I know when my lower-self is holding the reins and it never leads to anything productive. My lower-self causes me to thinks thoughts that are not for the greater good, and to react to life’s circumstances rather than respond. My lower-self behaves in a second-rate manner which usually results in me letting myself and others down.

15 things that come from the lower-self (turning us into a repellent force and rendering us powerless):

1) Everything being about me, and what makes me feel safe and comfortable. Me, me, me, me, me – followed, of course, by absolute denial. The lower-self really hates to own up to its own s**t.

2) Intolerance and impatience. Feeling put-out at the drop of a hat; outraged that we should be so inconvenienced; unwilling to let things go; hanging on to grudges way past their sell-by date.

3) Allowing our ego to overshadow our spirit by reacting in a hyper-sensitive way to every real or imagined slight, or always looking for the insult, the put-down, the criticism, when conversing with people we feel lesser than or emotionally intimidated by.

4) Blaming the past and/or others for the way we feel right now, today, and for the way in which we consistently react and behave.

5) Repeatedly making excuses… having a ‘yes-but’ answer for everything, so that we can validate our reasons for remaining stuck and struggling.

6) Having no or little resilience… crumbling at every hurdle, and then being furious with life because it’s all ‘too hard’.

7) Allowing screwed-up, spiteful people to get under our skin so easily – after all, isn’t that exactly what they are intending and hoping for?

8) Habitually moaning, and lacking in genuine gratitude for the very things we should be celebrating every single day of our lives, never mind all of the bonuses that life periodically throws our way.

9) Being too quick to judge, or deciding that we know exactly what that person is really all about… when, in reality, we don’t actually have a clue.

10) Feeling hostile toward the person who appears to be ‘off’ with us. It could be that they believe it is us who are being off with them! Or, they may be feeling negative and miserable, struggling to escape the grip of their own lower-self, oblivious to the way in which their attitude is affecting others.

11) Saying things like, “this is me, the way I am – either accept me or go to hell!” when we know, deep down inside, that there is room for improvement… and especially when we aren’t genuinely prepared to accept them, warts and all!

12) Living unconsciously and unaware, operating from a survival – rather than a growth and development mindset… busily existing on autopilot like a living, breathing zombie.

13) Needing instant gratification, nothing ever being enough for any length of time; feeling consistently bored; unable to be happy with our own company; unwilling to stick with anything long enough to create and enjoy the fruits of our labour.

14) Dismissing anything that doesn’t earn an immediate income as a waste of time; depriving ourselves of creative joy because we aren’t good enough at drawing, or painting, or cooking, or writing, or dancing etc… or because it isn’t going to make us any money.

15) Claiming not to have the time to do something that will improve or enhance ourselves and our future… whilst regularly indulging in social media.

The higher-self wants us to be sincere…

We can’t pretend, even to ourselves, and be operating from the higher-self. It just doesn’t work. We have to be aware, and we have to aspire – and we have a lifetime to keep on being aware and aspiring. But, we have to actively choose it; our higher-self has to be invited, and it makes us do all of the work. Gradually, it will start to become our default setting, naturally over-riding the urgings and the yellings of the lower-self. Every year I promise myself that I will expose more and more of me to my higher-self, and I can definitely see and feel progression… but there is still room for improvement. I am not aiming at being perfect, faultless, saintly – I am more interested in being reasonable, tolerant, patient, kind, and level. I am interested in being able to feel satisfied that I have conducted myself in a spiritually and emotionally mature way – and, dear God, has it taken years for me to reach this point.

The higher-self requires us to be a true version of who we are, as a unique, individual shard of the great creative force of life… and to never rest on our laurels or become complacent and stale – otherwise, how can we grow? I have my to-do list for 2020, but I also have my higher-self list to address: are you ready to join me?