When I was about 20 years old I momentarily pushed my pet hamster under water in anger because it bit me. I had bought myself a hamster because my best friend had a couple and it seemed like a really cool thing to have. I remember feeling disappointed that I got absolutely nothing back from my hamster… it didn’t make me look cool and neither did it love me.
In my late teens and early twenties I relied on boyfriends for my sense of identity. I made sure that I was never without a boyfriend or at least someone that I was chasing because I felt that without a boyfriend I would not have known who I was. Flirting and hooking guys in was a constant game and one I played even if I wasn’t particularly interested in the guy.
As far as my relationship with myself went I don’t think that I consciously knew such a thing existed and anyway, I thought that I was fine as I was.
What is startling for me to realise when I look back is that I wasn’t at all aware of how much I was struggling, even though I was binge eating, in desperate need of attention and pissed off a lot of the time. In fact I was more than pissed off, I was actually livid! At the time I was very clear about what I perceived to be the cause of my anger; I thought that it was ‘other people’ that made me angry, especially what I considered to be the ‘stupid ones’! I would feel so much anger building in my body when I was listening to certain people talk that I would imagine doing horrible things. This happened a lot and yet still I had no conscious awareness that I wasn’t ok.
It has taken me a long time to understand why I felt the way that I did, and that understanding has been supported immeasurably by the teachings that Serge Benhayon shares through Universal Medicine. It is because of this increased understanding that the judgement that I have towards myself has decreased: however the judgement that I still have towards others indicates that there is a lot more self-judgment yet to be uncovered.
I have come to feel that judgment comes from lack of understanding: once we understand why a person is behaving the way that they do, it becomes impossible to judge them. That’s not to say that we can’t be horrified at the appalling things that happen in the world, of course we can and indeed we are, but understanding takes any judgment away.
Looking back, I recognise that I was in anguish. I had chosen to disconnect from myself to such an extent that I had literally broken adrift from any kind of footing that I had.
I was lost at sea with no idea where land was. What is fascinating now for me to feel is that although it was a very painful time of my life, I had very little awareness of the pain that I was in and the reason why I was unable to feel the pain that I was in, was because I had chosen to sever my connection to myself.
I chose to disconnect from myself at about the age of 8 because I didn’t know what to do with the painful feelings that I had in my body as a result of being picked on at school. I hardened myself to give the false impression to others that it didn’t hurt, when in fact I felt like I was being suffocated from the inside. From that point onwards I continued to harden my body and bury my feelings in a myriad of different ways and eventually ended up so far from where I had begun that I forgot that I once had a starting point of Me.
When we choose to disconnect from ourselves we lose the ability to know how we are feeling because we are ‘not there’ to feel what we are feeling. If you’re not at home, then how can you possibly know who’s walking through the front door? Choosing to disconnect from who we are makes it very easy to abuse ourselves because we are literally oblivious to the abuse.
What makes our disconnection from ourselves even more harmful is the fact that everything, as in every-thing that exists outside of us, is set in motion first by our relationship with ourselves.
This is colossal because most of us have chosen to disconnect from ourselves at some point in our lives, which sets up a mirrored response in our outer lives. If we have a dysfunctional relationship with ourselves, then this will result in dysfunctional relationships with everything and everyone else. It’s basic maths, there can be no more or no less. But because we have chosen to pretend that we don’t know how life works, then we all scrabble around making out that we really can’t understand why life is so hard.
Women spend lifetimes talking to one another trying to fathom out what deep down they already know. But who’s going to be the one to stand up and call out the farce? “Not I”, I hear you cry, and we all know why. We are all involved in a cover-up of such gargantuan proportions that we have made a silent pact to not break the silence… and so we all keep the charade going whilst pretending to know nothing about it.
Deep down every single one of us knows that it is our relationship with ourselves that sets every-thing else in motion, but the responsibility of that feels too big and so we pretend that we don’t know.
So going back to me in my twenties, I had chosen years earlier to cut myself off from myself and so it naturally followed that I also cut myself off from most other people. Because I was unable to feel what I was doing to myself, then I was also unable to feel what I was doing to others. As a direct result of choosing to abuse myself, I was also able to abuse others, and I did. The aggression that I showed myself was reflected in the aggression that I showed to those around me.
