Seeking Approval

I'm going to give you five ways to make the most out of every moment of your life. They're very simple ones. Then I'm going to explain each simple one. These actually are presented to you in a specific order because there's a broader story. Whenever I order principles, there's a broader story that's told in the collective understanding of them.

In this answer to a viewer's question, "Secret of Letting Go" author Guy Finley explains that a genuine resolution to psychological pain will never be found within the very system that produces the pain in the first place. Awareness of this fact is the answer that you're looking for.

It's a little-known secret that our experience of life in any given moment is a direct reflection of what we actually value in that same moment. We may deny this unsettling truth, but when it comes to what we are in relationship with, inwardly and outwardly, actions speak louder than words--and, seen or not, all actions are a choice of one kind or another...

Question: I know it's a mistake looking to someone else for a sense of myself, but how can I keep from giving myself away? Answer: What good is any feeling we may have about ourselves, if it only lasts as long as others agree to it? Seeking and receiving approval from others is like sitting down hungry to an imaginary meal. You're invited to eat all you want, but no matter how much im...

Life will show itself to you, and as it does you'll know just what to do and who to be. There is never any good reason to worry about anything.

Guy Finley explains that the part of us that tries to feel better about itself -- by seeking approval from other people -- is itself the source of the disturbance that we feel. Awareness of this fact allows for a natural separation and release from this lower nature within us that looks outside of itself for consolation.

Question: I don't know why sometimes I feel so much resentment toward the very people whose approval means the most to me. It just doesn't make sense. When these times come, not only am I unsure of why I am acting the way I am, but I don't even like myself. It doesn't add up! How can a person be in charge of his own life one minute, and in the next minute find it in someone else's hands? What'...

Guy Finley explains why fear is a form of spiritual sickness, and what one must do to return to spiritual health.

The seeds of discovering a new mind come from moving closer and closer to the very source of wisdom. What any man or woman in the universe understands you can understand. Why? Because it is everyone's understanding.

Guy Finley explains that you can't change a situation you don't want without first changing the nature that got you into it in the first place. Unless that nature changes you'll fall back into the same patterns and attract the same people and unwanted events. Seeing the situation from a higher view reveals the lower level you've been acting from. Then real change can happen.

The only way we can be released from any painful sense of false responsibility is to see that it is based in a false belief.

It is our fear of being alone and in doubt, of wanting to feel certain that what we are doing is right, that compels us to seek the approval of others.