This is http://www.essayz.com/a9008031.htm         
Previous-Essay      <== This-Essay ==>     Following-Essay
Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words.
{Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.}
==========================================================
  %IMAGE ACCEPTANCE LOVE AFFIRMATION AFFECTION LACK 900803

     In  the  absence  of authentic  experiences  of  real
acceptance,   love,  affirmation and affection we  try  to
envision what they would be like.

     Our  visions  contain  images.   We are  led  by  our
visions and by our images. They motivate us and lead us.

     How  we  behave depends greatly upon what images  and
visions  we have of the nature of real acceptance,   love,
affirmation and affection.

     We  may imagine in a vision that people would  accept
us,  love us,  affirm us and be affectionate towards us if
only  we . . . . . . owned something more,   had  achieved
something  more,  lived somewhere else,  worked  somewhere
else,  dressed a different way,  had on different make-up,
had   a  different  job  behaved   differently,    thought
differently,   read different books,  expressed  ourselves
differently, looked different due to cosmetic surgery, had
traveled to different places, listened to different music,
engaged in different leisure activities, etc.

     We  are  often driven,  motivated and guided  by  the
uninformed images of our visions. We conceive ourselves to
need  to  be somehow different according to our images  of
how others might behave if only we . . . . .

     Our conceptions of ourselves are born of our  visions
and  our images.  Our conceptions are likely to be  poorly
informed  if  we live in a community where  we  cannot  be
secure in open and honest dialogue.  We are then likely to
be  engaged in a poorly informed guessing game,  with  our
lives at stake in the nature of the guesses which we make.

     All these considerations flow from our tendencies  to
believe that authentic love,  acceptance and affection are
conditional;   dependent  upon us behaving  in  acceptable
ways.   We can never know authentic love,  acceptance  and
affection so long as we accept such beliefs and tendencies
without question.
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
==========================================================