Every single thing that was in my relationship with myself was reflected back to me in my relationships with others. It was all there for me to see, if only I had chosen to see it. But I didn’t.
What I have come to learn from my own experiences since attending the workshops of Universal Medicine is that if I want to change any-thing that is outside of me, then I must change it in my relationship with myself first. Others can only get as close to me as I get to myself. If I want to be loved for who I naturally am, then it is my responsibility to love myself in full first. If I want to stop judging those around me then I must stop judging myself. Life is maths, nothing can exist outside of us that doesn’t already exist on the inside: we can’t conjure something up out of nothing, it’s just not possible. Likewise, if there is something going on outside of us, we can’t throw our hands up in the air and say “Ain’t nothing to do with me.” Again basic maths – if it’s on the outside then it’s on the inside.
No-thing more, no-thing less.
Our relationships with others become the most incredible tools to see what needs addressing in the starting place of every-thing, and that is in our relationship with our self.
When we have each returned to our true relationship with ourselves, one that contains love and nothing else, then so too will our world be a reflection of that love.
By Alexis Stewart, Dedicated Student of The Way of The Livingness, Partner to an amazing man, Mum to a beautiful boy, Yoga Teacher, Disability Care Worker, Sydney
Further Reading:
Returning to our essence
Being Chinese – Being True to My Self
Is that all there is?
892 Comments
Self-judgement is a poison that prevents us from feeling the natural beauty of who we are.
The more I deepen my awareness and relationship with myself the more I can read the hidden gems in this blog.If we have a dysfunctional relationship with ourselves then it makes complete sense we will have a dysfunctional relationship with everyone else, so it then surely is our self responsibility to rebuild a body of true love so that we can reflect this back to humanity. Is this how we will change the world by self responsibility?
I really like coming back to this blog to use as a reference point to understand just how deep the disconnection to ourselves can be. When we have a lack of understanding for ourselves it would make sense that we then have no understanding for others. This is how misunderstandings with each other happen which can cause huge problems not just within relationships of family and friends but country to country.
I know there are still judgements towards myself and reading this today reminded me that there’s more understanding to be had. The things I judge about myself are as a result of a reaction to something, a tension I am (for now) unaware of. Having this as a basic understanding really helps to go deeper.
Quite simply if we are not feeling the love within we are not going to be able to see it or feel it anywhere else.
This is a brilliant read about disconnection to ourselves as we are encouraged to look outside of ourselves from a very early age. And from there we just get lost in a world that wants us to perform to a certain set of standards which are ideals and beliefs that are constantly dropping.
We don’t seem to mind that we are becoming more animalistic in our behaviours and yet we consider our selves to be the more intelligent species.
Thank you Alexis, and may I also share that, life is in its fullest when we understand our responsibility’s and my feeling is that we are absolutely responsible for everything! So when we live in a level of Love, Sacredness, Harmony, Joy, Truth, and Repose, as a responsibility we can then deepen in these virtues as we are living with them, with a Deep-humble-appreciative-ness of them. So we are then Students of our own lives, or lost and confused to our Origins and Location. And at this level of appreciative-ness we are in the complete understanding that we are more than this physical vessel. So appreciation is about who we are, not what we do, then it must be in the be-ing-ness!
“Deep down every single one of us knows that it is our relationship with ourselves that sets every-thing else in motion, but the responsibility of that feels too big and so we pretend that we don’t know.” There we go we have everything we need to know in this one sentence, thank you Alexis – deep down we do all know we are far more than what we currently admit.
I agree with you Anonymous, I remember a Universal Medicine practitioner telling me I was playing dumb when actually I knew exactly what I was doing. I had been caught out in the game I was playing with myself and everyone else, as when you play dumb you are left alone as someone of no consequence so I lived under the radar of life. This is called existing or just getting through life, but it’s not truly living. So many of us opt for this way of life not wanting to say ‘boo to a goose’ But where do these feelings of playing dumb and not being ‘good enough’ come from?
