Discrimination

[anagogy]

Often it is not even that someone or a group of people have done something 'wrong', so it doesn't really feel right to try and imagine things in a more positive light when they are not negative to begin with.  It's my problem, not somebody else's.  Well, that's how it seems anyways.

I'm not sure what the root cause of these feelings are although I think a great deal of them are a result of social conditioning, both past and current.  I am currently just trying to express in fullness of depth what I am feeling and thinking so as to then become conscious of the thoughts.  Although this is challenging because some of the thoughts are really confronting and disturbing.      

Is it enough to just consciously sift through and express such thoughts, or do you also need to perform some of the actions and practices that you have suggested?  I thought it was enough just to 'shine the light of consciousness' on such aspects of yourself and then they would change on their own.  My intention is one of positive change as you can see but I wonder if conscious awareness needs to be supplemented with practices like the ones you have written.  

I think it really depends on how you feel about it Folk-love.  Often awareness is enough in my experience.  But awareness of belief doesn't always immediately change said beliefs.  If shining the light of your awareness on these distortions brings you into emotional balance, that is all that needs to be done.  But if you shine the light of awareness on it, and still feel bad about it, I would say something is still not in balance.  Balance is not a state of feeling disturbed.  It is a place of calm and peace and love.  

Or anyways, that is my barometer for balance.