Spiritual Power Ends Desire for Approval

Even when we try to make others happy, we do so in the hope that they will not complain, criticize, or become angry. That in itself is a sign of looking for approval. The opposite is actually true - when I am happy, then others are. But if for some reason they are not, I am no longer influenced by their lack of approval or emotional manipulation.

- MANDA PATEL

Itching a habit of any kind is not as simple as saying ‘I just won’t do that anymore.’ Habits, once formed, are difficult to eradicate, but understanding why we have a habit in the first place helps a great deal towards changing it.

For most of us, our upbringing and culture, mainly developed in a dysfunctional society, means that we often have a feeling of never being able to live up to what is expected of us, of never feeling ‘enough.’ The root cause of this is that every transaction, of whatever kind, in the world today, is conditional. Even a declaration of love is given with the expectation that it will be returned. A gift requires a reciprocal one and all manner of other negotiations have the “you scratch my back and I will scratch yours” element embedded in them.