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Life Mastery = Self Mastery
[Photo courtesy of alicepopkorn]I found out about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs the other day and it gave me some interesting thoughts to chew on. This diagram has been updated from his original one which goes on to state that man/woman cannot achieve the ultimate goal of life which is claimed to be self-fulfillment or transcendance (helping others to achieve self-fulfillment) without other needs being met first. I found this quite interesting given the events that have overtaken me in 2008. Personal experience has led to the exact opposite in my case. Many of those needs had to be taken away before I actively pursued a meaningful path, a path of self-fulfillment.
I can’t say that my biological and physiological needs were taken away but there are/have been noted stories of people who through prolonged periods of meditation, prayer and reflection are/were able to reduce their heart rates and breathing almost seemingly to the point of death and thus thwarted even the most basic of needs for long periods of time (food). If you believe in the bible, an exemplary case would be Jesus who fasted for 40 days and nights in the desert.
Ok so let’s return from this tangent and focus on the title of this article: Life Mastery = Self Mastery. I highlighted the above 2 paragraphs for one very particular reason: The only thing you really need is basic cognitive function to reach your potential.. and beyond! A noted example here is Steven Hawkin. If you look at most people, their drive is the outer world: money, material possessions, family, friends, sex, career and status.. but what most people don’t realise is that a mightier sword is wielded in the inner world, YOUR inner world. Listen up and listen close: How you react to people and events shapes your outer world. There is nothing wrong with wanting to see your desires unfold in the outer world.. however the outer world is fraught with obstacles. Many of these obstacles are perceived impossible in the inner world, yet perception is a very deceptive thing. If you could see through the eyes of another.. or put another way, see the world from a different point of view you might find some of those obstacles are perceived as trivial.
When somebody tells you you can’t do something do you believe them and re-inforce it inside yourself? Do you ever tell yourself you aren’t good enough because you don’t have enough money, a great partner or meaningful work? We all have internal dialogues which re-inforce the world we create around ourselves. We are creatures of habit and these habits are shaped by many factors including: our upbringing; relationships; social conditioning; etc. I’m a firm believer in meditation as a way of letting go of toxic emotions and thoughts.. but at the end of the day how you communicate with yourself is a driving factor in how successful you are in life. If anything what we should be doing is re-inforcing a set of only positive characterstics even if we don’t really believe in them. Lying to yourself is perfectly fine, you’re worth it aren’t you?
[...] them under an almost perpetual carpet of noise. Silence is one of the most overlooked secrets in mastering your life. They don’t say Silence is [...]