Democracy of the Mind

How interesting is that we created a social system based on the rule of majority (even if this may still be an ideal) but we openly allow inner tyrants to rule our lives. Some examples of inner tyrants include: the inner critic, pride, fear, cynicism, anger, guilt, shame. I am always puzzled by the gap between our ideal selves and our real selves. We all desire to be loving, kind, brave, resilient, powerful and in reality…well, we are as we are. The paradox is that the more we allow all of our aspects to have a place in our life, the more at peace we feel. Otherwise, there is always a conflict between our inner tyrants and other aspects of the self. We become a battle zone and it does not look pretty. One exercise to become aware of our inner tyrant is to spend a bit of time thinking of the reasons you feel less satisfied about your life. If you are fully satisfied, you probably do not waste your time doing inner work and this will not apply to you. Write down 5 reasons why you cannot do what you would really love to do. Reflect on your answers with as much honesty as you can. How can you allow yourself to be as you are?