I am not talking coffee filters here but rather filters that are based on your perceptions. These filters result from your belief systems, your past experiences, your idealogy, your attachments…Think about what your filter is around coworkers for instance. How do you interpret their comments when they speak to you about something? What filter do you have up when you are receiving information from them? What do you expect their comments will be like? Do you perceive that their comments are going to be supportive or do you perceive that their comments are going to be critical? Start to pay attention to this in your life because it will illuminate the position that you are coming from and illuminate the filter that you are perceiving things through. This is useful information and if the filter that you are running isn’t serving you, then change the filter…
Acknowledge one another
I was away for five days this past week in a place that I had never visited and the thought that stayed with me upon my return is the warmth you feel when you acknowledge one another. I was at a wedding where I knew only a handful of people to begin with and at the start my insecurities showed up…’I don’t know what to say to these people’, ‘I am just a third wheel’ ( I was accompanying someone to the wedding), ‘I am shy and socially awkward’ and on and on it went. As the week went on and I met some of the lovely people that were there for the wedding what struck me was the warmth I felt when acknowledging another person in a positive way. I spent some time after I had met these individuals and found something in my heart that I found really special about them. I realized that all of these people that were at the wedding were beautiful in their own way. I had one particular moment where I teared up talking to someone when I found out that both of these people sat regularly by the hospital bed of my present partner who had a serious accident some time ago. It meant so much to me and it touched my heart to such a degree that I found myself with tears of gratitude in my eyes as I thanked these people. This was just a brief moment where I acknowledged another human being whose heart touched mine and made me grateful. We all have an ability to acknowledge one another…every day we can find something that we like about the person who is in our company and we can tell them what that is. It takes courage because in that moment you are vulnerable but it is better to tell them in this moment, in the now because who knows if you will get another moment to tell them later on. Things happen, unexpected accidents can occur and this moment is all you really have…so I ask you to acknowledge one another and let them know if you feel so moved how they touch your heart. This can also help if you are finding yourself in conflict with another person or an individual consistently pushes your buttons…find one thing that you can like about the person that you are having trouble loving…just find one thing that you can like about the person and whenever you are feeling negative about that person bring yourself back to that one thing that you can like about them. This will put you in a better state of mind, a more positive one that supports good relationships with other people…so acknowledge one another when you can…
How do you deal with rejection?
I had a challenging day. Today was the day I learned whether or not I reached round 3 of the next top spiritual author competition. I didn’t make it through and I was surprised. I thought that I had done enough work to promote my message and I spent many hours on my book proposal before submitting it. Why couldn’t I be happy that I was one author out of 2000 people that had made it to round 2? Quite frankly, I had my heart set on advancing to round 3. So I cried some tears of self pity for a very short time. I looked up the 25 authors who had made it to round 3 and made some mental notes to myself. These 25 people have a visible web presence and it appears they have been at their respective crafts for a while. They have been working at this longer than I have. I entered this competition on a whim. Now I have to dig deep and create my long term vision and validate myself at this point. I have to have a stronger belief in myself. This situation just reminds me to dig deep, trust in my heart what I know to be true and give thanks for the opportunities that come my way…The stories you make up about why things happen the way they do are more detrimental than your actual reality. This much I know is true. If I beat myself up and make up a story as to why I did not advance to round 3, this surely does not serve me. If I trust in my dream, I know that this door closing will mean another door opening. Sometimes all that you can do is connect with spirit and trust in that connection. The ego gets a little bruised by life but aren’t we all needing to let go of our ego these days….until next time love yourself!