I have written about the commonalities between the rigid defensive attitudes (aka stubbornly held protective attitudes) we take on and the personas (aka adopted identities) we take on before. And now, over the past year, in every case, I’ve noticed perhaps the most important characteristic that these spiritual architectures share:
While both the rigid defensive attitude and the adopted persona are actually self-programmed in an effort to accomplish something, they inevitably prevent that goal, whatever it may be, from ever being reached or accomplished. In all cases, they are ultimately failed mechanisms, and any appearance that they are serving our purposes is at best a case of “winning the battle and losing the war”.
In simplest terms, we are at our best when we are fully present and mindful of what is present, and we are sabotaged when we are wrapped in the false, substitute presence of an adopted identity, or can only view life situations through the colored filter of a rigid defensive attitude.
Anyone who has participated in the Therapeutic Spiritual Counseling techniques for resolving these mechanisms can happily attest to that. It has worked for them, and it will work for you, too.