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If there is something that really define us as humanity, and set us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom, is our ability to convert thoughts into things. If a man really sets his heart and mind into something, the results are magnificent: Roads are built, food is supplied, cities are developed, dreams become reality. Knowing that we possess such mental faculty, why is it then that not everyone can reach their dreams so easily? What stands between the “thoughts” and the “things”?
It seems like there is an invisible force, sometimes playing against us. Like the torrent of air playing against the desired direction of the boat sailor and beats him up every time he tries to move forward…bringing him back to the opposite direction. This force it´s a tricky bastard. We do not see it, but we know it is there. It comes and haunts us when we set goals, make our plans and suddenly, we find ourselves numbing, finding any excuse not to follow the plans that we ourselves have created. What an ass!
How to confront such a coward, that hiddes in between the blankets? This invisible force, loves to live between the plan and the action, separating them as much as possible. So, how to face it and overcome it? This question has haunted me for quite some time, and the more I think about it the less I understood it´s underlying force.
Then I came accross an interesting concept, which I first read in the book of David Goggins, “Nothing Can´t Hurt Me”: “If you look yourself at the mirror and you see a fat person, don´t tell yourself that you need to loose a couple of pounds. Tell the truth, You´re Fucking Fat!… The dirty mirror that you see every day is going to tell you the truth everytime, so why are you still lying to yourself?”- The truth hurts. We don’t like to confront it, and individually and culturally, we tend to sugar-coat our communication to people and to ourselves. So it is time to get real. If we want results, we need to start from a stable base.
So that´s where the accountability mirror comes to our help. How can you live happily and persuit your goals without really knowing yourself? Self- awareness and the Truth are close friends, in fact, they are the same thing. It takes courage, to look at ourselves at the Raw level. Without our social masks, without our ilussions of who we think we are, based on what we were in the past, or how other people wants to define us. It is not pretty, to stand in front of the mirror and accept all the things you don´t like about yourself. We humans often pretend to be nice, and have the best of the intentions, that we are good and decent people. Are we? When feelings of greed, envy, jelousy, laziness, comes through our minds, first thing we try to do is to hidde it. We don´t accept it, so we repress it. So in the outside, it might seem like you could manage it, but… did you?
The first signal you really did is if at the next event or situation where you get confronted by someone or something unexpected, you take no position at all. You see the situation from a higher perspective, neither positive nor negative, and keep an indifferent position. In other words, you don´t give the power to the situation or the person, to alter your peace. But usually, with repressed feelings, what comes around goes around. So if not properly managed, they tend to magnify in the inside and at the first opportunity, they get released in form of violence, denial, indifference to life, feelings of anger and discontentment. In such state, is hard really, to think about moving forward.
So what is the first step to get accountable? Self-observation. Invest time, in really observe the totality of you. What is around you. Do you like what you see? Which feelings and thoughs are predominant to you during the day? Look at your body, at your hair… at your face, at your breath… at your feet. At your posture, and how you walk. How you interact with others. What words do you use? Which feelings come across when something does not go as expected?… observe, however, do not confound self-observation with self-absorbtion. Self-absortion is to completely vanish into your thoughts and the ego stories in your head. The idea is to get outside yourself and look at yourself as an expectator, like a reflection in the mirror…. but on the inside out!
Once you observe carefully without any judgement, every aspect of yourself, then it´s time to get really accountable. With an open mind and an open heart, define what you really are, and ought to be. What is the real path of self-realisation for you?
By freeing your mind of inexistent fears, worries and false illusions of Self, you set yourself free. You are no longer afraid of pain, loss or anything. An internal joy fuels your energy and boost you towards the desired direction without you having to force anything. Vernon Howard express it magnificently in his book The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power: “There is a certain aimlessness, a lack of concern, but it has nothing to do with common carelessness. You realize that all that furious rushing around the deck does absolutely nothing to move the boat forward. You finally grasped the cosmic Truth that the boat carries you, you don´t carry the boat”.
People that have a higher understanding of themselves through their accountability mirror really experiences the Truth. An hypnotised person merely repeats what has been told to him.
Are you ready go through the awakening ride and defy the invisible bastard that keeps you away from your desires? Or keep sleeping? In the meantime, let´s get in front of the mirrow!
