An ongoing personal exploration of Divine Guidance and distinguishing between the voice of fear and the voice of love reflecting on the article, How to Distinguish Between Divine Guidance and Fear/Ego/Imagination, on Sir Froggie’s PositiveNews Network .
Today’s pairing is:
Divine Guidance is like a good friend or wise elder. It is often calm, gentle, firm and consistent.
Ego loves to throw temper-tantrums like a child, tirades like an out-of-control teenager, or controls and manipulates like dictator or control-freak. It can feel bipolar, schizophrenic, unpredictable and inconsistent, extreme, and very critical.
Ah, I am master of tantrums. I’ve been honing my craft all my life and learned from the very best. Must say, it does get old. And it isn’t all that effective either. When ego puts me in a tantrum state, when I’m not getting my way, I illogically fight with things as they are and declare they must change for me to be happy or at peace. Of course, most of the time, things(and people) are not going to change for me. So my little (or big) temper tantrums merely serve to leave me emotionally upset and physically drained…at the opposite pole of the happiness and peace I desire.
I know a wise elder who models for me the alternative. He is a good friend indeed and while he has been witness to many of my tantrums and sometimes points them out to me, he has never judged me for having them. He doesn’t even expect me to stop having them. But he does let me know there is another way. He is calm. He is gentle. He is firm and consistent. He is all the things I want to embody myself. So I look to him to know what is possible. I look to him to practice another way of being in the world.
Am I having a fit? Then maybe I’m giving to much credence to whatever lies the ego is telling me in that moment. Maybe I just need to step back, get quiet, and realize that I am safe and have everything I truly need in that moment. My real survival is not being threatened. Only my ideas.