Becoming Yourself

Developing a Better You

Month: August 2023 (Page 1 of 2)

A Pause for Some Candy

August 26, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I’m a “vegetables and candy” writer.

Those of you that know me from this blog read my vegetable writing—healthy, nourishing, and helpful for growth (hopefully).

But I make my living with my candy writing. I write books for kids, specifically a spooky monster mystery series called Monsterious.

Monsterious books are short, and as each is a stand alone adventure with a unique cast of characters, they can be read in any order. They’re a good fit for fans of Goosebumps, Stranger Things, and Five Nights at Freddy’s, if those franchises mean anything to you. While Monsterious is targeted for eight to twelve year olds, I write them in such a way that they can be enjoyed by anyone who loves a fast-paced spooky thriller with lots of action, humor, and heart.

Why am I telling you all this? For two simple reasons:

1. In case you’re interested in the books

2. In case you’d like to support my writing

I’ve always written this blog for free with no advertising. It’s a way for me to share my personal development journey in hopes that it helps others with theirs. If you’ve enjoyed this blog and want to support it, buying my books for yourself or for others is a great way to do that. I’m in the crucial early stage of my book publishing career where finding an audience is so important. Book sales are what convince my publisher (Penguin Random House) to continue the series, so I can make a living as an author.

If you’re still reading this and want to know what my books are about, here’s a quick peek:

ESCAPE FROM GRIMSTONE MANOR – Three friends are trapped overnight in a haunted house amusement park ride and discover the monsters are real.

THE SNATCHER OF RAVEN HOLLOW – Two friends learn that a monster is responsible for the disappearance of babies in their small town, but no one believes them.

TERROR IN SHADOW CANYON – Five hikers lost in a remote wilderness are stalked by a monster.

More info and buy links for these books are at MattMcMann.com.

Thanks so much for allowing me to share the other half of my writing mind with you. Next week I’ll be back with another serving of vegetables. In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy the candy as you take another step toward Becoming Yourself.

Photo by Rach Teo on Unsplash

Find Peace by Releasing Your False Self

August 19, 2023 / / 0 Comments

In last week’s post, I shared the writings of Richard Rohr on how recognizing our false selves can bring peace. This week, I wanted to share a follow up post in which he explains the benefits of taking the next step—releasing our false selves. This concept has been so helpful to me that I wanted to share it with you. I hope it aids you on your journey to Becoming Yourself.

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Father Richard further clarifies what he means by the false self: 

Our false self is not our bad self, our inherently deceitful self, the self that God does not like, or we should not like. Actually, our false self is good and necessary as far as it goes. It just doesn’t go far enough, and it often poses and thus substitutes for the real thing. That is its only problem, and that is why it’s called “false.”

Various false selves (temporary costumes) are necessary to get us all started, and they show their limitations when they stay around too long. If a person keeps growing, their various false selves usually die in exposure to greater light. 

Our false self, which we might also call our “small self” or “separate self,” is our launching pad: our body image, our job, our education, our clothes, our money, our car, our success, and so on. These are the functional trappings of ego that we all use to get through an ordinary day. They are largely projections of our self-image and our attachment to it. [1] 

Contemplation teaches us how to detach from this self-image. For example, I’m happy to dress as a priest at the appropriate time and place, but I don’t do it all the time, because then I get too attached to that image. Any self-image, positive or negative, held too tightly, reinforces our attachment to the false self. We don’t need to think of ourselves as better or worse than each other. I am who I am as the image of God and that levels the playing field. [2] 

When we are able to move beyond our separate or false self—as we are invited to do over the course of our lives—it will eventually feel as if we have lost nothing.In fact, it will feel like freedom and liberation. When we are connected to the Whole, we no longer need to protect or defend the mere part. We no longer need to compare and compete. We are now connected to something inexhaustible.      

To not let go of our false self at the right time and in the right way is precisely what it means to be stuck, trapped, and addicted to our self. (The traditional word for that was sin, the result of feeling separate from the Whole.) Discovering our True Self is not just a matter of chronological age. Some spiritually precocious children see through the false self rather early. Some old men and old women are still dressing it up. If all we have at the end of our life is our separate or false self, there will not be much to eternalize. It is transitory and impermanent. These costumes are largely created by the mental ego. They were useful to us in our development. Our false self is what changes, passes, and dies when we die. Only our True Self lives forever. [3] 

As shared in the Aug 9, 2023 Daily Meditation by the Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org), [1] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2013), 27–28. [2] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond(Albuquerque, NM: Center for Action and Contemplation, 2020–), online course. [3] Rohr, Immortal Diamond, 28–29. 

Photo by Daniel Lloyd Blunk-Fernández on Unsplash

Find Peace by Recognizing Your False Self

August 12, 2023 / / 0 Comments

The goal of this blog is to share my journey to find my True Self in hopes that it helps you do the same.

The writings of Richard Rohr have been instrumental on that journey. In the following, he cuts to the heart of some common delusions and shines a light on our True Selves with warmth and compassion. While he writes from a spiritual worldview, I believe there’s much to be gained from his insights regardless of where you’re at on the spiritual belief spectrum. My sincere hope is that these words will help you take another step toward Becoming Yourself. 

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Father Richard describes the false self in the CAC’s online course Immortal Diamond: 

The false self is all the things we pretend to be and think we are. It is the pride, arrogance, title, costume, role, and degree we take to be ourselves. It’s almost entirely created by our minds, our cultures, and our families. It is what’s passing and what’s going to die, and it is not who we are. For many people this is all they have—but all of it is going to die when we die.  

When we buy into the false self and overidentify with it, we have to keep overidentifying with it, defending it, and promoting it as “the best.” The false self is overidentified on a social level, a corporate level, a national level, an ethnic level. There is the Catholic false self, the Protestant false self, the American false self—we can pick on whatever group we want. 

Many people in the United States really think that God has shed unique grace on our country—but have they ever walked outside our borders? There’s plenty of grace to the North and the South, in Europe and Africa. Grace is everywhere! When I was growing up as a Catholic boy in Kansas, we viewed all Protestants as heretics who were going to hell, but then I grew up and met a few nice Methodists, and I found out they thought I was going to hell too! It’s just laughable.  

We have to undercut the illusion right at the beginning, and when we do that, we discover the True Self “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). Our True Self in God becomes our touchstone and absolutely levels the playing field. It gives us a new set of eyes.  

We each have different faces and different colors of skin; some of us have hair, some of us don’t; some are tall, some are a little shorter. If we are living out of the false self, all we can do is measure, compare, evaluate, and label. That’s what I call dualistic thinking, and it’s where our world lives. Many people think that all they have are these external costumes—but when we put on the eyes and mind of Christ, we have a new pair of glasses. We can look around and know that the world is filled with infinite images of God. Isn’t that a nicer world to live in? It’s the ultimate political-social critique.  

I hope we’re all moving in the direction of knowing who we really are, letting go of our preoccupation with how we look or measure up. As we come to a deeper acceptance of our True Self, we know our identity comes from God’s love, not from what other people think or say about us. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to present our best face; in fact, my mother would be disappointed if she thought I were saying otherwise. We just can’t take any of it too seriously.

As published in the Aug 8, 2023 Daily Meditation from the Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org). Adapted from Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond(Albuquerque, NM: Center for Action and Contemplation, 2020–), online course.  

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