Alternate Perceptions Magazine, November 2022
Lost and Found
by: Stan Prachniak
It is common for us to lose things in life, sometimes small unimportant things and sometimes things of great importance. If you have ever really lost the keys to your car, then you can probably remember the emotions that followed. You likely began calmly searching the places you normally leave your keys. When you didn’t find them in any of those places, you probably became a bit more concerned, expanded your search, and even retraced your steps. After some time had passed and your keys had still not been found, your concern intensified, and your search may have even reached a panic level. When you lose something as important as your keys, a great deal of stress is added to your life. You only truly understand the comfort and security something like your car brings when you cannot use it. So, when you find your keys you feel a huge sense of relief, and the weight of the worry and stress you have been dealing with diminishes rapidly.
As you have developed as a person, there is a chance you have lost something. I’m not talking about anything tangible like a set of keys here. I mean something intangible like your sense of self. Sometimes we can become so caught up in how we are seen by others—popular, rich, successful, beautiful, handsome, etc.—that we lose who we really are. We lose the keys to our True Self. Often, we don’t even realize what is going on until it’s too late. Sometimes this means becoming depressed or filling our lives with pleasure-seeking behaviors to feel happy and fill the void. We find ourselves searching for a happiness that can only come from discovering (or rediscovering) our true path in life and becoming the best version of ourselves that we can be. When we are living life to be accepted by others, we are adding stress to our lives. One way to relieve this stress is to “find our keys”—to be true to ourselves and stop trying to be who others want us to be.
Freedom To Change offers a way for you to discover your True Self by challenging the beliefs you have about your life and what you think makes you happy. For more information on the Freedom To Change materials, visit www.freedom2change.org.