RANDOM SNIPPETS - No 4 - Battles With Oneself

In films today, when they show us a medieval battle scene, you see vast phalanxes of archers launching arrows into the air. Hundreds and hundreds of them fall upon the enemy lines in a lethal thunderstorm. This bares a similarity with how our mind operates. Hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second, assaulting ourselves with damaging self limiting thoughts, created by our mind. Constantly besieged by self generated attacks upon who or what we think we are. 

This is how the story we tell ourselves about ourselves can become such a debilitating thing. It swamps us, assaults us, unrelentingly all the time. Raining down at times, so intensely, we have to find some way of seeking shelter or relief from it. That's why we crave pleasure and distraction so much, to bring us some temporary relief from all the penetrating arrows of self-criticism, self-justifications, self-lacerating, self-imprisoning thoughts. 

There is an internal war going on, one which we tell ourselves we are constantly losing. We can end up feeling so embattled, so involved with just dealing with it, we never have the time to question what exactly is going on here, why can't we ever find any peace? Why is it we feel so hemmed in all the time? However, it is you who is perpetuating this phoney war, you who ends up fighting with yourself,  all the time. So it is you who can call a ceasefire, and you who can bring about that state of peace. You can bring to an end the whole 'battle scenario' anytime you like. 

It is, however, a characteristic of these internalised 'stories' about our self identity, that written into the story itself is one fundamental lie, a deception that tells you that 'You' cannot do that. That 'You' are uniquely incapable of stopping it.  Defeating the pernicious nature of that one untruth, is the first step anyone can take towards liberating themselves.  *

An edited and further adapted extract from my Morning Journal
Originally written 17th November 2025

* Though I've used this metaphor of arrows and being embattled to make a specific point, the idea of seeing one self through the lens of an armed conflict is ultimately not an ideal one. Something less defensive, more open hearted and kinder in tone is what I'd be looking for.