From The Daily Dialogue
From The Daily Dialogue
Broadcast of 9/14/98
Subject: [DailyDialogue #257] Resentment
"To have a grievance is to have a purpose in life." - Eric Hoffer
One of Hitler's goals was to overcome the humiliation of Germany's defeat in World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. The German Republic was excluded from the world's first peacekeeping covenant of the League of Nations. The Treaty of Versailles required Germany to abolish compulsory military service, to reduce and limit its military forces and to stop producing and trading war material.
In 1923 Hitler led an uprising against the German government. When the uprising failed, Hitler was imprisoned for nine months. When the Great Depression struck in 1929, Hitler explained it as a Jewish-Communist plot. Once in power, Hitler established himself as a dictator and banned all political parties except his own. All aspects of society were brought under Nazi authority, and thousands of anti-Nazis were taken to concentration camps. The Germans built extermination camps, in which six million Jews were murdered. Many Germans supported him enthusiastically. Hitler refused to surrender. In April 1945, with all of Germany overrun by Allied invaders, Hitler committed suicide.
We often defend ourselves against emotional pain by projecting onto other people our own inner feelings. We perceive these traits as patterns in others. When we do this, we are invading others' boundaries. To heal this, we first recognize our resentments and how we are disowning a part of our inner life by projecting onto another person, group, place or thing. Then we can heal our woundedness and be free of disabling projections.
Experiment: Identify any long-standing resentment, unresolved anger or bitterness you are holding. Then fill in the following incomplete sentence, "I may fear facing my own..."
Affirmation: I let go of unrealistic expectations and fill my soul with compassion for myself and others.
The Daily Dialogue is published each day of 1998 by e-mail. Copyright 1998, Eddy Brame and Marty Crouch, All rights reserved.
