Days 11 and 12 are about “becoming a best friend of God.” To me, this means becoming the truest version of yourself, not settling for the false self your ego would have you believe in.
I feel a lot of truth in these chapters, though I may not have experiential knowledge of all of it. Warren points out that becoming a best friend of God – or becoming your truest Self – is a choice. I wrote about this in my post on Day 1.
Two especially pertinent points in the these chapters for me are maintaining constant contact with my Self and being honest with my Self. I can’t possibly hope to know or to become my truest Self if I’m not consciously keeping my Self in mind. It takes constant, conscious attention to Self to break out of my default state of identification with my ego. The stronger my connection to my Self, the more I will feel Its influence in my life. My connection is weak – my focus on Self comes in fits and spurts. Ego identification is tempting because it’s comfortable and it’s known and it doesn’t take any work – it’s my default state. To help me to keep my Self in mind, I’ve started wearing a ring on my left ring finger as a symbol of being married to my Self, a reminder to keep my Self in mind, not to let my ego run amok with my life.
Honesty with my Self is another big one for me. The “fake it till you make it” concept exists in spirituality as a means of living as if you were whole and integrated until you become whole and integrated. And this is great, but it’s easy to take it to the extreme of not acknowledging where you’re missing mark, especially when it comes to acknowledging pain and fear. I want so much to be whole that I forget that I am not yet whole and I try to downplay my negative emotions. Of course, repression is a recipe for disaster. Honestly acknowledging those negative emotions is the only means of letting them go so that you can become whole. This chapter was a good reminder for me.
TL;DR: No tl;dr for virtual book club posts.