‘I have come to feel that judgment comes from lack of understanding: once we understand why a person is behaving the way that they do, it becomes impossible to judge them. That’s not to say that we can’t be horrified at the appalling things that happen in the world, of course we can and indeed we are, but understanding takes any judgment away.’ I have been feeling this lately, what I am realising is that the more I understand why someone maybe behaving in a certain way, the less judgment there is for that person and the more I am able to see their qualities and to have love and appreciation for them rather than judgment.
I love how you say it is basic maths because it is. So that dispels constantly looking outside of myself for who I am especially in anything I do – whether it’s badly, or well or just the fact of the behaviour. It means I can never judge myself for what I do is not who I am. But I do have a responsibility to choose what energy to run my body and my life.
Alexis, I have really started noticing how true this is; ‘Every single thing that was in my relationship with myself was reflected back to me in my relationships with others.’ I have become aware that if I feel connected, accepting and loving with myself that my day flows and I have beautiful connections with others. If I have low self-esteem, eat foods that aren’t supportive and get emotional – then my day feels hard and there seems to be issues with people in my life.
My question has to be where does the feeling of low self- esteem come from that we then want to eat foods or some sort of drink that are not going to support us? We all get these negative thoughts that pop into our heads but do we stop to consider where they may be coming from and that we don’t actually own them, even though it feels as though we do because we are experiencing them. Is it possible we are being caught up in a game of duplicity because we have dropped our awareness of reading our surroundings?
Alexis, this is beautifully simple and makes complete sense; ‘I have come to feel that judgment comes from lack of understanding: once we understand why a person is behaving the way that they do, it becomes impossible to judge them.’
Bringing in observation and understanding changes so much as you share, ‘I have come to feel that judgment comes from lack of understanding: once we understand why a person is behaving the way that they do, it becomes impossible to judge them.’
How we project to others, blaming them for how we feel. The blame game. If we start feeling feelings we don’t like when we are in contact with other people, instead of attacking them or defending, we should be grateful to them that these feelings arise, so we are able to heal them. These feelings were always there.
Thank you for sharing that the key to unlocking the many layers of judgment that we have with ourselves and others is in understanding and with this we can gradually unpick these layers and start to heal the lack of connection that so many of us have struggled with over lifetimes.
I love this, this is so simple but absolutely makes sense; ‘If I want to be loved for who I naturally am, then it is my responsibility to love myself in full first. If I want to stop judging those around me then I must stop judging myself.’
Yes, what is being reflected for us to look at in ourselves, it is important to heal self, and so reflect something different to the world, ‘if I want to change any-thing that is outside of me, then I must change it in my relationship with myself first.’
Alexis, I have found this to be absolutely true; ‘Others can only get as close to me as I get to myself.’ What I have found is that the more I develop the relationship with myself, appreciating my qualities and feeling confident in myself, the more I allow others to get close to me and the more open I am.
Yes it is only when we re-connect to ourselves that we become open to developing truly loving relationships with others.
Alexis, this is really interesting to read and makes me realise that all of our relationships offer a reflection and a chance for us to learn and change; ‘Every single thing that was in my relationship with myself was reflected back to me in my relationships with others.’
‘Choosing to disconnect from who we are makes it very easy to abuse ourselves because we are literally oblivious to the abuse.’ And this exposes why we have so much abuse in the world for so many of us disconnect from ourselves, from our bodies and so we can then abuse ourselves … our path back is our relationship with us, all of us, and allowing ourselves the space to understand all we are and all we see, allowing ourselves to be.
‘Choosing to disconnect from who we are makes it very easy to abuse ourselves because we are literally oblivious to the abuse.’ And this is the start to abusing others as well, without us even being conscious aware of it.
Yes healing the abusive ways that we treat ourselves is reflected in the relationships we build with others as our relationship with ourselves is foundational to all others.
‘ if I want to change any-thing that is outside of me, then I must change it in my relationship with myself first.’
This wisdom is the key to anything that we don’t want or like in our lives. Since experiencing true love everything that is not that stands out like a sore thumb and asks me to go deeper in the relationship with myself.
