After watching this week’s video and a couple of other podcasts, I’m a little confused about “manuals”. As I understand it, manuals are basically a bunch of “rules” (which are simply created from our thoughts) we wish others to follow. I also believe most of the time these rules are our attempt to control the things we have no control over; and if we could control these things, we would get whatever it is we are looking for.

Can we have manuals for ourselves?

I’ve heard others mention that we can and none of the instructors have corrected those statements. But wouldn’t a manual for ourselves simply be our beliefs in and/or about ourselves? Don’t get me wrong, I understand the rules which we are creating for others, are created merely by our thoughts/beliefs about them.

So why couldn’t we have manuals for ourselves? I’m not 100% sure; as it feels like I’m splitting hairs here. But for some reason, to me, it just feels to fit better when I think of it as our way to control/manipulate others, rather than controlling and/or manipulating ourselves. Does this all make sense?