The Vigorous Work Involved in Being Heroic First Responders Shows Us The Immediate Action in Love and Self Abnegation!

As a child, a particularly vivid vision of animal sacrifice was presented in a sermon. Many members thought it was too vivid. As a 12 year old kid, I thought it was "pretty cool".

The Minister made references to early TV, and how violence revealed human lessons. His point was dramatically drawn because he wanted to encourage all that "animal sacrifices" and violence on TV had MEANING. His point was that our "animalistic" character traits need to be dealt with vigorously. That we need to consciously and thoughtfully "work out our salvation".

Inner Active Change and Outer Physical Saving

No One Can Change the Inner You Except You. You can rail all day long about the obnoxious, noisy, self-involved jerk at your office, but not one hint from you is going to change that person unless, they start to see a light internally. And so you will "sacrifice the animal" in you when you want to.

But Then There Is The First Responder --- Saving the Inner and Outer You

But First Responders are alive in numerous Medical, Criminal, Fire Storms of Crowd Control, in which the Inner Souls in torment are also in struggles in saving the "Outer Souls" of our daily lives.

This is the Era of Sweet Self Esteem and Joyful Self Acceptance. This is not the era of kicking yourself in the rear unless it is on "Biggest Loser". When you think about it a little longer, you have to realize that we can be the First Responders of our Deeper Inner Selves, and be blessed by the First Responders of our Outer Selves.

What We Are After Is Joy and Happiness ALONG WITH Peace and Safety

Maintaining the negative parts of our nature is very burdensome. We cover for ourselves, we explain ourselves, we avoid apologizing for ourselves, or we actually do apologize for ourselves. We stumble, we fall, we irritate each other. We irritate ourselves. We live on the margins of fidelity, we border on criminality, we push the inherent violence that lives inside us.

We Fight Daily Inner Battles as Inner First Responders

We do all those things that we know in our heart could really use some "animal sacrifice", and yet we avoid the effort because going in an handling that beast means you have to sit in the cage and gain psychic power over it. You have to stand in the excrement and slip and slide on it, and feel its blowing nostrils and stare in its large glassy soul less eyes. "Darn thing. It's not going to go easy".

Approach Your Inner Battles with:

the Strength of a Nurse on her third shift

the Speed and Power of a Fire Fighter

the Loyalty and Alertness of a Police Officer

the Intense Concentration of a Surgeon

the Courage and Fearlessness of the National Guard

the Heart and Skill of an E.M.T.

Aspects of our Selfish Nature - How Can You Know Whether You Are Engaged?

It's Gotta Be Positive

You must grab your tendency to over indulge, sit back in terminal laziness, argue like a demon, and hold on to its horns and make it look you in the eyes.

It's Gotta Be Conscious

Consciousness is the hyper alert status you go on when you are in that cage, and you notice that you can be gouged by your selfish nature. You can't turn around and declare yourself victorious when the animal is really not sacrificed.

It's Gotta Be Work

There is a woman at work who is always trying to be disputatious, or in more common parlance, "start a fight". If and when she ever decides to engage in her special act of "animal sacrifice", she will see how strenuous you have to be in wrestling down this opponent.

It's Gotta Be Painful

Well, it's you. You built it, your guarded it. You protected it and nurtured it so that you could somehow benefit lifetimes ago for your safety and comfort. Now you have decided that trait does not work anymore. But it is embedded. Your creative nature has interwoven this trait in an imaginative and powerful way.

You Must Work "Post Op"

If and when you engage in the process of trying to excise a painful characteristic from your personality, you will feel the need to "clean up", make pretty and create a plan for the future.

It's Gotta Be "In Secret"

Yes, if you are trying to actually lose some of your "animal" weight, people will probably notice. But otherwise, don't let people know you are working on yourself. Don't wait for a complement. Act as if nothing is going on. Inner change is inimical to public praise.

William James, a philosopher and psychologist, once said, "The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives."