You know how “mindfulness” is a big deal right now?
Well, one of the things that helps me understand my reactions in a mindful way, is observing the times I can look at someone’s behaviour and feel compassionate towards them, compared to the instances where someone does something and I feel hugely offended/defensive/generally disproportionately annoyed.
Yesterday, I mentioned CJ’s take on annoying behaviour: “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves” and the truth is that we’re all mirrors for each other.
If someone does something that makes you feel irrationally sh1tty, it actually more reflects an aspect of yourself that you haven’t quite accepted or embraced. For example, I get impatient with people who throw their weight around and boast about all their achievements, but it’s not actually about them because often they’re doing it from a place of deep insecurity. Really, it all comes back to me: I know there’s a part of me that wishes that I could sell myself a bit better. If I accept this aspect of myself, then I’d look at the person who’s “boasting” differently- I’d think: “If they really knew their awesomeness, they wouldn’t need to broadcast it to the world, there’s a part of them that mustn’t have been properly acknowledged in the past.”
Anyway, it suffices to say that in life, the more we’re able to look at people’s behaviour and see that in most instances, it’s not coming from a deliberately irritating/mean place, the more open our hearts will be = beautiful 🙂
That’s Friday’s quasi-psychology lesson done and dusted for today – thank yohhh 🙂
