Self Mastery

What Is Self Mastery?

“The mind is a fantastic tool and a terrible master”
—Yogi wisdom

We all know how we could be or should be but most of us fail to even achieve a small percentage of our potential. One part of us pulls in one direction whilst another part, or several, pull in the opposite direction. The result is a no result and a slow erosion of our self confidence to create what we want to create in the world – a slow acceptance of things as they are rather than as we might wish them to be.

The simplest way to explain this is with an analogy – 70% of people who undergo open heart surgery don’t change their ways afterwards – even though they know they should. Why is that? Surely with the threat of imminent death one might find the motivation needed to change one’s life threatening ways?

It’s easy to dismiss this scenario with a flippant ‘That wouldn’t be me’ comment but all of us have situations like this in our lives. We know we should exercise more but we just can’t get it together to do it. We know we shouldn’t eat sweet things but when we stand at the buffet table confronted by chocolate éclairs and oh so nice looking cakes a little voice inside us says ‘Just this once’.

So – Self Mastery – the battle between the self and the self. And not Self Control – where one part of you stands over the rest of you like a strict school teacher with a big stick – ready to give you a big whack the second you step out of line – boring !!

No – Self Mastery – the ability to determine what you want in life and then the ability to master your emotional and physical responses so that you can work towards actively creating it. Self Mastery – as in the ability to BE who you want to BE – in love and joyfulness – and to DO what you want to DO – in peace and harmony. Self Mastery as in – I am the master of myself and my life – in perfect alignment with my deepest heartfelt purpose and passions.

Self Mastery is vital now because of the changes we are going through in the world. The old ways are failing us, our institutions have failed us. It’s time to step up. Time to take responsibility. Time to stop handing over our personal power to others. Time to let go of fear and greed. Time to embrace our power as co-creators. Time to contribute to the creation of a new world.

To do this we need to be able to not only work out what we are doing here and what we want from life but also to align ourselves with our deepest purpose and create it pro-actively. Not simply react to whatever is going on around us.

To do this we need to be able to be comfortable in uncertainty. Comfortable with who we are and able to continue to act when things don’t make sense in the moment – not just running fearfully away from life when the way forward is unclear.