINITIONS: WORDS NEW CONCEPTS SERIES - PART 3

It’s important to learn the vocabulary that will support and enhance your character study for your new role in The Magical Theatre, so I suggest you make an effort to add three new definitions to your point of view each week.

Belief System: The facts we have each selected from an infinite number of possibilities to justify our singular point of view and the resulting self-image that we identify as necessary to be accepted by others. Our belief systems offer us the illusion of being right so we can feel safe and justify our existence. When we originally devise our belief systems, we are often motivated by fear and typically (oops!) omit the criteria that our beliefs should support living an unconditional life based on love. By consciously choosing AGAIN what we will believe, we expand our experience of life from fearful limitation to infinite possibility.

Blame: When we place responsibility outside of ourselves for feeling what we are feeling. Blame arises in the absence of honest self-reflection. When we cast responsibility for our emotions outward, we prevent the transformation of toxic feelings by tightly holding onto our pain until they change. In this way, we miss the exit door out of our discomfort. When we are willing to see the truth, we find that we are pulling our own pain levers as it is always our own reaction that lies at the root of the discomfort we are experiencing. This point of view does not grant an unbridled permission to someone else to hurt us but gives us an understanding that we don’t have to take their actions personally—or stick around for that matter. When we remove blame from our experience, we will discover the joy that was waiting in the shadow blame was casting.

Boundaries: The use of boundaries changes with our movement through the upward spiral of our self-awareness. In the beginning of our self-exploration, we often don’t have what can be called appropriate personal limits. Because we don’t have a clear frame of reference, we slide blindly past reasonable bounds, ignoring our best interests, trying to gain love, and/or acceptance and approval. Sometimes it can be the opposite. What we think of as boundaries can more accurately be described as walls since they afford us the illusion of control, comfort and protection. Instead, this wall can have four sides that poses a trap that keeps up from enjoying the many delicious possibilities life has to offer. Boundaries are initially quite challenging as they are an easy place for our inner voices (our People) to offer more confusion. Without a greater understanding of how our wounds and false beliefs function, no safety zone/boundary will stick. For example, excessive generosity (without discernment) can arise out of a need to create a self-image of a loving magnanimous person--we don’t entirely believe it ourselves, so we create proof. In fact, if we peek behind the desire to create this image, we might find a need to look special, get attention etc. to cover up feelings of selfishness or to gain the approval we are withholding from ourselves. As we gain awareness of our underlying false beliefs and resolve our emotional fear we naturally amend our boundaries to reflect our evolving ease.

Gini Gentry - www.ginigentry.com