Self Mastery is why I am here

         As I was reading through "Mastery" by Stewart Emery, the first line provoked a thought.  Mastery in our career and consciousness simply requires that we constantly produce results beyond the ordinary.  I do think it gets touched on later through the lines Correction is essential to power and mastery.  You see, we are all ordinary, but a master, rather than condemning himself for his "ordinariness," will embrace his ordinariness and use it as a foundation for building the extraordinary, but our failures and set backs are such a huge part of our Mastery journey.

        I have been doing more shadow work lately, a term for emotional healing of deep trauma, where one looks at the parts of ourselves that still need healing.  Parts that we have ignored, or buried.  The nature of this work does create some set backs as we revisit that trauma, and try to work through limiting beliefs.  There is resistance that occurs because we tend to want to shy away from those messy emotions, and that can create some turbulence in our lives.  I’m currently at a block.  Whenever I get to close to a certain part, I get really overwhelmed.  It’s like a pressure cooker, and I know it needs to release, but the feeling is so intense, I tend to let off a little steam, and then deal it again.

          Problem is, that same feeling is tied to anger, as a result of repressed emotions, or what I like to call my fire.  When I am in an emotionally healthy state, that fire is kept in check, and can be even used as a good motivator.  When it’s not… well, fire burns, and sometimes it burns relationships.  Self Mastery is my goal, because I want to master me, my emotions, the way I react, respond, show up, and grow.  Last week was rough.  My fire came out, and I had some set backs.  I move forward though, acknowledge that I had a setback, and work towards resolving it.  Like my training, I have setbacks and failures, but I don’t quit, I keep trying to improve, and that too is part of my self mastery journey.

          We are all ordinary, and like ordinary people, we make mistakes.  A master reflects upon and uses those mistakes to improve upon themselves.  I think the first line is a a little skewed in my opinion, or perhaps misleading.  Always having to produce results beyond the ordinary is not possible without the numerous failures we endure to get there.  When you’re successful, people tend to overlook the failures, and also the work that went in to overcoming those failures.

          It is important to remember to be kind to others and ourselves, because the road to mastery isn’t linear, nor is it always pretty. Mistakes get made, we fall off the wagon again and again, but we keep trying.