Grounding confidence and self esteem in metaphysics?

[TheOneReborn]

When I've had my enlightenment experiences my confidence and self esteem literally feels infinite. I can say or do anything without regard to any external judgement because I realize it's all just me judging or analyzing myself. 

When my enlightenment fades away after a few days or weeks many of my confidence issues come back. 

Any advice to embody the insights from enlightenment into your daily living specifically with regards to confidence? 

[Nilsi]

Trying to use enlightenment for your personal benefits gets you into the realm of occultism. I do not recommend you go there.

Just live your life well and make that your source of confidence.

[TheOneReborn]

@Judy2 totally right. Well said. There's a counter intuitive nature to confidence just like there is with enlightenment

[JonasVE12]

It is an enlightenment experience. It is not enlightenment yet. You have to close that gap now with the insights you gained from those experiences. It's the path from an enlightenment experience all the way to liberation that you now need to walk. 

So feel all that resistance you have again. Resistance to certain experiences, ways of expressing, and moving into the physical world. Feel into that resistance and step into it and while stepping into it, let the resistance go and replace it with love and peace. Do that thousands of times with each bit of resistance you feel until there is no more left and you can basically step outside naked in your city without feeling resistance. (Not that you should do that).

All those patterns of feeling and thinking are stored in your subconscious mind / nervous system. You need to rewire that. That's how you embody those higher emotional states of freedom and love. An enlightenment experience transmutes your emotional state all the way to peace because you temporarily expand outside your egoic consciousness. Your system will rebalance to homeostase and that's when the work begins. So now, feel any experience you have fear/apathy/grief around and transmute it to courage/acceptance/love/peace. Thousands and thousands of times. And your self-esteem will slowly adapt and you'll get to a point you feel naturally peace/love such as you felt in your enlightenment experience. 

[Osaid]

I think you just have to be constantly re-examining and re-contextualizing your experience to fit those insights in. Like for example, we know that Santa Claus exists only in imagination, that's a good first step, but now ask yourself what else exists in imagination? Is "anxiety" or "your neighbour" similar to Santa Claus in the sense that it might be imagined? What are the differences? You gotta really zone in on it. Compare your awareness of "Santa Claus" to your awareness of "anxiety." It helps when you have actual experience to practice with, like for example working in some customer service job or something.

Pay attention to the experiences where you feel that resistance and scrutinize it, and also pay attention when something you assumed to be correct or projected onto something ended up being wrong, those are valuable experiences.

It's good to know "it's all just me judging myself", but you have to actually be able to manually spot that insight in very specific situations that pertain to your ego identity. For example, if you feel bad because someone called you an idiot, you have to be able to pinpoint "oh ok, this insight fits here somehow", and then move on from there. And then naturally that will lead to more and more insights, and most importantly, direct experience of those insights in your own personal life.  And then the habit of projection will slowly undo itself.

Edited June 27, 2022 by Osaid

[5-D - L O V E]

The ultimate hack for self confidance, and the most effictive source of grounding for the ego in my own experience is construct awareness, embodying construct awareness energetically, and having a deep inner knowing of the infinite source which is God and ultimately you can get you through many things, both in dealing with the negatives and allowing the positives to flourish.

 

A theme that goes hand in hand with self confidance is your ultimate alignment, asking the question "Am I moving in the direction of light". WAY harder said than actually embodied, but it is a core pillar of grounding "bigger" energies.

In it's ultimate form, complete alignment to god would make you a saint, a person that has interated everything and sees and feels everything as the self in absolute compassion, think Thich Nhat Hanh, the Dalai Lama, Jesus... they are all embodying a greater power, but their "confidance"/Will comes as much from their ultimate devotion to Goodness, God.

 

I deeply believe that this choice is not for everyone and can't be forced (and nothing good can come from forcing it), so it's all about taking responsibility for the good you can provide in the radius you can afford.

[Leo Gura]

Push yourself into that awakened state when you are in those low-confidence situations. You won't be anywhere near perfect, but it should help. Keep doing it over and over again until you grow more spine.

[Vynce]

Treat self-esteem like a plant, which has to be watered everyday with uncomfortable situations and challenges. 

Don't be nihilistic about the fact, that the plant needs water everyday, and that you will never watered it enough for ever. 

It will grow, just as much as you water it. And growth will never be "done". 

Also what counts as "uncomfortable and challenging" is what you perceive as such. Don't fool yourself, with some challenges "others" might find hard. Do your personal painful stuff, whatever that is. 

[Gesundheit2]

The bigger problem here is maybe you did not actually have any enlightenment experiences but thought that you did due to the overconfidence provided by the drug.

[Oeaohoo]

My experience is that the only real confidence is one which is grounded in the immutable and unshakeable nature of the metaphysical plane and the Supreme Identity.

Incidentally, this is why one of the most significant and universal metaphysical symbols, the World Tree or Tree of Life, is often depicted with roots in Heaven rather than Earth: 'This ancient Aswattha tree has its root above and branches below. That is pure, That is Brahman, That alone is called the Immortal. All the worlds rest in That. None goes beyond That. This verily is That.' - Katha Upanishad, Verse 2.3.1.

[gettoefl]

confidence is, what i find is for me and what is for me finds me

[TheOneReborn]

@Gesundheit2 I've only ever had awakening through kundalini awakenings. Never broke through with a drug. Thanks for all the advice everyone

[peterjames]

Nathaniel Branden and Ayn Rand has written on self-esteem from a philosophical perspective. You might find what you are looking for in their work. 

See:

* Honoring the self

* The vision of Ayn Rand