During a road trip, when stress can magnify things, I noticed myself finding judgment of others and feeling justified to point this out. The next day I realized I was pointing at parts of myself.
It's funny how quick I (we?) can be when it comes to finding judgment of negative traits in others. And knowing that those are traits that I can find in myself, I have the opportunity to feel compassion for everyone who demonstrates those traits.
And what about the positive traits that I admire in others? Those are present in me as well, and associating with people who demonstrate those traits will help me to see them in myself, and nurture and cultivate them.
My goal is to seek out those people who I want to add to my circle of influence, and actually take the time to discover their power and attitude.
First and foremost, I must recognize that I am worthy to ask them for a snippet their wisdom.
Comment and/or follow me.
Peace
Larry
Showing posts with label lesson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lesson. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Be Willing
When I am looking at my potential, and affirming the future results and outcomes that give me joy, I am often intimidated by the responsibility of being in the perfect mindset to make it all happen. The concepts of the Law of Attraction are so powerful, and nailing all the steps and processes sometimes appears daunting.
Getting it right, I realized, is not the biggest step. Having the right affirmation or the right attitude and emotion are not absolutes to 'successful' manifestation.
The other day I was saying some affirmations, and my ability to believe these affirmations was less than 100%. And the credibility of my own affirmation is pretty important as I learned from Terry McBride.
Then I remembered the leading words of Collin Tipping's "Radical Forgiveness" worksheet affirmations: "I am willing. . . "
I realize this opens me up to the potential without requiring me to know the how. It opens up all the potential that I can see or that I cannot see from my limited perspective.
It opens up my potential to the power of the Universe to create with me my higher good, even if I can't see it yet.
It is not mine to nail down the how and when. I am willing, and the Universe steps in with grace and all the potential that is available in this universe. It's time to trust and put my faith in the Universe's constant love for me that supports me 100% all the time.
Comment or follow me...
Peace,
Larry
www.InspirngConnection.com
Getting it right, I realized, is not the biggest step. Having the right affirmation or the right attitude and emotion are not absolutes to 'successful' manifestation.
The other day I was saying some affirmations, and my ability to believe these affirmations was less than 100%. And the credibility of my own affirmation is pretty important as I learned from Terry McBride.
Then I remembered the leading words of Collin Tipping's "Radical Forgiveness" worksheet affirmations: "I am willing. . . "
I realize this opens me up to the potential without requiring me to know the how. It opens up all the potential that I can see or that I cannot see from my limited perspective.
It opens up my potential to the power of the Universe to create with me my higher good, even if I can't see it yet.
It is not mine to nail down the how and when. I am willing, and the Universe steps in with grace and all the potential that is available in this universe. It's time to trust and put my faith in the Universe's constant love for me that supports me 100% all the time.
Comment or follow me...
Peace,
Larry
www.InspirngConnection.com
Monday, September 13, 2010
I got a rock 2.0
After playing with rocks for an afternoon, I was truly content. I had fun. Rocks to me are treasures. I keep stacks of them in my yard, 3 and 4 feet high. I feel wealthy when I have piles of rocks.
I'm guessing that not everyone feels that way about rocks. As a matter of fact, I've heard some people curse them, as they seem to multiply in their yard, only to reach out for an ankle or a mower blade.
Perhaps this is the epitome of looking for the good in things. A rock is meaningless until a human gives it beauty or usefulness or distain.
This is a great opportunity to look at how I see the other rocks in my life. Do I look for the beauty and fun in all the aspects of my life? Is the detritus of my life mentally rejected and discarded as ugly and useless? Or can I find the beuaty of things and situations in a new context?
My rocks only acquire beauty and wealth in the presence of the context that I create for them. I can also accept the negative or positive context that someone else is only too happy to hand me.
My choice....
Peace
Larry
P.S. Leave a comment, follow me, make my day....
I'm guessing that not everyone feels that way about rocks. As a matter of fact, I've heard some people curse them, as they seem to multiply in their yard, only to reach out for an ankle or a mower blade.
Perhaps this is the epitome of looking for the good in things. A rock is meaningless until a human gives it beauty or usefulness or distain.
This is a great opportunity to look at how I see the other rocks in my life. Do I look for the beauty and fun in all the aspects of my life? Is the detritus of my life mentally rejected and discarded as ugly and useless? Or can I find the beuaty of things and situations in a new context?
My rocks only acquire beauty and wealth in the presence of the context that I create for them. I can also accept the negative or positive context that someone else is only too happy to hand me.
My choice....
Peace
Larry
P.S. Leave a comment, follow me, make my day....
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Ease Up
As I am working on a book club program for The Happiness Project, I read a single page in the middle of the book entitled "Cut People Slack." As I thought about this, I realized how many layers there are to the idea.
It's complicated
Gretchen Rubin helps us to see that people's lives are far more complicated than they appear from our personal perspective. How many times have I known someone for a while, only to find out that their journey has been a tumultuous or tortured one at times? In the process, they reveal their vulnerability, usually in an offhand, cavalier way that seems to disregard any possible obstacle to the very best in their life. And perhaps I do the same thing, myself.
