What is it about this situation that bothers me? What is it about this person’s words or deed that rubbed me the wrong way?
As I continue to be consistent with the various spiritual practices I have adopted in order to grow closer to God and increase my peace and joy of life, I have learned to live from the heart as opposed to living from the mind. Obviously, living from the heart means that our words and deeds come from a place of love, while living from the mind means to be driven by the ego. I cannot pinpoint the exact moment the conversion happened but I can say with much certainty that the conversion occurred as a result of regular prayer, meditation, journaling and scripture reading. Since this conversion, I notice that I do not react so quickly but “sit” with whatever it is that is causing me to lose my peace, to sit with whatever it is that is causing me to move back into my mind. What I have realized by doing this is the thing that is bothering me is simply my PERCEPTION and not necessarily reality.
Think about the things that cause you to become annoyed, hurt, angry or any other negative emotion. Now sit with it for a while and ask yourself, why does this bother me so much? I can almost guarantee you that the reason it bothers you so much is because you have created a drama in your mind based on assumptions NOT reality. Our challenge in life is to remain in peace by sitting with our emotions long enough to understand from where they stem and more importantly to allow the people and situations in our lives the space to simply be without feeling the need to change them. Are you up for the challenge?
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