“The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being” — Socrates
As far back as the time of Socrates it was taught that examining one’s life is extremely important, to the point of making life ‘worth living for a human being.’ And, yet, in the 21st Century, we seem to have become so involved in being busy that it is difficult to pause and ponder. What does it really mean to examine life?
For one thing, I believe that we must be constantly aware of the choices that are before us all the time. An unexamined life creates a false impression that ‘I have no choice’ but that is truly never the case. There is always a choice. It might not FEEL as if there is a choice but that is because we are making a decision based on what we feel, think and believe about a situation. It might be because the alternative before us is so abhorrent that we cannot imagine making the choice to do other than the path we see as the ‘only way.’ But we could choose something different even if the consequences were unacceptable.
Many clients come to me with seemingly impossible choices that they face and they ask for guidance in making decisions about those choices. The answer is often not ‘this or that’ but, rather, ‘how can you find a way to have both?’ That is, they can move from ‘either-or thinking’ into ‘and thinking’ and the solution presents itself. But what we believe about ourselves and our world often prevent us from moving into the higher space where the solutions live.
I remember several years ago, after one of my favorite Christmases of all time, I was facing a Christmas without any family except my husband. I was very depressed about the prospect of not seeing our kids or grandkids or the rest of the family during the holidays. The Christmas before we had had a magical time when all of our children and grandchildren were together for Christmas, ‘Santa’ came to our house on Christmas morning to deliver a kitten and a Buzz Lightyear toy, and we had time to relax and be together. And then everyone had moved away and we were going to wake up on Christmas morning without any family to share in our day. We were even going to be visiting with the grandkids just before Christmas because Richard had a business trip to their area, but the trip was to end just before the holiday and we were scheduled to return home to the empty house. My belief was that we had to be ‘home’ for Christmas, no matter what my heart wanted. But it finally occurred to us that we didn’t have to leave when the business trip was over. We could stay in the hotel, be with the family, and celebrate Christmas the way we wanted to, even if it was not at home.
We had an amazingly wonderful holiday that year! We cooked Christmas Eve dinner for 19 in our Residence Inn suite kitchen. We had a little tree from the drug store and a fire in the fireplace and enjoyed our extended family, missing only 1 son and his wife that year. But it took a huge leap in changing beliefs to allow that magic to happen when the closed-up, depressed thinking was keeping the possibility from presenting itself.
You can change your beliefs. You need to, however, first examine how your limiting beliefs are affecting your world. What negative thoughts are generated from these limiting beliefs? Fortunately, because I have the tools to help other people examine their beliefs and thoughts, I was able to use those tools for myself and find amazing possibilities that turned into realities for myself and my family.
When you choose to live a conscious life, you allow yourself to constantly be examining how the circumstances of your life are the result of your thinking and how you can change your thoughts to change your life.
What are you going to commit to today so that you can live a more conscious life?
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MUSE-INGS: What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love
March 7, 2012 — RosemaryIt’s difficult to discuss ‘hatred’ because I really don’t like to feel the energy of that word. I learned long ago to remove it from my vocabulary because it has a damaging effect on one’s liver just to speak it. I don’t ‘hate’ mushrooms but I choose not to eat them. If I’m having a bad hair day, I don’t ‘hate’ my hair.
So it is interesting that this message uses the word and energy so often. What is the meaning? What’s the point?
I think the energy of hatred is all around us and we need to raise our consciousness of the effects of living with that energy non-stop. We probably don’t even hear the word anymore with the sensitivity it deserves. And there are those who speak of that energy without ever using the word so we really have to lift our awareness into understanding that ‘hatred’ is what is meant by the language.
There are so many groups today who work for separation into ‘us’ and ‘them.’ They ‘other-ize’ groups that are different and somehow that makes the other lesser beings. Really? Is that being an evolving human being? Since when has a different religious belief meant that the other person is a lesser being?
Since there have been religions, I suppose. When I hear people spout political beliefs as if they have all the answers and anyone who disagrees with them is evil [yes, I’ve heard that] then I understand that demonizing the other has become a national, and maybe international, pastime.
The polite way to discuss politics is to talk about ‘negative ads’ but isn’t that a euphemism for spewing hatred? Or, if not spewing, then inciting? What have we come to as a human race if this is the behavior that we condone?
My dream is that human beings will find a way to cooperate rather than compete, to see that the good of the many includes the good of the individuals, and to raise young people to want to help others, not hurt or destroy them. Is that too much to ask?
I believe that human beings are capable of great things – great love, great art, great advances in understanding on many levels. What if the future held the possibility of a world where there was no hatred, no war, no ‘otherness’? What if the discovery of many other planets in the Universe caused us to join together as Earthlings and find a way to live together so that we could be a unified people in the Cosmos? How attractive does that sound to you?
We really are all one human being, the body of humanity living and breathing with many sets of lungs and many hearts and heads, but we are all connected in this many-membered organism. The sooner we learn and accept this the less ‘otherness’ will play in our lives. If we understand and feel our connection to all others perhaps we will not need to legislate against a group whose beliefs differ from ours. Maybe we can stop killing over jealousy or anger or hatred. Maybe we can learn to live and let live despite differences.
Remember the song, ‘What the World Needs Now Is Love, Sweet Love’? How long ago was that song popular? Are things really that different today?
Go about your day today spreading love. Don’t listen to words of hatred but turn the conversation around. Catch yourself if you are speaking vitriol and stop it. Listen to your children to see if they have created a mindset of otherness, if they see themselves as better than those who are different. Many teenagers, in fact, probably most, see themselves as different and they just want to fit in with their peers. Yet there are too many teen suicides because they encounter hatred for their differences. Please stop the hatred now.
Let’s all commit to being 21st Century human beings who love. Let’s counteract those who would spread hatred by accepting those who are different. And let’s look for ways to settle differences that don’t involve bloodshed.
We want to give Mother Earth the balance that she craves.
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