Love One’s Self (Part I)

This week’s blog will be the first from CHEK Pratitioner Scott Shafer.

Hello everyone,

For many of my clients, this is a very big endeavour…one that oftentimes catches them off guard when we first begin to discuss it. In our current society we are taught to be Human DO-ers as opposed to Human BE-ings. SO, in society’s eyes, unless you are doing, you are of no value. This is a very poor self concept to say the least and it leads to people not loving themselves.

In our society we often identify with our persona or masks. We all wear them and they can serve a purpose, but to identify them as WHO we truly are is a mistake. We use masks to protect ourselves and others (or so we think), but typically they are of no protection-just merely a covering for our fear.  We have many masks and it is amazing we can carry all of these around with us every day. We have new masks for every occasion as opposed to living authentically. People can start their day off at Church and wear one mask…the mask of piety, but then later that day it’s time for American Football and we have a new mask,…the rowdy, loud, and proud football-man. Now the question is why are we hiding behind these masks? Why can’t you act rowdy, loud, and proud when you are serving your God? Why must you wear a suit and tie to do such a thing? God is everywhere, yet we only put on our worship mask to go to Church.  We have masks for every different activity. The Husband/Wife mask, the Parent mask, the Executive mask, etc., but have you ever looked at a very young child (one who hasn’t been corrupted by society)? They live authentically. They will go pick up a muddy pet in their “Sunday Clothes” just as easily as they would in their “Grungy Clothes” simply because they love their pet so deeply. They don’t have masks until we (society/parents/teacher/priests) teach them to create them.

A child is always living authentically until we get our hooks in them. This is important to remember because many people have misunderstood when it is said, “Come to me like little Children”. This is not meant as, come to me as unintelligent, but rather, come to me authentically and with love in your heart just as a child comes!

If we did understand that we would not try to put so much control onto our children!

Because this way of thinking creates many masks, people often misidentify with their masks as their true self. This leads to living an inauthentic life and leads people down a path of serious confusion! They don’t really know who they are anymore, so how can they know what they truly need?

This misidentification is why I have clients who come to me with a lot of money, but they don’t know how to use it properly. They buy cheap, badly-made food, and then complain when they are fat, sick, and tired. We value the cheap and quick over something beautiful just because it took longer to make. It’s why as a society we would be willing to cut down a 300-year-old Redwood tree just to build another McDonald’s! Do we really need another fat factory?

When a client comes to me and says,” I want to lose this much weight and I want this toned, and this bigger, and this smaller, etc.”, the first thing I ask them is, “What are you currently doing to achieve this goal?” Inevitably they have been on some kind of ridiculous diet that they heard works, but we are the only animals (Human Animals), that have issues surrounding food. We will starve ourselves because of our Ego and Identification with our masks rather than truly listening to what our body needs. Have you EVER seen an anorexic animal in the wild (by choice, not lack of resources because we turned their hunting ground into another mega-plex shopping center)? The answer is obviously a resounding NO! Our egos and masks are so strong a part of our identification that we are struggling to identify our true needs. This inability to identify the needs and fulfill them ourselves is leading us down a path of destruction physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

So, with all of our analytical intelligence (left-brain) we muck up our lives! If we can get back to communion with our true nature and creative energy (right-brain) we can oftentimes intuitively know what we should or shouldn’t eat. We will stop going on diets that starve or even kill us and we will be able to identify with a part of ourselves that has been hidden from us by society.