self-awareness Archives - Page 4 of 4

This post is a part of my Personal Development Project for May 2016.

Thomas Aquinas famously said, “The things that we love tell us what we are.”

Below is a collection of 5 of my favorite quotes and sayings. Or rather, here is who I am in the words of others.

Thus those are not termed 'contemplatives' who merely contemplate, but they who devote their lives to contemplation.

-- St. Thomas Aquinas

This quote comes from Thomas Aquinas’s On Prayer and the Contemplative Life, one of my favorite books.

The reason this saying resonates with me so much is because it deals with one’s essence or one’s being. Here there is a distinction between raw action and consuming action.

Often times I get a bit frustrated when I hear people say, “I just love psychology. It’s so fascinating!” And when I press further about what they’ve read or what they know or what exactly they find interesting, the person turns out to not know a thing about psychology. So it’s clear to me that they don’t love psychology itself, but the idea of psychology.

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“You’ve lost your humanity, friend. Really, truly, you are no longer human.”

It was my turn to laugh. “So what? I should be more like you? You’re human?” I scoffed, gesturing at Pan’s furry hide.

“No, I’m not human. To be human is to search, to reach, to dream. And it seems to me that your purpose now, Atilius, is to connect what you want with what you Want.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Dearest Atilius,” Pan hopped off of his resting place and waved the forest nymphs away, “it’s quite simple. There are things that fulfill you in your life, things that give you meaning and a sense of purpose. These are your Waaaants,” he said with a dramatic flourish of his hand. After a pause he continued. “On the other hand, your wants are what you do to try to make your true Wants a reality. Your wants are the physical realizations of your true Wants. For example, you Want love. Love will fulfill you, love will make you whole. You want to be a general because you Want love. But the problem is that you don’t get love from being a general. Your wants aren’t aligned with your Wants. So the solution is simple. You just have to want what you Want!”

-Excerpt from Atilius and Pan by Leisa Michelle

Why is wanting what you Want so hard?

The problem is that we get fixated on the physical. Our Wants aren’t physical, they’re… something else. Something deeper. They’re connected with our essence, our feelings, our spirit, our intuition. And it’s easy to ignore our feelings, spirit, and intuition because they aren’t concrete. And as if that doesn’t make it hard enough, society in general degrades feelings, the spirit, and intuition.

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