“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Dictation: If you have a loving regard for yourself, then you will trust in your own direction.

You will accept your present position, whatever it is, as being a part of that direction, and realize that from it can come all the creative elements that you need. Being yourself and trusting in your own integrity, you will automatically help others. It does little good to repeat a suggestion such as, “I am a worthy person. I trust myself and my integrity,” if at the same time you are afraid of your own emotions and become upset whenever you catch yourself in what you think of as a negative frame of mind.

As lovers can see the “ideal” in their beloved, and yet be well aware of certain inadequacies, certain deviations from the ideal, so can you, loving yourself, realize that what you think of as imperfections are instead gropings toward more complete becoming. You cannot love yourself and hate the emotions that flow through you at the same time; because while you are not your emotions, you identify with them so often that in hating them you hate yourself.

Use your conscious mind and its logic. If you discover that you feel unworthy, then do not simply try to apply a more positive belief over that one. Instead discover the reasons for your first belief. If you have not already done so, write down your feelings about yourself. Be perfectly honest. What would you say if someone else came to you with the same reasons?

When you catch yourself falling into a mood in which you feel inferior, look at your second list, of abilities and accomplishments. Then use the positive suggestion in your own worth, backed up by your own personal self-examination. You may say, “But I know I have great abilities that I am not using. When I compare myself to others, then I fall far short. What difference does it make if I have a few mundane achievements that are shared by many others, that are in no way unique? Surely my destiny involves more than that. I have yearnings that I cannot express.”

In the first place you must understand that in your own uniqueness it is futile to compare yourself to others, for in so doing you try to emulate qualities that are theirs, and to that extent deny your own miraculous being and vision. Once you begin comparing yourself to others there is no end to it. You will always find someone more talented than you are in some way, and so will continue to be dissatisfied. Instead, through working with your own beliefs, take it for granted that your life is important; begin with it and where you are. Do not deride yourself because you have not reached some great ideal, but start to use those talents that you have to the best of your ability, knowing that in them lies your own individual fulfillment.

(10:01.) Any help that you give to others will come through the creative utilization of your own characteristics and no one else’s. Do not get upset with yourself when you find yourself dwelling on negative issues in your life. Instead, constructively ask yourself why you are doing so. The answer will come to you.

Use the knowledge as a bridge. Let whatever emotions are involved happen. If you do this honestly, feelings of self-worthlessness or despondency will go through and vanish, changing of their own accord. You may even find yourself impatient with the feelings themselves, or even bored, and hence dismiss them. Do not tell yourself automatically that they are wrong, however, and then try to apply a “positive” belief like a bandaid.

Have a sense of humor about yourself — not a malicious one but a kindly humorous regard for yourself. High seriousness is fine when it comes naturally and is not forced. But it can become pompous if it is prolonged.

If you allow yourself to be more and more aware of your own beliefs, you can work with them. It is silly to try to fight what you think of as negative beliefs, or to be frightened of them. They are not mysterious. You may find that many served good purposes at one time, and that they have simply been overemphasized. They may need to be restructured rather than denied.

(10:39.) If at the age of forty you still believe in the infallibility of your parents, then you hold that idea way beyond its advantageous state for you. Using the methods in this book, you should discover the reasons for this belief, for it will prevent you from exerting your own independence and making your own world. If you are fifty and are still convinced that the older generations are rigid, fast in the way of growing senile, mentally incompetent and physically deteriorating, then you are holding an old belief in the ineffectiveness of the older generations and setting up negative suggestions for yourself. Conversely, if you are fifty and still believe that youth is the one glorious and effective part of a lifetime, you are of course doing the same thing.