99 steps to reclaiming your individuality Step #33

Authorship and Acceptance:

We have reached a pivotal point on our journey.  Over the course so far there has been much repetition, this was not intended to distract or provide filler, but to imitate the same rote patterns that we used as children to improve retention. We will now summarize what we should know by now, or at least agree to consider.

We agree, or are open to consideration that we are many selves or states in one consciousness. We generally agree that we have a physical self that is mostly regulated autonomously to which we supply nourishment, exercise and stimulation. We have an intellectual state (inquisitive state) that varies in intensity and activity within each individual. The prime stimulus for this state is our sensory perception. Within this state we have a matrix of mechanisms that span, intersect, stimulate and interact with our other states of the physical and emotional. And finally we have the emotional states. The bulk of this state resides in what we agreed to call the "Hesitant state" with the remnants residing in the other two ( Inquisitive and Neutral states). We agreed to order the states through an introspective exercise, and list them in the categories we agreed to call the three primary groupings (eg):  | Inquisitive states | Hesitant states | Neutral States |  Once this was completed, we agreed to honour a protocol, that we should adopt a sense of authorship over these states, and further, that if we felt a lapse in that authorship, we would agree to halt the activity and reflect on the circumstance. And this we agreed to refer to as "An entering into the neutral state for reflection".

We then moved on to the relationship of the emotions (nature states) to one-another. We acknowledged that although they interact in a manner that makes them appear to be interconnected, the are in reality distinct entities that operate independently on their own individual axis's. Finally we set up examples that would encourage us to experiment with this approach to the self, and tried to apply this reasoning in our daily routines.

Now in order to move forward, we have to accept the above simple framework as a reasonable base from which we will operate. This should not be difficult, seeing that it is in no wise constrictive. We are not being asked to surrender anything, we are not being asked to adopt any foreign article or belief structure. We are simply being asked to author consciously our thoughts and actions. Could anything be more simple?

From this point forward, we set past constraints behind us. Knowing that our lives have not changed. Our environment has not changed. The interactions between individuals we interact with, has not changed. We have simply agreed to work to change the way we respond and the way we interpret. And make no mistake, this is no small challenge, as you will find out. If you are honest in your approach to this, you are going to experience just how much you lacked control in your lives. But also, you are going to see how easily correction can occur, almost magically, when resistance is transformed into acceptance, and acceptance is understood as a principle and not as an act of capitulation.

Acceptance is indeed met with the same trepidations sometimes, as is a visit to the dentist. What we are being asked to do, is accept something, or place our integral signature on something  that will intrinsically connect us to it. Now when this is a thing of pleasure, there is little resistance, but when it is a thing that will bind us to a commitment or obligation, it is most times met with hesitance. Does this sound familiar? In reflecting back on previous steps, are these not the same motivations and actions that we have unconsciously used to frame our emotional make-up, or at least part of it? And if this be true, How do you gauge the health of your emotional make-up as it stands now? And if it is not what you would like it to be, this would then lead to the question, what have you been accepting? Now if you are willing to accept that you may have been accepting things that weren't in your best interest, what would you consider to be the best course of action? Stop accepting? Or would it be, accepting the responsibility to author all decisions on what you accept. This you can do, when you are the author of your life.

This is why it is critical to accept all facets of your individual nature, because you have created the autonomous netherworld that you have conveniently assigned non-culpable exceptions to. When hypothetically, you reacted violently in anger, or deceptively in greed, or with emotional frailty in what would appear inconsolable sadness, you through experiential cataloguing  laid this framework, and when it was given validity through the social sequences of: [Outburst - Apology or Remorse - Resolve], it was then easier to reason this as an act outside yourself, than actually being an act of yourself. And this you accomplished by assigning of for example, "Anger"  it own authored role. What you didn't realize, is, this act of convenience would eventually go on to lay the framework for most of your emotional responses. And thus the division occurred.

This is the both the inherent reason for and the crucial reason why authorship and acceptance will be, or should be the pillars of everyone's individual nature, and it certainly is, the foundation of this course.