InnerPiece Psychological Practice

05/11/2021

Once we learn what is really important and what matters the most to us, one of the ensuing tasks is to figure out how to *remember* it.

This is difficult! In the midst of other people’s opinions, the requirements of daily life, and the pervasive Old Happy messages from our culture and society, it can be really difficult to hold on to what we learnt.

One way to do this is to approach it differently — by working to embody what we learned in our very way of being. Instead of trying to always remember something, we integrate the knowing deep into ourselves so that it extends into every part of our lives. Transforming our character takes time, self-compassion, and repeated action, and it can look a little bit like this 👆🏻

One way to identify the next right choice or behavior is to ask ourselves, “What would a person who embodies [insert what you learned here] do in this moment?” and then practice acting in that way. For example, if you learned a hard-won truth that your peace is more important than other people’s comfort, what would it look like to act in alignment with that knowledge in this exact moment? And then, do it!

This journey inevitably involves forgetting the truth, struggling to practice, having flashes of insight, the testing of it through challenging circumstances, feeling like you’re taking a massive step back, over and over again. So many people beat themselves up for this, but it’s the natural process; it’s just how we change, with attempts and setbacks and re-learning. We can only come to embody a piece of knowledge by going through these often-frustrating and maddening steps — but the process in and of itself can be a great and powerful teacher, if we acknowledge it and embrace it for the natural, beautiful unfolding of our growth that it is. And even though we are speaking of it like there is an end point of full embodiment, the truth is the journey never ends: life continually gives us new chances to extend and deepen our character, to grow as people in the direction that is deeply meaningful to us.