It is painful to face the self we know we have never had the integrity to honor and assert.
Interpretation
Facing our true selves can be difficult if we haven't lived with integrity.
This quote by Nathaniel Branden highlights the pain that comes from being aware of our true selves while having failed to honor and assert that identity through integrity in our actions and choices. It suggests that self-acceptance and authenticity are crucial for personal growth, and the struggle to align our real selves with our outward behavior can lead to significant emotional discomfort.
In practice
During a motivational speech about self-improvement and integrity.
Living consciously is seeking to be aware of everything that bears on our interests, actions, values, purposes, and goals. It is the willingness to confront facts, pleasant or unpleasant. It is the desire to discover our mistakes and correct them . . . it is the quest to keep expanding our awareness and understanding, both of the world external to self and the world within.
If you are an adult, you are responsible for your life and well-being. No one owes you the fulfillment of your needs or wants; no one is here on earth to serve you. If you respect the principle of self-ownership, you understand that no one else owns you and that you do not own anyone else. Only on this understanding can there be peace on earth and good will among human beings.
It is a mistake to look at someone who is self assertive and say, "It's easy for her, she has good self-esteem." One of the ways you build self-esteem is by being self-assertive when it is not easy to do so. There are always times when self-assertiven ess requires courage, no matter how high your self-esteem.
Living consciously reflects the conviction that sight is preferable to blindness; that respecting the facts of reality is more satisfying than denying them; that evasion does not make the unreal real or the real unreal; that it is better to correct your mistakes that to pretend they do not exist; and that the more conscious you are of facts bearing on your life and goals, the more wisely and effectively you can act.
One of the hardest expressions of self-assertiveness is challenging your limiting beliefs.
How do we keep our inner fire alive? Two things, at minimum, are needed: an ability to appreciate the positives in our life β and a commitment to action. Every day, it's important to ask and answer these questions: βWhat's good in my life?β and βWhat needs to be done?
By watching the mechanics of the mind, you step out of its resistance patterns, and you can then allow the present moment to be.
It is not the cares of today, but the cares of tomorrow, that weigh a man down. For the needs of today we have corresponding strength given. For the morrow we are told to trust. It is not ours yet. It is when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear.
Carefully compare the opposing army with your own, so that you may know where strength is superabundant and where it is deficient.
The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.
Human beings suffer agonies, and their sad fates become legends; poets write verses about them and playwrights compose dramas, and the remembrance of past grief becomes a source of present pleasure - such is the strange alchemy of the spirit.
If you simply take up the attitude of defending a mistake, there will no hope of improvement.
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