“THE MOUNTAIN IS YOU”

Mountains have been used in both mythological and religions(Christianity in my knowledge)as a path to enlightenment with examples ranging from mount Olympus to the mountains on which the law is give, Christ is transfigured atop a mountain etc

“Your mountain is the block between you and the life you want to live. Facing it is also the only means to freedom and becoming. You are here because a trigger showed you to your wound and your wound will show you to your path, and your path will show you to your destiny”

Who is responsible for the challenges and problems that you are going through right now?

The universe?

God?

Satan?

Your family?

Your friends?

Nature?

……………………… or…… it is you……………?

Whichever answer you gave for the above question, it is no doubt that some of the problems we face are self inflicted which is a simple definition of self sabotage.

The book is a slow paced adventure on how you can transform self-sabotage to self-mastery which is somehow the exact opposite but not precisely the opposite. The best way to conceptualize this would be using directions if one is north the other is south. So depending on the state of things this book can be used for prophylaxis(avoiding self sabotage) or as cure to your self sabotaging behaviours.

The first thing is self awareness which is very important in this conversation because most of the times we are self sabotaging ourselves we are not aware of it and in sometimes we might even think we are helping ourselves, others and the world when we doing the exact opposites. So self sabotage is equally those behaviours or routines that keep your life from going in the direction that you want it to go in and without knowing that that is what they are doing you might think they are help you.

WHY DO WE SELF SABOTAGE?

No sane person would try to hurt themselves. Self sabotage are just coping mechanisms that the body tries to use to solve some of our problems. So despite them being viewed as bad they are not entirely so. They are alert systems that inform your body that something is not well and that we should pay attention before hell breaks loose( the body might even go as far as psychosomatic signs), but these are pointers to the real issues which need to be addressed. That is why when you get rid of these behaviours it does not help much or for long because it just like putting band aids on an infected wound. So the best way is to find what the alerts are pointing to and address the real causes.

Most of the times theses signs are trying to point to various needs that we have decided not address or we have decided that we can or could not satisfy due to different barriers or certain associations that you have made in your unconscious mind and so you do everything not attain those goals despite them being the very things you need. These needs might vary : financial freedom, love and care, sense of family, good friends. For example if you think rich people are corrupted by their riches you will do everything on an unconscious level to prevent you from getting because that would make your corrupt to some extent

SIGNS THAT YOU ARE SELF SABOTAGING

The signs are not specific but I’ll just list a few here(The book goes into more details about the causes and gives very short solutions on each)

-Resistance

-Uprooting(always starting afresh relationships, business projects)

-Perfectionism(unrealistic expectations for a beginner)

-Justification(reasoning through every setback

-Disorganization( Jordan Peterson was screaming in my head “Clean your room” and mostly learn how to keep it clean)

-Attachment to things your do not really want( your friends’ idea of a relationship or a beautiful/handsome partner , your family dreams for your career, keeping childhood ambitions which are no longer realistic)

-Judging others(Most of the times because they have the very thing we need and we think they do not deserve it)

-Pride( the chief of sins)

-Fear of failing

-Downplaying(our success and that of others)

-Spending time with the wrong people

-worrying about irrational fears and least likely circumstances( to avert your attention from the real issues at hand)

Instinctive thinking and Emotional Intelligence

It is important in this case as most of the times these behaviours are related to how we feel about certain things as well as our first instincts. It is true that our instincts have helped us in many cases but they were made for the “flight and fight” and can be off key at times where we need our logical brain to kick in.

The problem is we see that our instincts helped us in a certain condition under certain circumstances and we make a is called a faulty inference: assuming that the response we took is valuable even for every other similar situ therefore making logical lapses in our thinking.

The ability to process our emotions or at least let ourselves just feel them and let them pass is the key to mental health others wise the baggage keeps piling until we can no longer keep it.

It is also worth noting that our feelings don’t always represent what we need and we should sometimes make decisions despite how we feel.

The brain and it’s obsession with safety

All the things we have discussed are because of the brains idea to keep us from both physical and emotional health. If you think that relationships are not safe for example the brain will go on stressing about little things that will eventually ruin it so that you can have your sense safety despite destroying the very thing you need in the process. So sometimes it these underlying principles that have to be dealt with.

From self sabotage to self mastery

Ask yourself some of the questions below

1. Who and what is worth suffering for?

2. What does the best version of yourself look like?

3. If social media didn’t exist what would you do with your life?

4. What comes most naturally to you?

5. What would your ideal daily routine look like?

6. What do you want your legacy to be

Answering them will guide you see how your ideal self looks like and help you construct a road map on how to strive towards this ideal.

Others tools at your disposal include

-Taking responsibility

-Making a plan

-Abandon happiness as a goal

-learning to process your past(a chapter in the book)

-Adapting to your present

-Processing your emotions

-Asking for help

-Stop being psychic

-See problems as opportunities to learn

MY THOUGHTS

The idea of the book is a very good one and has helped me learn a lot of things but I cannot help it to say it was written for a Godless generation to some extent because some of the undertones are just basic religious ideas on how to conquer oneself expressed in a secular way. It equally as some of these theories which I don’t personally believe in e.g “what was not meant for you will not stay with you” and some emotional therapy which am not sure they work as I have not tried them myself or talked to anyone who has( so it is subjective).

All in all the book is insightful and I give it a 7/10.

Let us wrap it up with a brilliant quote from the book.

“One day the mountain that was in front of you will so far behind you. But who you become in learning to climb it? That will stay with you forever.

That is the point of the mountain”

Happy Spring!!!!!

@Chungamu