The Frenzy of the Self

Do you find yourself constantly second guessing where you are in life?  Worried?  Full of regrets?  Wondering whether you are on the right track?  Agonizing over decisions?  You may be caught in the Frenzy of The Self.

The Frenzy of the Self – A Hole in Your Heart

This concept is not easy to convey.  When the Frenzy of The Self reigns supreme, you have allowed your Self take the place of God.  You are incredibly anxious that everything in your life be perfect and align with what you perceive to be your desires and needs.  You get annoyed with people when they don’t do what you want.  You stew in regret.  You worry.  Your Self is insatiable.  It’s touchy.

When this frenzy controls your life and mind, you suffer from a spiritual blindness.  You have allowed matters to skew out of proportion.  It’s a sickness, and it has the potential to make you physically ill as well because your mind puts tremendous pressure on your body when you live in this maelstrom.

Because the Frenzy of the Self represents skewed values and lacks the deep perspective of a higher power, you will never be satisfied.  You may not know it, but all that angst and effort and struggle reflect a hole in your heart.  A hole that will never be satisfied until you cast off an over-emphasis on the Self and align with something deeper, stronger, eternal, and full of love.

I don’t have a quick fix that will allow you to break free of this cycle.  Mostly, you break out after you suffer long enough to realize that something is wrong.  That all your problems and especially mental strain do not stem from external circumstances, but from how you are relating to life.  Once you see a pattern that is causing problems and will never end, you make just wake up.  You recognize that something about how you relate to the world is leading to dysfunction.

From Frenzy to Peace

This next phase is difficult to express.  You realign everything.  It’s as though a border comes down over your mind and puts it in a container with greater wisdom.  Your mind stops going to extremes of worry and obsession.  Instead, you have newfound mental discipline, restraint, and perspective.  You recognize that there is a greater power in the world, in the nature of things, in your life, even in your being.  This greater power brings peace and is focused on giving and helping rather than satisfying itself.  With this disciplined perspective, your worries suddenly shrink in importance.  Whether or not you have the perfect job or live in the perfect city no longer seems terribly important.  Your joy comes from inside and from submitting to the dictates, perspective, and morality of this higher power.

A deep humility comes.  You no longer think that you and your perspective are all that matter.  You understand there is a power beyond you that is supreme.  You submit your will, align with this power, and stop trying to be God.  You allow God to lead.

Peace will pervade your mind.  You stop worrying about every little detail.  Once the Self stops being so precious, it relaxes and looks out upon the world with patience, kindness, and a focus on contributing rather than satisfying itself.

Until you are ready, this transformation is quite scary.  Your willful Self does not want to relinquish control and cease indulging its every whim and lust.  It’s up to you when you make the shift.  After enough suffering, you will probably naturally make the jump.  The irony is that this newfound perspective actually brings the joy that, beneath your frenzy, you had been seeking all along.

Grounded, Joyful, Stable, and Loving

In many ways, the purpose of life is to move from the Frenzy of the Self to the peace of alignment with God.  So if you find yourself falling repeatedly into the frenzy, or if you have lived for years wallowing in this suffering, don’t lose heart.  You can move beyond the limited perspective to a grounded, alive, joyful, loving, and meaningful life.