Their situation is not based on my history.
I think back to how I've approached people as I meet them and begin to learn about them, and I see that I compartmentalize them to fit into all the boxes that I have created for my life. Each tidbit of information, opinion, and feelings are compared to, and matched with, ones that I have experienced. I now have a "reference" point of my own history with which to view what they say or do.
With this set of reference points, I could sidestep the onerous task of admitting that I don't know everything. Yet, in truth, I cannot know their experience, because it is not my experience. Sometimes it's not even close. This ignorance seems to make me uncomfortable, but once it has become clear, I can accept and admire. Or not.
They are constantly changing.
One of the most recent revelations about the people I meet is that this is who they are - now. Then, this is who they are - now. It is constantly changing.
I can only offer this freedom once I have discovered it for myself. When I can see that I am not the same person that I was a year ago, and I can say that this is OK, then I can open my mind to that fact that the person in front of me is in transition. Always.
If I let go of what I had come to know about them up to this moment, I give them the freedom to discover more about themselves. It is through honoring this transition, their transformation, that they are affirmed to continue their journey.
"Forbearance is a form of generosity."
Gretchen uses this sentence to cut people slack who might be in a challenging circumstance that requires otherwise rude or rash behavior. We have no idea why someone is driving erratically, or reaches a flash point for seemingly innocuous events. Their circumstance may be something that we would react to with equal behavior.
But generosity isn't just about identifying with the reaction, or the cause of the reaction. They are doing their best. Just like you and I are. They may have less skills at this, they may have different reference points from which to handle circumstances. Generosity allows for these extremes. Generosity says that I don't have to understand.
Peace
My last thought: peace. Is it really important to know anything, to rationalize anything, to excuse anything? If I want peace, I can let go of all judgment and righteousness. Maybe it's not mine to own. Maybe it's not mine to grade. I can witness. Maybe my simple gift is to witness and be there, to hold for them the OK-ness of who they are in that moment. To cut them some slack when they can't. And I know tomorrow is another day for them. Today, I begin again.
It starts with me. Ease up on yourself, Larry.
Much Love
Larry Watson
InspiringConnection.com
I'd love your comments!!
It's complicated
Gretchen Rubin helps us to see that people's lives are far more complicated than they appear from our personal perspective. How many times have I known someone for a while, only to find out that their journey has been a tumultuous or tortured one at times? In the process, they reveal their vulnerability, usually in an offhand, cavalier way that seems to disregard any possible obstacle to the very best in their life. And perhaps I do the same thing, myself.
Their situation is not based on my history.
I think back to how I've approached people as I meet them and begin to learn about them, and I see that I compartmentalize them to fit into all the boxes that I have created for my life. Each tidbit of information, opinion, and feelings are compared to, and matched with, ones that I have experienced. I now have a "reference" point of my own history with which to view what they say or do.
With this set of reference points, I could sidestep the onerous task of admitting that I don't know everything. Yet, in truth, I cannot know their experience, because it is not my experience. Sometimes it's not even close. This ignorance seems to make me uncomfortable, but once it has become clear, I can accept and admire. Or not.
They are constantly changing.
One of the most recent revelations about the people I meet is that this is who they are - now. Then, this is who they are - now. It is constantly changing.
I can only offer this freedom once I have discovered it for myself. When I can see that I am not the same person that I was a year ago, and I can say that this is OK, then I can open my mind to that fact that the person in front of me is in transition. Always.
If I let go of what I had come to know about them up to this moment, I give them the freedom to discover more about themselves. It is through honoring this transition, their transformation, that they are affirmed to continue their journey.
"Forbearance is a form of generosity."
Gretchen uses this sentence to cut people slack who might be in a challenging circumstance that requires otherwise rude or rash behavior. We have no idea why someone is driving erratically, or reaches a flash point for seemingly innocuous events. Their circumstance may be something that we would react to with equal behavior.
But generosity isn't just about identifying with the reaction, or the cause of the reaction. They are doing their best. Just like you and I are. They may have less skills at this, they may have different reference points from which to handle circumstances. Generosity allows for these extremes. Generosity says that I don't have to understand.
Peace
My last thought: peace. Is it really important to know anything, to rationalize anything, to excuse anything? If I want peace, I can let go of all judgment and righteousness. Maybe it's not mine to own. Maybe it's not mine to grade. I can witness. Maybe my simple gift is to witness and be there, to hold for them the OK-ness of who they are in that moment. To cut them some slack when they can't. And I know tomorrow is another day for them. Today, I begin again.
It starts with me. Ease up on yourself, Larry.
Much Love
Larry Watson
InspiringConnection.com
I'd love your comments!!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Giving or Sacrifice
Does it feel better to say I sacrificed something, or does it feel better to say that I gave something? That's a very important question for me to ask myself.
Martyrdom in this life is frequently an attitude of sacrificing for the sake of a reward. Delayed gratification. When done among my neighbors, it is about expecting that someone notices and gives me a pat on the back, a little leeway, a leg up. When done from a spiritual perspective, maybe I expect some special reward, an extra gold star.
