“When I had nothing to lose, I had everything. When I stopped being me, I found myself." - Paulo Coelho
Strength is a card of emotional adjustment, courage and moral fortitude, and also learning to overcome the vestiges of the ego and falsely-created masks that we have invented to serve us in times of need. This card requires a time of self-examining and making modifications when necessary.
You have worked with your instinctive nature, to listen to the inner desires. You have come through great difficulties and learned to rely on inner strength to solve your problems.
It is through this inner journey that you have also learned to see many masks or layers of self-defense. Just like the lion is tamed and completely controlled, you learn through your intuitive instinctive nature to unmask what has also been an artificially created perception of your inner truth. We often embed our truth in layers fixed to our personality. These embedded layers, or artificial masks, become so ingrained that we think they are part of our strength.
We can learn to untangle many of our misperceptions and beliefs in our personality. Learn to look within. Look for the emotional triggers, the defense mechanisms and observe how it feels when you are in a particular situation.
The trick is to know how you really feel, to examine the deeper feelings or the deeper undertones of your personality. For example, when you are in an argument, do you feel a memory of when your Father once scolded you? How do you retaliate? Do you feel wounded and justified? These are a few things to look at when you examine yourself spiritually. It is important to take note of how these programs or perceptions affect your behavior and then realize that you can change your views.
Furthermore, you have your ego to consider. Does it have you acting on impulse or is it a supportive champion?
We need to understand that the ego is an abstract reflection of our personality. Its ability to influence is like an avatar or a subconscious lens of projected behavior through which your Spirit interacts with the world. It is precisely how we can learn to retrain ourselves in our conscious minds, and how we can learn to see even our own misconceptions.
It is up to us to not lose ourselves in our artificially-created characters or masks or ego persona. We are meant to adjust into the Spirit by trusting our hearts. We are encouraged to not get lost in the ego or perceived realities, but when things go wrong we allow our egos to drown out the voice of our Spirit.
People naturally react to what they discern and experience. This reaction is when the ego influences our base personality drives such as fears, desires and insecurities. Eventually we do not hear our voice of reason, but only the droning inner chatter of the ego, making us feel confused or become reactionary to the situation.
Strength addresses our Spirit growth, encouraging us to eventually override the ego, like taming the beast with absolute calmness and clarity.
Instead of feeding your ego by allowing the instinctive reactions to crowd your mind, learn to have a stillness of mind. Be honest with yourself and learn to be humble when you look at your own motives. Were they dishonorable or deceptive?
Practice mental adjustments or strength-of-character moments and remain consistent. Soon enough you will be more and more in tune with who you truly are.
It is possible that we can truly master our ego, if we stay mindful that it is only an abstract part of our mind and our personality. Thus the outcome of this lesson is a reflection of our ability to experience our true self. Through self-adjustment we readjust our thoughts so we can see what the ego is supposed to be, an abstract mirror and a tool for physical survival.
Training the ego is exactly the same as training the mind and Spirit of your personality. Effort comes when you need to keep the mind free of clutter to understand the impulses and why the ego flares up in your life - learning to tame the dragon or the beast by acknowledging how you see them and why they were created. Clear it and move on. Staying in the flow keeps you in the presence of creation and balance.
Staying in the flow of creation means to be in the flow of your mental and spiritual faculties, in flow of thoughts and the outflow of expressions, whether they are with love or anger, hurt or being wounded.
When you are out of balance you have not cleared away or resolved the inner turmoil of your ego and have allowed the abstract mirror to reflect artificial perceptions. A sense of over-reacting is normally the sign of an out-of-balance personality.
Medicine: To become more at peace with yourself takes great courage, a courage that comes from being humble when you research all issues that could be triggering you emotionally. Therefore it is important to work on the mental adjustments and to dissect every thought process. You will soon see where the true roots of your issues stem from.
Mantra: I am brave.