You speak the truth Alexis.
‘I forgot that I once had a starting point of Me.’ I would say yes I forgot to live from this starting point of Me but in hindsight i can say that deep down I still knew there was a solidness from where I did say no to really going down although there was a deep disregard towards my body and abuse going on from this chosen disconnection.
“If you’re not at home, then how can you possibly know who’s walking through the front door?” Love this sentence.
Only when we disconnect from our true selves are we capable of harm, when we stand with our true selves we stand with God.
I could not help but smile – ‘Life is Maths’…. which makes the importance of this subject so very real. We are blessed to have a Way of the Livingness that does the Maths, and with it my life does add up!
I had no idea of what I truly felt, I saw myself in the box of good helpful ideals and beliefs outside of my self, I was so disconnected from me that there was no one at home, slowly over time I am learning to connect more to my body and hence feel more of the me there, and in learning to be honest instead of good so much has come up that had been buried from my view, that can now be acknowledged felt and healed, we are so blessed with the outpouring of immense healing love for this new era in which we live.
“judgment comes from lack of understanding” understanding the basic maths that energy is in everything and when we are aware of the energy in and from ourselves or others we can read the truth.
Once we have an insight and deeper understanding of ourselves, the self critique and judgement begins to be a thing of the past. With less self-judgement, we have more awareness of what energy is running others and can meet them in their essence rather than the old and crippling judgemental way .
“I have come to feel that judgment comes from lack of understanding: once we understand why a person is behaving the way that they do, it becomes impossible to judge them”.
Just like you Alexis, for so much of my life “I was lost at sea with no idea where land was” and was continually feeling ‘sea sick’ from being tossed around by life’s seemingly never-ending challenges. Finding my way to Universal Medicine has offered me an anchor, a foundation, in life and that I have accepted willingly. And as a result if a ‘storm’ does come my way I may rock a little but this beautiful foundation holds me steadier then I have ever been held.
It is very brave to come out and talk about your judgement-habit, because I have noticed that although most people do it, it tends to be hidden in the depths of our thoughts, without much exposure to the real world, as judgement is often regarded as justified and this is what the conversation tends to be about – the justification of the judgement, and not the dismantling of the judgement itself.
If we find ourselves justifying something then this is a sure sign we’re on shaky ground. Anything borne from truth never needs justification.
What lives inside gets reflected around us. This is our way back to soul if we open our heart to see.
The only way we can come to abuse ourselves is to go into disconnection with our body and that is exactly what the society we have created wants us to be. With that I do not say that society is the cause of this ill behaviour, but our common shared belief that creates this energy in the first place and feeds us back through the many ways we today find in our societies. Although we do recognise it is a problem it is OK to become obese, it is OK to develop diabetes, it is OK to sport hard and extend our limits every time, developing hard and tense bodies, not to forget about the many injuries we get from it, it is OK to playing games on our mobile phones, it is OK the loose ourselves on social media, it is OK … I could go on for some time but maybe you got an understanding of what I mean.
Indeed “we have made a silent pact to not break the silence…” and to not disclose the energy that is behind this false world of creation we try to keep alive while in truth it is very abusive and absolutely not who we are and are from.
Great blog with gems of wisdom like ‘judgment comes from lack of understanding: once we understand why a person is behaving the way that they do, it becomes impossible to judge them.’ It is indeed all about allowing a deep understanding that all behaviors come from somewhere, a deep hurt, a disconnection, whatever it is, it is for us to without perfection stay open hearted to the other person…and ourselves. From there change is possible as you, Alexis, have experienced.
Indeed Caroline, no way we can judge someone when we understand that we are all one and the same, equal brothers that are on our path of return in learning how to live together as a soul on earth. We all have our own history in that and are finding our way with it. Therefore this understanding is so important as it will bring us closer together while the judgment is creating boundaries that leave us to feel alone and that we all have to do it on our own. But this is not the way we are designed to live. The only way to crack this creation we live in is to do it together as one.
[…] Related Reading: How love benefits your health Building love in our life Our Relationship with Ourselves is the Start of All Things […]