Are You On Auto-Haunt?

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By Marlene Buffa

My favorite holiday of the year – Halloween – a time when people honestly pretend to be something other than who they are! By donning our masks and putting on makeup and costumes, we cloak ourselves in a persona vastly different from how we present ourselves every day. The new façade creates an illusion of a new identity as we stay in character. We celebrate the goblins and ghosts which lurk around us this harvest and introspectively examine the spirits within us which haunt us as we roam the earth.

Own worst enemy
Haunted by self limitation, doubt, and insecurity, the well known cliché that man is his own worst enemy resolutely demonstrates itself in our spiritual awakenings. We repeatedly hold ourselves back from living a fulfilling life when we buy into the negative self talk and doubt our capabilities. Giving credence and power to the myth of our unworthiness of whatever it is we truly want in life, we render ourselves helpless to the mind-speak we create, thereby manufacturing the enemy in our own minds as well as falling prey to it. When you consider that you created our own antagonist to your higher self, you then take a look at what fuels the negativity and the perpetuation of those fears.

Haunted by the past
Regrets, mistakes, and "should haves" work together to form the ghost of the past which hovers over our conscious thoughts. With fears of repeating mistakes or behaving in a manner which results in more future regret (?), we rattle the chains of self-imposed restrictions and remain frozen in fear by the inability to move forward to our highest desire and potential. Paralyzed, we spend more time reminiscing and revisiting the past than living in the present moment.

Instead, remember you cannot undo anything nor can you ever "should have" right now. Those are the dead end roads of your life's path. Allowing your past to dictate the vibrancy of the present, surrenders your power to fully engage in the now –the only true lesson you ever own. Right now is IT; it’s all you’ve got. Quit spending your precious "now" shivering in fear of the ghosts of your past that you allow to haunt your potential awakening.

External haunting turned inward
Along with our self-talk, we integrate and assimilate the words of others into a ghost of our self-perception. Parents, friends, bosses and those we allow to impose their opinions upon us formulate in our psyche as a ghost of "what they think must really be who I am." Believing others more accurately capture a depiction of you than yourself, you allow a haunting of their perspective a higher position of authority than your own self-awareness. Worse yet, you feel their expectations of you both expressed and silent, must be met in order to live up to their definition of who you are.

Learn to separate and detach what others tell you about yourself. They are human, too, and their opinion of you is only that. As a child of the Creator, your role remains to progress on your own path, not constrained by any implied obligation to anyone else. Each of us arrived on the planet with our own lessons to learn. As we share our humanity with one another, we exchange observations. By identifying the differences between how others see you and what you know about yourself to be true, you exorcise the ghost of external opinion.

Cultural ghosts
Social ghosts haunt us into the restrictions of tradition, cultures, or rituals. We sometimes feel bound to limit ourselves to the success level of our family, peer group or perceived social strata. Tremendous pressure exists on us as youths to achieve certain expectations as defined by our family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. In some cultures, dumbing-down and non-achieving is rigorously encouraged so as not to upset the group-think of martyrdom. When others give no plausible reason for attempting to keep you in the depths of failure, know that "misery loves company" and the "I can't" mentality really means "I'm afraid."

Break free from the accident of your earthly birth and ascend into a higher awareness that your life lesson may be to set aside the familiarity of your surroundings and aspire to higher levels of consciousness. Only YOU decide what's best for you! Ignore the ghostly moans of agony of fear of success and create your own vision of your highest and best.

Be your own Exorcist
Using a crystal ball of self examination, you identify the ghosts of your essence which haunt your mind and soul. These ghosts exist only as habits and thought patterns that you allowed to implant into your mind and eventually control your life. The visions of fear you see are hollow myths you created and project into your future and hinder you from living in the present moment.

Leave the past where it belongs! When you hear the echo of self-doubt and the repeated chants of external control by fears, close the gate of the graveyard of negativity. Slam the door on thoughts which no longer serve you and invite the light of illumined ideas and possibility-thinking to occupy your precious "right now."

http://www.wordsofmind.com/articles/readarticle.cfm?PKelcitra=97