Silent Approval Article

[minnie]

Hi,

I just rereading the silent approval article, and I'm a little confused.

In Power of Now, Tolle emphasizes that whatever you resist, you empower... so say, as in the article, you start overeating, and then tell yourself, "You pig, what the hell are you doing" is that really the best way to handle it, by insulting yourself? Couldn't you just become conscious of what you're doing and let it fall away? If you really pay attention to what you're doing, without really voicing any dissent, but you just pay attention and disidentify from it and realize that it's not you, won't you stop doing it?

And if a child misbehaves, as the article was saying, does scolding them or telling them to change their behavior really help, or what if you just didn't give respond to the misbehavior in itself (because it really is just a cry for attention, right?). If you scold a child, I feel that then you're just empowering the negativity. I mean you should obviously do something to discipline them.

So I guess I have two questions for everyone:

1. Is it necessary to insult yourself in order to get yourself to stop doing something, or can you just become aware and disidentify from the unwanted behavior?

2. What is the best way to discipline children without empowering the negativity of misbehavior? without giving the negative behavior the attention it wants?

[dECLAN]

The only way to clarity is by passing through confusion.

Whatever you focus your attention on increases. This can apply to your need to insult yourself as much as your need to discipline naughty behavior.