Am I doing what I came here to do?
The question has many different categories and I could answer “Yes or No” to for a given area. I choose to find ways to replace the fear with trust in the categories where I have answered “No”.
As I live my life choosing to see through the illusions of fear, the results is a greater sense of self-appreciation. The words, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” when rearranged to say, “Love thyself as thy neighbor,” causes more loving thought processes to occur. Loving yourself more allows you to love your neighbor more.
Self Appreciation
What is the underlying fear associated with self-appreciation? The author Marianne Williamson, in her 1992 book, Return to Love, answers this question.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.
Am I doing enough?
Choosing to be loving person in as many moments as possible is how I evaluate myself. I choose to live my life from the monkey story below.
The Hundredth Monkey
When you walk into a room that is dark and you turn on the light, the room becomes illuminated. Darkness does not go into the light, light goes into the darkness. This is basic physics. The words, “Love conquers all” can be explained same way. What if your thoughts of love and peace were vastly more powerful than your thoughts of hatred and anger?
In the book, The Hundredth Monkey, by Ken Keyes Jr., he discusses how thoughts of one connect with the thoughts of another. This study of monkeys was done on an island. They were given sweet potatoes on the beach. One monkey figured out that by washing the potato in the salt water, it removed the grit, added salt, and increased the flavor.
That monkey taught another monkey to wash sweet potatoes. He taught another, who taught another, and so on. Soon all the monkeys on the island were washing potatoes. When the "hundredth" monkey learned to wash potatoes, suddenly, spontaneously, and mysteriously, monkeys on other islands, with no physical contact with the potato-washing group, started washing potatoes! This phenomenon shows that when enough of us are aware of something, all of us become aware of it.
Washing potatoes at a restaurant
There is a server at a local a restaurant I frequent who is a loving person. She interacts with the customers in ways that is beyond the normal customer service. One day a lady came into the restaurant and was out-of-sorts. As this server stopped by to check on needs such as drinks, she interacted in a loving and supportive way. Six months later the lady returned to have lunch. She was in a completely different emotional state. As a thank you for the interaction on the first visit, the server was given a handmade afghan. The customer never came back.
It was this same server who introduced me to another lady customer who had been grieving the loss of her daughter for nine years. Using the NLP grief resolution process, I guided the lady to the end of the grieving. The next morning the lady awoke without the feelings of loss. Simple acts of love that impact positively the lives others inspire me to evaluate my interactions with others. I love stories like these for they show the power of a loving perspective.
Who Knows?
Maybe my thinking is not truth of factual based. For me, the above words have inspired me to do things that allow me to think from a possibility and love perspective.
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