This post is a follow-up to Hope’s Wisdom Dialogues Episode Called “Seeing Past Perception“, written by Gail Florence.
When a situation occurs, there is always this question whether it is a blessing or curse, a boon or bane or a gift or learning. We can see having these dichotomies imply how much we interpret our surroundings and experiences. We tend to think something can be bad or good for us. Whichever seems to progress, people believe it was because of the power of the mind or thoughts. So, we can hear commentaries like, “I practiced positive visualization so, now, I reached this achievement,” or “I always thought bad things will happen and now, I failed my exam.” It even comes to a point where personalities are labelled and declared as, “I am always a negative person,” or “She is so positive all the time.”
We can also examine in ourselves what kinds of thoughts we tend to put on replay in our minds, and what interpretations we tend to claim as true. The reason we believe a thought is real is it has a feeling attached to it. For example, when we see someone as annoying, we believe she is truly so because we feel annoyance, too. Another is, when a dog passes by, we believe it is frightening because we feel frightened as well. Lastly, when we fail at an interview, we believe we are unskilled because we feel inadequate. Then, a blame-game occurs and the negativity ripples.
It is okay to choose it...
So, is it about choosing a positive outlook in life? It is okay to choose it. However, it is more on diluting the value we put into our thoughts and just feeling what we feel whenever a situation comes up. It is how negative feelings become acknowledged rather than denied or suppressed. We recognize annoyance, hurt, fear, anger, sadness and the like to see what’s causing them. We can ask ourselves, “Why is this anger arising from me?”
However, pointing our fingers to other people or a particular situation as the cause of the anger is just buying into the surface perceptions. We need to be willing to go beneath the surface reasons in order to see what’s causing the emotion.
So, when we get angry in front of someone, we can watch the angry feeling and see how it flows out. The moment of seeing is also the moment for healing. Healing it means we are recognizing we are just projecting the anger by believing in angry-inducing thoughts and no one is truly making us mad. Likewise, when we find other people judging, disrespecting, or getting pissed at us, we can heal it by seeing what it is for. We can stop believing others are victimizing us and make a choice for the truth.
Any upset feeling arising like anger, fear, inadequacy or sadness is a blessing. It is an opportunity for us to see what thoughts we are holding against ourselves and we are just making them up. It is like a miracle taking place because recognizing and undoing them changes the way we look at ourselves and the world.
Love is always present and waiting to be recognized again...
In reality, there is only love within us. It is always present and waiting for us to recognize it again. When we see through the eyes of love, we can laugh at any thought nudging in our minds and admit we are just making them up. We can also acknowledge positive and negative feelings and see what’s causing them. So, when there is an upset feeling, we can go back to the truth of our nature after recognizing what the feeling is for. We can also extend calm, joy and love at any moment to others sharing energy with us.