We all have aspects of our personality that formed in response to events, people, and other life experiences. Some people call them inner demons, programs, the Pain Body, the Ego, saboteurs, sub-personalities, etc. I call them inner "characters".
Though we grow and mature, many of these parts of us do not: they continue to carry the same emotional charge and beliefs today as the day they were formed. Often they feel like they are holding us back or causing us to behave in unhealthy ways. However, no matter how hard we try to be free of them, they keep popping up as though they have minds of their own...
That's because, in many ways, they do.
What happens when these characters get in the way?
Call them what you will, each inner "character" possesses its own set of emotions, beliefs, and behaviors. When their emotions and beliefs are not in alignment with where we currently are and how we'd like to feel, these characters can cause us to have trouble:
- feeling calm and at peace: Because their emotions and beliefs are almost all rooted in fear, their presence within us can cause us to feel disjointed, anxious, angry, and sad.
- focusing: Having a cacophony of disparate voices inside can make it extremely difficult to focus on the task at hand and know which direction to take.
- being fully present: These characters keep us stuck in the past or fearful of the future. Therefore, everything we experience is colored and clouded by the lens of their emotions and judgments - rather than seen with clarity, as it is in reality.
- hearing our intuition: Their voices are usually loud, insistent, and persistent - sometimes to the point of being mean and cruel. By comparison, the voice of intuition is soft, gentle, and peaceful - like a comforting nudge. Our intuition may say, "It's okay, trust yourself, you'll be supported and protected," but a fearful character will yell back, "Don't do it!" and "You're stupid!"
- trusting ourselves: They often discourage us by reminding us of all the times in the past when we did trust ourselves and the results were not good.
- being compassionate: Having a vicious monologue of criticism running through your head can make it nearly impossible to have compassion towards yourself - and, in turn, towards others.
Why do they get in the way?
If you feel a character is in the way of you being able to progress and feel at peace, it's for one reason and one reason only:
It is trying to protect you from pain.
To quote Living with Joy by Sanaya Roman:
Every single part of you has a gift for you and is there as your friend. There is no voice within you that does not have the intent to help you. It may be that it does not have an accurate picture of what you want, or it was set up many years ago and is still operating from an old program. The part of you that experiences fear, for instance, may be trying to protect you in the best way it knows.
Believe it or not, even the most brutal inner demon has good, loving intentions for you. However, it doesn't know that what it is doing is hurting you rather than helping you because it's operating on an old, outdated set of emotions and beliefs (often called "a program").
Why won't they go away?
So you've tried everything to silence these thoughts and feelings within you. But it doesn't work. Why not?
Consider this: How does it feel when you are upset and someone tells you to "get over it"? Or they ignore you, judge you, or punish you. Does it make the feeling go away? No. Chances are, you feel worse.
That is how these inner characters feel when we treat them this way. They don't want to be punished or ignored or told they're wrong. They just want to be heard and appreciated. Whether they're "right" or "wrong", "being immature", or "overreacting" doesn't matter - this is their perception. This is how they feel.
You may have heard the statement, "What you resist persists." These parts of us persist because we resist them. However, like a child throwing a tantrum, they will not be denied... nor should they be.
What helps them feel at peace?
The Living with Joy quote ends with: "Your journey in this lifetime is to bring all those parts up into your higher vision and purpose."
The Drawing Out Process® brings these struggling characters within you out of a state of fear and resistance and into alignment with your higher purpose and vision. When we "draw them out", we give them space to share what they're feeling and thinking. We give them the attention they so desperately need and desire.
Quite miraculously, once they have been heard, thanked, and shown a new way, they calm down and often disappear!
The result? A deep, wonderful, abiding feeling of peace...