Ask: What about PMS making it hard to get past the ego?

“I notice that despite all of my work with the Holy Spirit and using correct perception of my ego's thoughts that PMS time still gives me a difficult time.  It seems that a hormone shift just changes my ability to deny the ego its "voice".  I know Eckhart Tolle addressed this as a manifestation of our collective experience here....I was wondering what your understanding is.” – MB

Mood-swings are just part of the experience of female selves. The degree varies from woman to woman and month to month. If you know your cycle you know that negative emotions can be chemically induced or exaggerated when you are pre-menstrual and when you are ovulating. You know not to take them seriously and to ride out the episodes each month. Sometimes, if it’s bad enough, it does make it seem like you cannot get past the ego. Irritability, depression, foreboding, and/or sadness are its playground and if you aren’t aware of what is going on it can have a field day with you! But if you pay attention to your cycle you can learn to detach from these episodes.

Since I have been in peri-menopause for the past few years, and negative mood-swings are par for the course during this stage, it has become crystal clear to me that peace does not come to the ego or to the self. I have peace, but the ego is still judgmental and the self still goes through the normal life processes. The peace allows me to detach from the ego and the self. But it has not changed them. It has changed my relationship to them. They are not reality.


It has also made it clear to me for how long I made the mistake of judging my progress toward peace by the mere moods of the ego or the self. I was looking in the wrong place! Peace came despite the ego and the self. It is wholly apart from them. This has allowed me to let them go – to forgive them. I rest in peace and observe the ego and the self without judging them or judging myself by them.

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Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, 4 Habits for Inner Peace, and Releasing Guilt for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Oh, PMS - Looking back on those explosions of emotions, I could make this claim . . . these were periods (no pun intended) of my life which could be interpreted as my early training of looking at my ego. I remember having to monitor them in order to warn my late husband and thus counsel him to never engage my need to fight, not take any of these moods personal and instead to tell me I am loved (a call for love), and to just hug me. Ours was a holy relationship.
6:22 AM
MB said…
That's a great point! I think Liz's answer here helped remind me that I am not my thoughts/feelings/behavior, even though I hope for those to reflect the Holy Spirit's thought system.

It reminds me of a little story told in Buddhism where a Buddhist student goes to his master and says, "master, I am very concerned about my enlightenment. I was very angry the other day." The master says, "show me this anger you speak of." The student replies "well, I can't I'm not angry right now." And the master replies, "then it isn't you."

We are unchanging so the mood, thoughts and feelings that come with PMS or any other event are not who we truly are because they change.
9:00 AM
will said…
One of the most important posts you have ever put up. I have spent a good part of my life trying to bring peace to the ego and then judging myself for the failure.
1:01 PM
ACIM Mentor said…
Glad you found it useful, Will.
2:24 PM
Anonymous said…
MB got it. That's why awareness that comes with awakening through The Holy Instant is so useful in transcending whatever illness
5:59 AM
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