There are many things in ourselves we would like to change. At one level we feel that there are several issues and emotions, and each one needs to be attended to in its own way. This can sometimes overawe us as the list can be daunting. But if we unravel the root cause of our emotional baggage and challenges, we will realise that at the heart there are two causes – ‘I’ and ‘mine’.
The sense of I-ness stems from our ego. When our activities lose their flavour of gratitude and humility and gain the colour of our arrogance and the sense of ‘I did it’, we may not realise it but we are nurturing the breeding ground for anger, jealousy, and impatience.
When we benchmark our worth to our achievements, then anything that comes in our way gets met with anger. We find it difficult to see others doing better as it hurts our ego and that breeds jealousy. We believe things happen only because of us and we give others very little understanding and space, ourselves becoming impatient. The ‘I’ factor is responsible for much of our problems.
And the sense of ‘my-ness’ comes when in our ignorance, we lose perspective and identify so much with what we have that we breed fear, anxiety, and insecurity within.
Our attachment to our possessions, relationships and reputation brings with it fear of losing what we possess. Our continuous effort to hold on to things creates the anxiety of losing them and we become insecure because we believe our worth comes from what we have, not who we truly are. The ‘my’ factor is responsible for much of our problems.
A doctor reads the symptoms but treats the cause. When we experience the symptoms of negativity and stress, we need to remind ourselves that we need to basically attend to the two causes that cause our emotional upheaval; ‘I-ness’ and ‘My-ness’.
(Picture -Acadia beach, Vancouver)
I ness and My ness is the root of our behavious pattern. We need to correct it in order to live a happy wholesome life free from fear, anxiety and insecurity.s