The Fifth Column & The Hungry Ghost
The two biggest foes of self-acceptance are The 5th Column and The Hungry Ghost. The Fifth Column is the saboteur within. The Hungry Ghost feels that we're "never enough".
Developing self-acceptance doesn't mean it's OK to not have a conscience or goals. The right dose of perceiving ourselves as "having done a bad thing" or "not doing enough" is key to health.
We must guard against giving The 5th Column and The Hungry Ghost too much power.
The 5th Column's lethal weapons:
Sow dissension within. Ever catch yourself saying "I hate myself' or "you idiot"? Your energy is trapped. A chunk of you is locked against another chunk like a pair of battling sumo wrestlers. You can't live at full strength when some part of you is in stasis.
Defend and deny. When we reject some part of ourselves we waste energy defending or denying its existence. To use a Star Trek analogy, when the shields are up the phasers can't fire at full power. You can make peace with that "monstrous" part of you and use that newfound energy to reach your goals with more ease.
Suppress. Sealing off, suppressing or tamping down feelings sucks up a lot of life force. They need to be felt! If we suppress feelings we ossify them within our hearts, which get heavier and heavier. The psychic burden weighs us down, and more effort is needed to overcome the drag.
More to come on The Fifth Column and The Hungry Ghost tomorrow.
photo credit: Utagawa Kunisada, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
