#4. Free yourself from the ego but be authentic.
When the reader is ready, the perfect book comes.
That is what happened to me a few months ago.
I found this strange book called “God on a Harley” behind the showcase of a second-hand bookstore.
I didn’t know anything about the author, Joan Brady, but the title was too clickbaty not to give it a try.
I bought the book. I read the book. I became obsessed with the wisdom within its pages. And I looked up the story behind the book.
Joan was a nurse in a New York hospital. There she discovered that people with faith in God face medical problems better than people who don’t.
And because of that, she asked herself, “How God would be like for me to believe in him?”
Then, she started writing the book with automatic writing. — She channeled the book.
After searching for an editor for the book for six years with zero success, she left her job, put the text in the copilot seat of her car, like a passenger, and moved to California to find an Editor.
Long story short: she found one, and the book sells a million copies 🙂
One is in my power, and I will share four of the most valuable lessons I learned from it.
1. Do not build more walls; they are dangerous. Learn to pass them.
Let’s admit it. People have hurt us so often that we build walls that separate us from reality as we age.
And those walls have a dark and dangerous back: on the one hand, barriers prevent us from being harmed; on the other, it isolates us from others.
We spend our lives locked in our bubble, mistrusting everyone and not getting too involved with anything or anyone for fear of being disappointed again.
Without realizing that life is risky.
If we don’t take risks and stay locked in our glass castle, we will waste what we have left of life.
The author in the book does not propose that we tear down the walls of our castle, but that we learn to leave it from time to time to walk through the forest 😉
2. Life is made from moments, don’t waste them.
Life is like a beautiful piano melody. But to make it sound good, you must alternate the black keys (bad moments) with the white ones (good moments).
We need bad moments to enjoy the good ones. We only appreciate joy and happiness by contrast.
That’s why we have to learn to appreciate every single day as it is: the good ones and the awful ones.
Because every single day, there are lessons to learn, goals to achieve, persons to meet, and some magic to enjoy.
3. Take care of yourself first.
You can’t help others if you don’t take care of yourself first.
And if you don’t care for yourself, you don’t respect and honor your humanity. In other words: you don’t love yourself.
Why is this so important?
Because you can’t truly love others if you don’t learn to love yourself well.
Think about it.
Bad love is poison. — Good intentions are not enough.
When someone loves us incorrectly, envy, possessiveness, jealousy, and abuse enter the equation.
That’s why Ghandi where right when he said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
You need to learn how to love yourself well to share that love. You need to be the change you want to see.
4. Free yourself from the ego but be authentic.
It is one thing to get rid of the ego so as not to be selfish and not treat others instrumentally. And quite another to be ashamed of being who we are.
One of the most important things I’ve learned in this book is that the secret to healthy social relationships is never giving up on who you are.
Why?
Because when we pretend to be who we are not, we may attract people who fit the vision of success that social media has sold us, but it may not be the life we want to live.
It is better to understand rejection as a defense mechanism. (Yes, you read it right.)
When someone rejects us for being ourselves, what happens is that someone who doesn’t fit in our life doesn’t stay to f*ck it up 🙂
And that is something to celebrate.
A virtual hug
AG
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