I feel inspired and enthused knowing that there are other people who are wanting to choose a higher set of behavioral responses alongside me. Thank you for all the great responses from last post, all were excellent reminders and ideas. The one that keeps surfacing is this~ Never take things personally.
Why DO we take things personally? Well, because honestly, we live in a world focused on our individual selves and in fact, we are the center of the universe (if it is infinite in all directions around us). So it is quite natural to see everything that is happening through our own personal perceptions. I guess that is the deal right there, isn’t it?
Let’s use the analogy of a theater. Imagine you are on stage, thoroughly engaged in your role, lights on you, you can’t see the audience, after a while you forget it’s a play. So when the antagonist comes in, you are true to your role and react vehemently. BUT imagine you could see and remember it is a play (and everyone is there for a reason, you wrote the play, remember?) For example, the lighting guy up in the rafters can see the actors as well as the audience and can even see the entire set. That guy has the better perspective, not bought into the antagonist or protagonist, he’s just watching it unfold. Is that how we can remember to not take things personally?
Bottom line, everyone is living in their own drama and often they cast you as their antagonist unbeknownst to you. Or their savior or they don’t have any role for you at all in their current act. You might feel rejected, or indignant or any number of things. But if we can keep a higher perspective of our own plays and remember seeing it that way helps us to meet and learn our own lessons and not be distracted by other people’s plays and lessons (which we have already learned and it would be so much easier to school them than look at our own stuff).
Can we watch other people’s dramas unfold as if they had nothing to do with us, neutrally? Can we watch our OWN dramas from this place too? Something worth trying. And remember, what other people think of you is none of your business!
