The (very long) Road to Self Mastery

I went on a hike with a new friend and for the entire three hours we discussed how we feel we have grown so much in the past couple of years and how it has been the struggle and difficulties that are our greatest teachers. We concluded that it is these teachers that are showing the student how to become the master. To become the master, one has to overcome the Self.

One has to overcome the disappointment, the rejection, the failure and the loss. One has to learn not to take what is happening personally, feeling like life is against you. If that is a pattern that you hold, when the same pressure is applied over and over again, you can either fall into despair over and over again, or you can overcome that pattern and see that the reoccurring difficulty is there to help you transform, to choose another reaction and create another healthier pattern, which will in turn, create a healthier and happier daily existence. If the same difficulty were not repeated over a long period of time, we might not have the chance to change.

Peter Senge says, “Personal mastery is the discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and of seeing reality objectively.”  We must learn to deny ourselves the little things. Self mastery takes self discipline, will and action.  It is not enough to just wish for something. We can’t expect life to just bring us what we want, we have to go out and claim it as ours.

A few days ago, I read a post on Facebook by a woman I have never met who is a vibrational healer and who I friended a few years ago for that reason. Her house caught on fire on March 29th and her son who was visiting at the time, discovered the fire and saved the house just in the knick of time.

Her post expressed exactly what I have concluded and so I will share her words.  “This morning I was thinking about how many major challenges I have had in the last few months. And yet, I am so full of gratitude to God and the Universe, and so full of Joy. Then it occurred to me that that is the goal: to create a place, deep within ourselves, where we know that no matter what, we’re okay. To be completely grounded in our love of God and our love of Gaia (Mother Earth), so that no matter what happens, we have peace and joy within ourselves. That is the greatest security, where we are no longer dependent on outer circumstances to create our inner joy. This means knowing how to grieve, knowing how to let go, knowing how to find the gratitude in everything. This means knowing how to focus and manifest; it also means knowing how to let go of attachment to any particular outcome, to any material possessions and to surrender, with joy, to whatever occurs. It leaves us feeling completely independent of the approval of others, completely in integrity with ourselves, completely joyful. This is another profound step in the journey toward Ascension.” Joy Gardner

I feel Joy sums up what a lot of people are experiencing.  What a gift we are receiving!  When the soul learns a lesson, we learn that lesson for the rest of our lives and possibly the lives following this one. So if we can learn in this lifetime, to feel deep gratitude, peace and joy in the very center of our being no matter what is going on around us, then we have found liberation. The externals cannot shake us. We stay firm in our inner love and connection to the Divine knowing that we are loved no matter what. Does it get any better than this?

One thing I have learned is that it is so easy to look at other’s lives and assume that they are better than my own. Then when I sit down and talk to that person I find out all that they are dealing with and I see that we really are all the same, no matter how much money is in the bank, what job we have, where we live, what we look like, what relationships we have, everyone is dealing with their issues. Knowing this can keep us united in our hearts.

Self mastery means that we can control our thoughts, our responses, our behavior, and our emotions.  We cannot control what happens to us but we can control our self. With this self-control we can find true wisdom and true power by not being affected by what other’s think of us, say about us and do to us. This means that when someone leaves us, we are not destroyed. When our house burns down, we are not burned down with it.  We can choose to feel peace in knowing that something will follow on in its place, something different that will bring us new teachings, new love and new light.

You will know when you are beginning to master something because your response to it will change.  For example, say you had a food addiction and when you abused it you felt guilt, shame and self-hatred. Once you clear the energy within yourself of the underlying issue, if you take that same substance, it may no longer create all the same feelings that it once did.  If it no longer creates a charge in you, then you are learning to overcome the part of the self that used that substance to express the trapped and distorted energy within you, of the unexpressed shadow self. Once the charge is gone, you become free, not because you have excluded the substance, but because you have shifted the energy within. The substance (the shadow’s vehicle for expression) no longer rules you, you are now the master of the shadow – not by elimination, but by integration and you no longer abuse the substance.  Apply this same principle to relationships. Perhaps a woman had a deep-seated fear of men and because of this fear, she attracted only men who wanted to control her, feeding this fear. Once she shifts the energy within,  and realigns the distorted mental and emotional energy and overcomes the fear to feel self love, only then can she attract loving men into her life who are there to nurture and support her.  These are examples of how we can begin to master our selves, by realigning to the love energy of Source within.

Imagine what it would be like to be completely aligned with the Creator and have dominion over our energy, our thoughts, our emotions and our behavior so that we can fully love ourselves and one another. The road is stretched out before us and we are the students. Liberation is the ultimate goal, freedom from the trappings of the self. As we walk, the Creator accompanies us, within our hearts, the angels walk near us, helping us along the way.  And I feel happy in knowing that we are supported on this journey, always.