No one is born in self-destruction

I posted last week about us entering a 5-month period of self reflection in mid-July that catapulted us into examining how we let the Obstacles of Greed and Self-Destructive behavior affect our lives. For people who have Greed as their prime Obstacle this lifetime the examination can be brutal.

No one is born in Self-Destruction. That Obstacle evolves in us from a place of bitterness that grows from the idea that we can never be or have what we want or need to be happy. And the most common pathway to SD is the bottomless pit and gnawing hunger of unfulfilled Greed.

The latest famous example is Brandon Blackstock, ex husband of singer-entertainer Kelly Clarkson.

Kelly Clarkson is a straight shooter, kind and generous Warrior/Artisan with an incredible voice who is so universally liked that she can barely juggle all of the shows and venues featuring her work. Her friend Blake Shelton joked that NBC has come to stand for Nothing But Clarkson. Suffice it to say: she rakes in the dough.

She has also been clear that Blackstock was the love of her life and he is also the father of her children. He wound up destroying their relationship over taking advantage of her monetarily as a manager. Can you imagine the monumental Greed it would take to live the lifestyle of being married to a cash-cow significant other like KC and still not feel satisfied?

Once it was clear that he was legally in the wrong and that he was now being divorced, he developed skin cancer and slid from Greed to Self-Destruction. (Any skin issue is related to feeling a lack of mastery or control over your life).

Three years later he succumbed to the cancer at the age of only 48, a real tragedy for his children, KC, and the rest of his family and friends.

How is Greed such a powerful force and what can we do to balance ourselves and eliminate it?

First of all we need to recognize that it is a bottomless pit And an inside job. No amount of love, goods, services, experiences, $$, etc is ever going to fill that hole. Only the individual experiencing the Greed can heal it and only Self Love and appreciation can provide the healing.

Society will never give more than lip service to Self Love because it doesn’t support the community at large. We are constantly directed towards serving others from a young age and focus on our own needs is deemed selfishness and self centeredness. Ironically, enough emotional neglect can lead a person into narcissism through obsession with elusive satisfaction.

Take the time over the next few months to really exercise self care before you find yourself overly indulging in risky or addictive behaviors.