

Study with the several resources on Docsity
Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan
Prepare for your exams
Study with the several resources on Docsity
Earn points to download
Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan
Community
Ask the community for help and clear up your study doubts
Discover the best universities in your country according to Docsity users
Free resources
Download our free guides on studying techniques, anxiety management strategies, and thesis advice from Docsity tutors
phichbdhbvdhvbhdbvhbdxhbvxccnxxjjvbxvb xvbxhbvxh v vhxv xv xv x vxh vxh vx vxh vhxbvhx vx vhx vh xvx vh dfeb dv d hdvhvb v v v vsdh v cbvhbvz xh vh vchz vsdhd jm v
Typology: Essays (university)
1 / 3
This page cannot be seen from the preview
Don't miss anything!
We all love and desire to be free. However, as much as we crave for such, we often realise that it takes a lot more than just the desire to be free to truly do what you want to do, when you want to do it, and in your own way. How much freedom can you handle? Do you want to do what you want to do when you want to do it, in your own way and at your own pace? You work with people who have the same values, and you make the money you need. Most of all, you make choices that give your life meaning and purpose. This level of freedom requires awareness and self-discipline, the ability to stop what you are doing that is not working. Your Most Reliable Friend Self-discipline is not glamorous, but it is the friend you can depend on when life gets hard. Rather than avoid problems self-discipline likes to get to the bottom of them, since that is how it grows strong and wise. Whatever you suffer and endure, see and hear, feel and desire–every act of meanness and kindness you experience–self-discipline is there to shape you into the resilient person you were designed to be. The more self-disciplined you are, the less you need to be told what to do. You just do it. And you do it well. Resistance Is No Match for Self-Discipline When you conquer resistance to the challenges life brings (and this may take a while), you notice you are a more effective person. You decide to save part of your income and invest it rather than spend what you earn. You exercise regularly, rest when you are tired, and eat only when you are hungry. You don’t give in to pressure from family members and friends to go back to the way you used to be. You don’t accept responsibility that is not yours. You don’t ignore your feelings, and you don’t blame “enemies.” You see them as secret allies who force you to improve. Happily Ever After In fairy tales, self-discipline is the prince who searches for his lost princess. He finds her, but only after passing difficult tests. Happily-ever-after stories are eternally relevant because they describe the journey to becoming an individual, meaning undivided. The beasts, dragons and witches encountered along the way are parts of yourself you need to accept as your own if you are to become a whole, integrated person. Rejecting or projecting what you don’t like about yourself keeps you in bondage to an idealized self-image, a brittle façade that distances you from yourself, and others. Not seeing yourself clearly also makes it hard for you to accept criticism, since a good critic destroys artificiality. Dropping pretenses when confronted is scary at first, but then it is liberating. Projection also includes attributing positive traits to others that belong to you. You think they are loyal when it is you who can be trusted. Then you get disappointed when they let you down. Accepting your trustworthiness, as well as the time when you were not so loyal makes it easier to know who to trust, which lowers the chances you’ll disappointed.
Awakening from Self-Imposed Slumber Sleeping Beauty is a story about a girl who is cursed by the power of the evil witch (the fear of criticism) around the age of puberty. She sleeps in her glass coffin until the prince hacks through the weeds and brambles that surround her castle. He wakes her with the kiss of true love, and they live happily ever after. The story is a metaphor for the journey to self-acceptance. This arduous task usually begins with uprooting events that force you to become better acquainted with yourself. These reversals can be accidents, illnesses or losses that shake you to the core. You are free to resist the signals that imply change is afoot. But rightly interpreted, disruption can be seen as the force that is pushing you to let go of illusions. The usual reaction to loss of what you think you can’t live without is panic, despair and depression. But what brings you to your knees can also lift you to heights you could not achieve before the loss. You won’t know this until later, however, often much later. Then you are so relieved to be free from the past you bless the event. This is an example of how the unconscious “arranges” loss when you are not aware of how much you long to be free. A Not To Do List Make a list what you need to stop doing. These are the choices that always end in failure. This exercise is not to shame yourself, but to understand why you do what does not work (and probably never did). These choices often mask a hidden fear of being powerful: you fear you’ll misuse it, that confidence will separate you from everyone, or that it will stir up envy from those who are close to you. Much of our ineffective behavior is learned, like anxiety. If you grow up around anxious people you will be anxious about everything, until you separate yourself from identification with anxious people, and, as I said above, the fear of going beyond them. Self -discipline and its guarantee for freedom The long term benefits of self-discipline are perhaps, unknown by most and this is why many do not commit to the moment and endure, so that they can turn out stronger and wiser. Instead, they look for shortcuts, which only leads them in short circles of bliss, only to entangle them much later. When this happens, they start to cry out for freedom and when freedom remains evasive, they tend to propagate that freedom is unattainable in our present societal settings. For readers who desire freedom, this article explains that self-discipline remains the only price to be paid for the prize of freedom in the future. It is the secret weapon to improvement and the best way to likewise appreciate your true self-image. The importance of trust in the attainment of freedom Agreeably, an ideal self-image is a very vital part of being true to one’s self and the attainment of freedom, which in this sense is not the physical freedom but that of the mind. Therefore, the onus lies on the individual to trust only themselves and to hold every other person on the same scale, while giving room for various inadequacies prone to man. Self- acceptance cannot be achieved without a true, positive self-image, likewise freedom can never be achieved without a true self-image and self-acceptance as pillars to rely on.