attachment to self-esteem

[Peleke4]

I used to be be my own worst enemy. I found out my lack of self-esteem was due primarily to negative thoughts, my negative thinking. It was at that point that I immersed my self in self-help and personal growth. Gradually, I dissolved my negative thought patterns. I became a more positive person and developed self-esteem. But after checking out the following video, it really made me see the self-esteem I developed from a totally new angle:

YouTube - Why "The Secret" DOESN'T Work - Eckhart Tolle - part 1/2

If you don't want to check out the video, here's an summary you can read pertaining to the video:

Self Esteem

This really hit home with me. As Tolle gives his spin on self-esteem, it seemed he was talking about my personal journey to become a positive person with high self-esteem. It's funny because I did all the stuff he talked about: affirmations, visualization, reminder notes, etc. I even experienced the negative aspect of having high self-esteem: as explained by Tolle, if you feel you have high self-esteem, inevitably you will experience situations that will tell you otherwise.

The video made me realize that I was attached too attached to my self-esteem. I guess it's because there was a time in my life I had none; and now I'm just enjoying the fact that I have it. Perhaps I was too identified with it. Since I watched the video, I haven't been doing stuff that would uphold my self-esteem. For now, I just don't know.

[wolfgang]

cool post

at first I thought it's about self-acceptance but it goes beyond that

to be happy with youself implies a relationship with a self

but then to not need to have a self, would take away the need to try to be happy with it since your sense of self would not require a relationship to it

I'll have to re-read that link - good stuff!

[awakentransform]

Interesting post. I will admit that I didn't watch the video, but I did read the summary. My personal opinion is that we are all part of the Divine and are in fact already perfect. BUT, we chose to embody in physical form and forget this so that we can fully experience separation and the journey back to remembering our Oneness. That journey is symbolized energetically in our 7 chakras.

The third chakra is personal power ie self esteem. This is one of the 7 major lessons/qualities we chose to experience while in the physical body before returning to Oneness. A mistake I once made that many "spiritual" people (I'm not referring to Eckhart Tolle necessarily) make is to think that they have transcended the ego. Understanding the concept is not the same thing as embodying it. We can't simply bypass a lesson, we have to work through it. Some people of course have worked through a lesson in a former life, which perhaps explains how someone can become enlightened in a second.

Look at all those gurus who said that they overcame sexual desire, only later to have been found to have had sex with their followers. I think when we have embraced all of the lessons of the 7 chakras and embodied them, then we can transcend the duality and polarity of the human physical world.