Where Is My/Your Self-Preservation

by Margrett Dawson Wallace
(Pelham, GA USA)

Where Is My/Your Self-Preservation?

Why am I writing/sharing about Self-Preservation…because there is the need to know element speaking to my inner-voice to speak out and allow myself and others to know.

I pulled out my LMS Life Management Skills book…a subject I taught to high school and college students before I retired. May I share?...

Self-preservation is behavior that ensures the survival of an organism. It is universal among living organisms. Pain and fear are parts of this mechanism. Pain motivates the individual to withdraw from damaging situations, to protect a damaged body part while it heals, and to avoid similar experiences in the future. Most pain resolves promptly once the painful stimulus is removed and the body has healed, but sometimes pain persists despite removal of the stimulus and apparent healing of the body; and sometimes pain arises in the absence of any detectable stimulus, damage or disease.

Fear causes the organism to seek safety and may cause a release of adrenaline, which has the effect of increased strength and heightened senses such as hearing, smell, and sight.

Self-preservation may also be interpreted figuratively; in regard to the coping mechanisms one needs to prevent emotional trauma from distorting the mind.

We talk about the universe but do you not know that Self-preservation is the first law of nature. Self-preservation is the first responsibility we have to ourselves. Where is yours…where is mine. Will you allow it to come into the circle of the universe.

An insatiable appetite for glory leads to sacrifice and death, but innate instinct leads to self-preservation and life. As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the first instructs him and the latter takes him to task.

The Most High has gifted us with the sly and sharp instinct for self-preservation that passes for wisdom among the rich but the rich has no need for it. Therefore the treasures of the rich are taken away and given to the poor.

Seek and you shall find…knock and the door will be opened…ask and it shall be given. I am constantly reminded of the lesson(s) learned from the “giving of the 10 talents”. What are we doing with our 1 talent. If you don’t use it, will you lose it? Should we not care and take care of self or will we allow ourselves to stay mentally enslaved…for we have been conditioned well by the enslavers against self-preservation, nature's first great law, all the creatures, except man, doth awe. When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness…you must never stop thinking about your needs.

Slow your train down and see the light of the universe. Learn to listen to your pain rather than succumbing to the feeling that it hurts. Have you ever wondered why it is hurting? It is nature way of letting you know that there is something going on or about to happen in your body and the pain is your signal to pay attention to it before it destroys. A shoe too big hurts just as bad as a shoe too small.

Self-preservation is a key element in ensuring we have a sustainable enjoyable, satisfying and productive life. We need to maintain what we have. We need to grow and develop to meet future challenges. We need self-preservation to help keep us on our journey through life.

Self-preservation is the sibling of self care. In the same way that we need to care for ourselves we need self protection, too. There is no point caring for ourselves if we then don't protect the very self that we have cared for.

So what is there to preserve? We only need look at our life to see/find the answer. We need to protect and maintain all the things that we have achieved in life. And how do we do that? 1). By protecting ourselves. 2). By preserving ourselves. 3). By caring for ourselves. And protect what? Preserve what? Care for what?

My college classes brainstormed the following list as a good start: our esteem and thereby our confidence and image

 our values that are the cornerstone of our life

 our motivation that gets us to do the things that we do

 our talents which help us to achieve our goals

 our growth that has made us the person we are today

 our development that enhances and boosts our efforts at improvement

 how we manage ourselves - maintain our efforts that we not only keep what we have but accomplish more and meet new challenges

 our discipline that helps keep us on the path we walk

 our control that helps keep the elements of our life (and this list is an important part of that) in balance and helping us move forward

 our personality that we are able to live, able to give, able to share, able to contribute

 our behavior so that it moves along with our growth and development

 our life that it be fresh, renewed and bright, and us in harmony with it

 our attitude that it be good and wholesome, free yet flexible, strong and determined, giving and resolute.

So, our task appears formidable. But most of these are natural part of our universe if you care and look after yourself - if you adopt a self-preservation mode in life. If we give ourselves to life then there is much about us and our life that we should care for, that we should preserve, that we should safeguard, that we should maintain, that we should defend.

What we need to do is see us as worthy of such attention, worthy of self-preservation. That,we are worthy of this 'self-love'. Realize that we are doing it for the noblest of reasons, and not for vanity or the like. Realize that there is nothing wrong with this type of self- maintenance, and that we all do it to a certain extent.

Just with an active, fulfilling life we should be doing it consciously, doing it regularly, doing it with care and attention, doing it with love and compassion.

In so doing, this act (indeed continuing acts) of self-preservation will not only maintain us on the path through life that we lead, but energize us, motivate us, propel us, and give us the momentum to meet life's many challenges on the road to fulfilling our true and full potential.

Preserving our self is something that easily takes second place to many other things in life. Yet it needs to be one of our number one tasks, targets.

Thank you, Mr. Jeff Baker, for your insightful advice to me on Saturday, March 17th to do something …”for Margrett”. For, as the advert says, are we not worth it. Of course we are worth the effort, time, attention, care, love and all those good things. Whatever we give to our favorite hobby, our beloved pet, our partner in life, we should equally give that amount of effort and time to ourselves. Take care of yourself/ourselves physically as well as mentally and spiritually…if we don't then who will…never to live life again…


What makes your house