I met a new friend recently. During the conversation, she was saying how she recognised that she often passed judgement on other people, before she had met them, based on the opinions of others. She was not sure if she should do that, but seemed to be stuck in that pattern. I wanted to explore that with her, but just could not find the words. Thinking about it now, I know why, and I also know what I would have said. Which is: "It's very nice that you want to show loyalty to your friends by siding with them, but do you always know if your friends are right? The person that appears to be mean that you are judging - do you know what made them like that? Perhaps they had something really horrible happen to them in the past and their behaviour now is a defense mechanism. Or a cry for help -'I'm in pain'. Who are we to judge another anyway? Has our own behaviour been exemplary? Imagine if we were slower to judge others and quicker to show kindness and compass...
I recently heard of a book called "Living Your Yoga" by Judith Hanson Lasater. It caught my attention as I'd recently come to the awareness that my life is my yoga - my spiritual practice. It is occurring every single moment, not just on Sunday mornings. In every moment of every day, I get a chance to practice kindness and respect and compassion and non-judgement and non-violence and gratitude. I get to remember Who I Really Am and show how I can express that and become even more. I get to align myself with my Faith in a greater power and Trust in that guidance. In doing so, I get to feel strong and empowered with a deep peace underlying my actions. For the most part...I am still learning to incorporate this and so I do slip into old conditionings some times. I thought about buying the book. But decided against it. I'm sure there are some great tips in it, but it would be written from the authors point of view and right now, I'm Living MY Yoga. Are you livin...
How many times do you get caught up thinking of yourself as one thing as defined by what you do...for example, a parent, a plumber, a banker, etc. And then you get confused because you feel like you're not just that, you're also a son, a sister, a friend, a member of a sports or social group, someone who has to take care of the family finances, do the maintenance on the car, clean the house, do volunteer work, etc. We are all so busy these days! Yet sometimes think we can only focus on one of these sides of ourselves at a time. What if you thought of yourself as a diamond? So many different sides, yet it takes all of them to capture the light to make it shine so very brightly.. ..that is you! Don't try to limit yourself with one label. Know that it is good to have different sides of yourself. You don't have to show just one at a time. Let yourself move through those different aspects of yourself as if you were imagining moving a diamond in the light, watching yours...
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