Host Robert Strock discusses the value of learning to identify our own challenging feelings, questioning them, and continuing to grow and develop as a person. Each of us must learn that outside standards don't have to define us. It takes time to develop the autonomous self that can name, question, and grow. Self-rejection keeps us from realizing the autonomous self because we get caught in a reactive mode where we identify with what we've been taught.

Developing awareness requires exploring the things that you say to yourself. Strock uses case studies and personal experiences as examples. This process works for those who may have chemical or neurological issues that contribute to their challenging feelings, and those who don't. In either case, asking introspective questions identifies the difficult feelings, names them, and determines the thought process around them. We can each learn to ask important, introspective questions—Am I ready to be honest with myself? What is holding me back from compassion, from happiness, from being a better version of myself? The process of asking these questions leads to continual progression and personal evolution. Each of us can stop self-rejection when we find the will and the curiosity to individually inquire inside ourselves.

Read the transcription and listen to this episode at Awareness That Heals.