Self Betrayal (Post #2 of 8)

Self betrayal is the root cause of our emotional troubles. Dr. Warner describes this as, “going against our honest feelings of what’s right and wrong for us to do.” In a religious sense, this can be described as “sin”. When we receive a prompting of conscience that we recognize as morally correct, in that moment we obligate ourselves to follow the course of action suggested. In essence, the very recognition of the morally correct idea requires that we follow it. Let me illustrate a simple example:

The other day while driving to my office I approached an intersection with a red traffic light. As I began to slow down I noticed a car ahead of me and to my right that was waiting to exit a gas station and wanted to turn into my lane. At that moment the idea occurred to me to let this car enter in front of me. In the split second I received the prompting, I expected myself to do it. But I didn’t do it. I betrayed myself. Whatever anyone else may have expected me to do in that moment doesn’t really matter, because I expected it of myself.

This may seem like a harmless event on the surface, but our acts of self betrayal can lead to a false view of ourselves and everyone and everything outside of ourselves. This false view of reality taints our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors without our conscious recognition of it. That’s the real kicker-- we’re not aware of what we’re doing. Picture a doctor showing you an X-ray of the tumor in your intestines and you had no idea it was there. No pain, no symptoms, nothing. Once you know what you’re facing you can deal with the problem, but until then, not knowing you have a problem is the problem.

Next I’ll discuss what we do to mask our acts of self betrayal.