Barbara Clark

Pretending To Be Necessary



Posted: Sunday, March 23, 2008

by
http://www.spiritedstrides.com

Reflections on Chapter 3 of "A New Earth" and the Online Class with Author Eckart Tolle & Oprah Winfrey

There were so many parts of Chapter 3 of "A New Earth" that resonated with me that I found it difficult to decide what to write about here. I ended up re-watching the online class tonight as I wanted to understand and review it in greater depth. In that review, I was struck by Eckhart Tolle's comment that "Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose." He was talking about the core of ego.  He goes on to make the point that no matter how much you worry, it won't bring about change. In other words, no amount of worrying will bring the change you may be seeking. The same goes with complaining.

Yet around us, and within us, we probably hear those voices of worry and complaints often. Often they are expressed as voices in our heads. Sometimes we verbalize them to others or hear others verbalize them to us.  Some people may spend their entire days thinking about their worries or complaining about situations, people or their problems. These voices are all the ego.

The ego loves drama. The more attention we give to our worries and complaints, the more worries and complaints we'll have. It's a concept from the law of attraction:  "What you think about comes about." (or) "What you resist, persists," or as Eckhart says, "What you fight, you strengthen and what you resist, persists" (page 75).

What is even more powerful to realize is that when we verbalize our worries and complaints, the more we are likely to attract others to join our "worry circle" or "complainers' corner." Think about how office gossip spreads, or how two parents can stay up late with worry over their teenage child's failure to make a phone call saying that he or she was running late. We can get so wrapped up in the complaints or worry that we only see the negative in a person or situation. This leads to imagining all kinds of things, such as untrue motivations of another person, or imagining the worst case scenario in all cases. The drama of all of this can erupt into misunderstandings, hurt feelings, arguments, fights, and even violence, if the ego identifies passionately about the matter.

The good news in all of this is that when we are awakened, we can step back from our ego, from the drama and see the play that is being acted out in our heads and in those of others. Worry and complaining are only pretending to be necessary as our ego demands drama for its survival. When we recognize these feelings and behaviors as our ego, we can begin to seek peace within ourselves and are one step closer to our own awakening.

I don't know if that made sense to any of you, but I'm not going to worry about it! (The old me would have worried I wasn't being understood.)

Barbara A. Clark has been a professional in higher education for over 25 years. She holds a Master's degree in Counselor Education and completed all course requirements for a Ph.D in International Comparative Education before several life-changing events interrupted her studies. It was during the interruption that Barbara discovered her passion and began her journey as The Spirited Strider. Her motto is "serving in love, one step at a time." Barbara is an educator, writer, law of attraction life coach and speaker, and uses EFT with clients who are willing. In 2010, Barbara became a Certified Laughter Yoga Leader and a faculty member at GoodVibeUniversity, where she leads "Giggle Fest & Manifest," "Making Room for Abundance," and occasional "Scripting" and "EFT" calls.

Blogs:Journey of A Spirited Strider

The Gab of Gratitude
This Article has been viewed 175 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.