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Enlightening articles by Guy Finley on a wide range of topics address practical life issues and deepen your spiritual understanding.
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Student Q&A with Guy on "Stop Being Bullied by Your Own Stressful Thoughts and Feelings" (12/6/23)
Posted: Thursday, December 7, 2023
Meeting: Wednesday, December 6, 2023
Duration: 16min 42sec
Topics Covered
We are bullied all the time by something within ourselves that we do not recognize as a bully. In fact, we often look to this inner bully for guidance.
What makes us the favorite of any bully? The answer is that weakness always pounces on weakness. The bully does not exist without something to bully.
We are bullied inwardly by fear, anxiety, anger, worry, depression, or any other negative state that we are not aware of.
What is really bullying us is our own reaction. The bullying continues only if we listen to, are deceived by, the reaction's explanation for what is to blame outside of ourselves for the pain that we feel.
The punchline of the story of the shadow that poked and whispered to its victims was that everyone in the world has their own "personal bully" that masquerades as a protector.
We would never take any action that goes against our own conscience unless we were bullied into doing it.
The bully is forever pointing to the outside condition or person that is to blame for the conflict. We are bullied into having an enemy.
Bullying is the attempt to ensure, by that divided consciousness, that we avoid the experience of ourselves.
How do we pay off the bully? By indulging in thoughts of pleasure, of better days ahead. By following the reaction that says "Look over here"... somewhere in time, in imagination.
The one that we rely upon, that we pay off, to protect us from the bully IS the bully.
Stop paying the bully for protection from the bully. Risk it. Find out what will happen if you stop paying him/her/it off.
The only power the bully has ever had is the mistaken belief that you must live up to an image you hold onto of yourself.
There is nothing practical about wanting to be seen as someone great in the eyes of others. It is an interior bully that threatens us with pain if we don't live up to that image.
It is awareness that gives you everything you need to stop compromising yourself.
All bullies promise a time to come when you will not have to deal with any more bullies.
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