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Evolve: Practices for
Integrating the Spirit (being) and Daily Living (doing).
Inspiration: "Whatever
you fight, you strengthen, and what you resist, persists". (Eckhart
Tolle, A New Earth)
How to Practice this in Daily Living: This is
a case where observation of your own thoughts and actions can lead to wisdom and
awareness. Picture these three situations and relate them to your own
experiences.
(1) Resistance: Your boss criticizes you. You immediately
get angry or hurt. You may say or do something to retaliate or prove the
criticism is not true. Then you think about it, ruminate on it, worry
about it for days or weeks to come. So what happened? You resisted
the criticism. You took action, probably unwise action because of your
emotional reaction. You continued the criticism for many hours (most
likely) over the next few days/weeks/months/years. Now your boss has added
one more thing to criticize, your perceived overreaction to his or her comment
and your inability to let it go. Additionally, you were unable to take in
the criticism, examine it for truth and then change or let it go. What you
resisted, did indeed persist.
(2) Resistance: Your boss criticizes you. You immediately get
angry or hurt, but you are smart enough to know to keep it to yourself.
You ask him or her to tell you more and you promise to work on it. Inside
you are seething, maybe calling him or her names, or maybe you're wondering if
you're going to be fired or demoted. Resistance shows up in many
ways. You continue to worry about this, incessantly think about it for
days or weeks to come. What you resist does persist.
(3) Non-resistance: Your boss criticizes you. You listen
attentively with your higher self (your witness or observer). You examine
the essence of what was said, rather than who was saying it or how it was
said. You learn from this or you let it go if no part was true for
you. You thank your boss and recognize that this message came from his ego
and may be more about him or her than about you. You make a change
if necessary and you then let it go completely, not giving it another thought.
Which do you choose? What works best for you?
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