Why do we tend to repress and project?

The first thing I did this morning, when I brought my coffee here to my computer, was to check in here. The second thing was to respond to a post on another thread. I wrote a bit about repression.

As soon as I had taken care of visits that involved yesterday's business - like checking my mail and looking in on a few other forumsto see what had transpired after I went to bed, I visited this website - something I have developed a habit of doing because it always seems to hit a synchronistic spot:

http://www.dailyom.com/articles/2012/34829.html

Quote :

Many of us experienced childhoods in which the words good and bad were used as weapons to control us—you were good if you did what you were told and bad if you didn’t. This kind of discipline undermines a person’s ability to find their own moral center and to trust and be guided by their own inner self. If you were raised this way, you may find yourself feeling shockwaves of badness when you do something you were taught was wrong, even if now you don’t agree that it’s bad. Conversely, you may feel good when you do what you learned was right. Notice how this puts you in something of a straitjacket. An important part of our spiritual unfolding requires that we grow beyond what we learned and take responsibility for our own liberation in our own terms.

Ms. Taylor doesn't mention it in this article, but it is in line with her thinking. One of the ways we cope with feeling so bad about ourselves is to repress those feelings; and then, to keep them from popping back up again, we project them onto the actions of others.

That is why, it seems to me, we need to be especially aware of that dark side, and realize that we do not need to judge ourselves. Once we get that, we won't need to project. As Ms. Taylor concludes:

Quote :

You are a human being with every right to be here, learning and exploring. To label yourself good or bad is to think too small. What you are is a decision-maker and every moment provides you the opportunity to move in the direction of your higher self or in the direction of stagnation or degradation. In the end, only you know the difference. If you find yourself going into self-judgment, try to stop yourself as soon as you can and come back to center. Know that you are not good or bad, you are simply you.

It's just me, but I cannot help but think that this is where we begin if we are going to help to end wars.

Ann