Spirit loves me no matter what, unconditionally, and holds me in grace. What more can I expect? Reward implies that there could possibly be limitations in God's presence.
What if there is no delay? What if the service is the reward? What if we are getting more reward from the act than what we are giving up or sacrificing?
In the recent release "Well Being", it has been researched and discovered that people feel better about their lives when they spend money on others instead of themselves. (Shopping therapy isn't as effective as giving.) People who volunteer feel much better.
"There is nothing BUT self-interest. The only thing that changes is the definition of Self."
Self can be the bottom of Maslow's pyramid. Self can be our highest good. Self can be the God-centered part of us that is only too happy to be realized through service. Self can begin to encompass our fellow man, and the planet.
At that level of Self-interest, it might not feel like a sacrifice. Maybe it feels like love expressing. What is the other word for Love?
Martyrdom in this life is frequently an attitude of sacrificing for the sake of a reward. Delayed gratification. When done among my neighbors, it is about expecting that someone notices and gives me a pat on the back, a little leeway, a leg up. When done from a spiritual perspective, maybe I expect some special reward, an extra gold star.
Spirit loves me no matter what, unconditionally, and holds me in grace. What more can I expect? Reward implies that there could possibly be limitations in God's presence.
What if there is no delay? What if the service is the reward? What if we are getting more reward from the act than what we are giving up or sacrificing?
In the recent release "Well Being", it has been researched and discovered that people feel better about their lives when they spend money on others instead of themselves. (Shopping therapy isn't as effective as giving.) People who volunteer feel much better.
"There is nothing BUT self-interest. The only thing that changes is the definition of Self."
Self can be the bottom of Maslow's pyramid. Self can be our highest good. Self can be the God-centered part of us that is only too happy to be realized through service. Self can begin to encompass our fellow man, and the planet.
At that level of Self-interest, it might not feel like a sacrifice. Maybe it feels like love expressing. What is the other word for Love?
Monday, December 21, 2009
What is the meaning of this?
As I go through a day, things continue to unfold the way they do. Some of the events are results of my intentions, some seem to be happenstance. Whether I think I contributed to the event or not, there is a meaning that I assign to that event.
If I am more concerned with the control that I have had over the event, I will probably assign a lot of judgment to it. If I feel that I "performed" well and accomplished my intention, I will judge it as good, and assign a meaning of good to myself and the results. If I didn't perform well, then the meaning could well be negative, maybe even adversarial to myself.
If am more concerned with others' participation in an event, I might assign it a meaning of kindness or animosity. This is particularly true if I decide that the person's meaning was wrong or bad, and I then use that meaning to color every interaction subsequent to that decision. I have given something a meaning that may or may not have been an intention.
And even when it is an intention of the other, "good" or "bad", the meaning I give it is purely in my head. What if I were to assign a different meaning to it that relieves me of putting my personal sense of value at stake? What if I choose the meaning that any particular event will have in my life?
When we are young, events happen in our life that can seem traumatic, or dramatic, and at that point we might create a meaning around that event that becomes a rule for living. The meaning that we assigned to that event might be accurate, but by making a rule around that event for similar future events we are trapped into behaviors that are myopic and dabilitating.
In a similar way, I fall into the same trap with each event in my day if I were to assign meanings to events that become bigger than the event. And the egoic mind loves to find meaning and significance in every thing that happens in our lives.
So where can I go from here? Awareness. That is my gift in the discovery. I can now be aware of the meaning that I am assigning to my day, my hour, my minute, and reconsider that meaning in the light of what my intention is for my life.
Unless my life were lived by default, I can consciously find a higher significance - or none at all - in the thread of my day that weaves the fabric of my life.
If I am more concerned with the control that I have had over the event, I will probably assign a lot of judgment to it. If I feel that I "performed" well and accomplished my intention, I will judge it as good, and assign a meaning of good to myself and the results. If I didn't perform well, then the meaning could well be negative, maybe even adversarial to myself.
If am more concerned with others' participation in an event, I might assign it a meaning of kindness or animosity. This is particularly true if I decide that the person's meaning was wrong or bad, and I then use that meaning to color every interaction subsequent to that decision. I have given something a meaning that may or may not have been an intention.
And even when it is an intention of the other, "good" or "bad", the meaning I give it is purely in my head. What if I were to assign a different meaning to it that relieves me of putting my personal sense of value at stake? What if I choose the meaning that any particular event will have in my life?
When we are young, events happen in our life that can seem traumatic, or dramatic, and at that point we might create a meaning around that event that becomes a rule for living. The meaning that we assigned to that event might be accurate, but by making a rule around that event for similar future events we are trapped into behaviors that are myopic and dabilitating.
In a similar way, I fall into the same trap with each event in my day if I were to assign meanings to events that become bigger than the event. And the egoic mind loves to find meaning and significance in every thing that happens in our lives.
So where can I go from here? Awareness. That is my gift in the discovery. I can now be aware of the meaning that I am assigning to my day, my hour, my minute, and reconsider that meaning in the light of what my intention is for my life.
Unless my life were lived by default, I can consciously find a higher significance - or none at all - in the thread of my day that weaves the fabric of my life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)