Seeking Approval

There is a certain longing inherent in us to belong to something greater than ourselves. That longing that has a natural foundation is stolen very quickly, in fact it never has a chance to get off the ground. What happens? Remember grammar school? Remember how you began to notice that there were certain groups of people that maybe you wanted to belong to but they didn't want you to belong to t...

Have you ever limited yourself with what you thought was a power at the time you started it? Sometimes you can do something that takes you twenty years before you begin to suspect that it's a limitation and not a power. You think to yourself, "I'm really going to empower myself by getting an education, because when I have that new education, I'll have the approval I want, I'll feel accepted, a...

Looking for ourselves in the eyes of others throws us behind the walls of a psychic prison. The door slams shut each time we find ourselves feeling good about ourselves simply because someone has given us a needed nod of approval. Let's investigate this strange sequence of psychological events that leaves us in a prison of our own making. Whenever someone approves of us, it gives us a feelin...

These five special insights present the case for -- as well as the cost of -- true Spiritual Independence. Welcome them into your mind and watch how their secret instructions lead you to the unconditional freedom that your heart longs for. To weigh the value of what this world can reward you with -- you need only to remove the scales from your eyes; for were you willing to measure how many t...

You have always believed that the better people feel about you, the better you can feel about yourself. However, you may have never really considered that the opposite of this belief must hold equally and unhappily true, and that is: The less you are approved by others, the more alone and uncertain you feel. This helps to explain why you think you have to please people as well as why you resen...

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 imaginary food is served, you can never get your fill. Your hunger remains. No fictional feast ever satisfies. But this fact isn't so apparent when it comes to our appetite for approval. We still look to others for our sense of self even thou...

Here is a great, but unseen, psychological Truth that once realized sets us upon the true spiritual path leading to Real Love and its Perfect Freedom: What frightens us about others is what we want from them; and what we want (from others) is largely what we have imagined is in their power to either give to us, do to us, or withhold from us. And so, whether we live with the fear of our love...

Topic: You Are Made for the Moment You Meet (Remastered Classic Talk) (Classroom Talk 2/11/26)

Topic: The Long Strange Journey to Being Happy with Who You Are (Classroom Talk 11/27/24)

Topic: Insights into Awakening the "All-Seeing I" (Classroom Talk 6/19/24)

Student Talks: 11/24/2023 - Key Lesson: The single greatest unseen cause of premature aging, stress-related health issues, and ultimately of death is... the deeply mistaken, agonizing idea that somehow our constant struggle to control the outcome of any moment we fear will one day free us from these moments we fear.