Self Mastery

I was reading a blog the other day which mentioned the word “self-mastery” and I became very curious of the term.

Merriam Webster defines self-mastery as the power to control one’s actions, impulses, or emotions.

It is thought that this can be attained by doing the following:

– Knowledge of self-discovery and courage
– Belief in the self
– Willpower and discipline
– Delaying self-gratification
– Minimalism
– Emotional Detachment
– Perseverance and Patience
– Reliance of the self
– Acceptance

The first item on the list is what I suggest to many: to go into yourself and face many things of yourself. Do not fear yourself. Learn about and understand yourself. You can clear up a lot if you do the journey to inner self. It does take courage, but letting go of that fear is very powerful.

Believing in yourself is key to help with maintaining will power and discipline. If you feel something makes you weak or you are strongly tempted then believing in yourself will encourage you to show will power and discipline and not to give in. Will power and discipline tie into delaying self-gratification. By delaying self-gratification we learn to control ourselves. People love to control others, but fear controlling themselves because they need to go in and understand themselves in order to do that.

Minimalism here is more connected in the emotional sense. Freeing yourself from obligations and guilt. Getting pulled in by people can emotionally clutter you. This is also linked to emotional detachment. Not getting caught up in the emotions of others or allowing them to take over your life or imposing themselves on you is important to self-mastery. Be true to yourself.

Self-mastery I believe is something that we need to always persevere in. If we fall, just get up again and learn not fall in that same spot or fall that way again. There is great learning in errors provided we always learn and do not repeat. Patience is one of the great virtues. It should always be embraced and practiced for as Aristotle said “Patience is bitter but it’s fruit is sweet”.

Self-reliance – figure things out on your own before running to someone. You would be surprised at what you can accomplish on your own.

Finally accept yourself with all the lumps and bumps and if you do, most likely, those lumps and bumps will disappear.

Namaste