FREEING YOURSELF FROM DOMESTICATION

Domestication, the system of reward and punishment, works like this: Every time you get something “right,” you get a reward that makes you happy. Punishment comes when you do something “wrong.” While the ways we are domesticated are different based on the individual and culture, the outcome is always the same: self-judgement and conditional love.

For example, let’s imagine that as a child, you were told that not eating everything on your plate was “wrong,” or even “a sin.” Then years later, as an adult, if you do not finish a plate of food, your internal voice of self-judgement will come back loudly, and you will eat to avoid guilt rather than to satisfy hunger.

There is no one to blame for this, it is the current human condition that has existed for generations. The point is to become free of it.

Practice

With awareness, strive to recognize the ways in which you have been domesticated. When you see the domestication, be the Toltec warrior, saying to yourself, “I am now aware of this, and I chose to be free.”

Living a Life of Awareness

~ Don Miguel Ruiz Jr.