What's the lesson at hand?

At any given moment, each of us is faced with some perceived threat to what we think we know.  Each situation is itself a wise teacher, providing we are willing to recognize it.  Human beings will often rationalize their conclusions or begin to doubt.  What about you? 

Something is always affecting our senses.  We perceive as we do as the result of adopted conditioning.  To realize the world we initially see isn't what we think it is, is a key step to recognizing lessons that become available.  Its easy enough to say, " I wouldn't do that again" or, "I would see that coming next time," but you can also benefit in the now.

For example, if a parent grounds a child as a form of punishment, that parent could decide to be more or less strict the next time around.  Yet, that parent could also choose to reflect on the reflex to judge and control, and choose to communicate differently.  Opportunities to learn lessons about ourselves crop up all the time.  Yet, do we listen? 

Consider a scenario where your partner loses a job or forgets a special occasion.  What is your initial reaction? Do you reject and reprimand or love and forgive? What do your choices tell you about the attention or disregard you give your own inner wounds?

Who could forget that memorable period at the office? Another case where you didn't get the promotion or responsibilities expected.  You may still hear echos of self-destructive comments in your head, "I didn't deserve it anyway" or, "They don't appreciate me!" 

Aside from that, you can't ignore your recent fender bender.  You may try to convince yourself you weren't paying enough attention to the road.  In your head, you fervently deny you were imagining an x-spouse as the target or some other unresolved calamity.  

And the unexpected break-in of your home? Its easy to say now it would be in your interest to have copies of key documents in places other than on your personal laptop. Why do you keep questioning what you didn't do? Shift instead to focus on what you can.

Its easy to begin to discern the common reaction.  You focus on something other than yourself, your pain, suffering and disillusionment. This relates to situations other than those that seem to bother you now.  The real reasons behind your feelings and behavior often stay hidden.  You choose not to face them.  It may seem easier to project lingering discomfort and anger on something or someone else.  You always have other options.

The lesson at hand invites you to question why you turn away from your true self.  Acknowledging and accepting it is the key to peace, contentment and wavering love.  The situations you create and experience are clues to how you truly feel. No matter what the situation, you always have the choice to look inside yourself.  How can you shift your mind to help you grow and expand awareness? When will you feel grateful for all you are?

Experience "the real thing"

Some people believe they sense everything in one of three ways;  in terms of how they endure perceived voids, in terms of how they act to fill those voids or, in terms of how they choose to experience a real thing that was lost.  Can you observe without judging? 

Self-growth is grounded in the idea that you have been cut off from some part of yourself, and would benefit from rediscovering and reconnecting with that.  Its meaningful to ask yourself whether you discern voids in your life, and if so, how you choose to fill them.

Its common to fill voids with false feelings, lies and, beliefs adopted to fit in with an environment.  Have you learned to see yourself through what is missing?  Your personality isn't who you really are.  Retrace your steps.  Return to your authentic self.  Get back to your essence.  Memories of situations form your voids.  Will you dissolve them?  

Extract the extraneous

How many people do you know who can't seem to figure out why they don't have the life they want? These same people are unaware that what they think they want is really what their peers and their external influences dictate. Is something wrong with this picture? Would you rather not decide for yourself what contributes to your happiness and make more proactive choices?

When people other than you dictate your reasons for happiness, they design what they think you desire, but they don't really know you. Only you can truly evolve to recognize what makes you feel happy. When you finally have the job you have been desiring, all the money you want and are the envy of your peers, you will still sense a mysterious hole. Perhaps your ego has been driving your desires rather than your heart? When your heart is at the helm, you set a course to make the most honorable and righteous choices.

Some people assume being happy means being the centre of attention, having certain material possessions, or something that evokes  jealousy in others. When you are happy inside, you are making choices that lead you to feel good without harming others. When you refuse to succomb to fear, judgment or doubt, then you find the money, the conditions and the people to perpetuate your state of inner happiness. This will flow effortlessly.  You realize you have everything you need and always did.

When it comes right down to it, you are not a porter, so stop carrying other people's baggage. Discard what you don't need. Extract the extraneous thoughts and feelings which are in your head but were never yours. Explore why you chose to adopt certain points of view. What did you gain already? What will you gain from accepting that people will not always react the way you expect? What can you learn about your own core hopes and dreams by filtering out the confusion and arrogance that your ego created?

Discover the wisdom behind judgment

You may have heard that anyone who is judgmental or critical to other people is also unconsciously judgmental to themselves. If we want to move beyond the habit of judging people's presumed thoughts and beahvior, we need to first work on our own self-judging. 

To learn to stop judging ourselves and instead, to start accepting all that we are, means we will start accepting other people for all that they are.  Giving up the impulse to reject brings you to a level of new freedom.  How you see yourself reflects who you seek to be.

You always sense what is best for you, but you do not always listen.  You do not always choose to find the answers within yourself because you create fear and permit it to control you.  When will you be ready to redefine what is best for you where you are ?

If you choose not to have experiences you think you want, you choose to believe you will not realize dreams.  If you decide a vision or goal is beyond reach, then you choose to forget you have the answer to create the life you want.  That is all just self-defeating.

Remind yourself nothing is wrong with your choices.  Some will serve to promote your growth and others will not.  Yet, each one offers a clue to your inner wisdom.  Greater self-awareness is the underlying motive for choices.  Decide to rediscover yourself.

Learning to love yourself unconditionally and to resist fear will disolve any conditioned desire to judge. If you choose not to love yourself, then you choose not to love others.  Choose instead to nurture relationships that you have been blocking for too long already.

4 Tips to discern more about yourself through blogging

The more you read about blogs and blogging strategies, the more you may think about how similar strategies could assist you in different ways. Inspired by Tina Su of ThinkSimpleNow.com  who wrote a great guest blog on Problogger, and also inspired by ideas offered by Jason Ivers on  A Miracle A Day.com, I decided to prompt you to ask some of your own questions to empower you to develop dreams in your own way:

1) Why are you blogging? Lots of people blog to pass the time.  You may do it when you're bored, daydreaming or, to satisfy a desire to learn.  Some of us blog to connect with like-minded people, to search for answers, to obtain advice or direction or, as a means to compensate for emotional voids.  You may be driven to forge relationships or to postpone another reality.  Probe yourself with questions to get the ball rolling.  As you figure out why you blog, its easier to notice what isn't working and decide to change.

2) What are your blog goals?   Sometimes people start a blog to narrow their life focus.  They may blog about anything and everything, and gradually realize they prefer discussing fewer subjects.  This can help clarify an identity or purpose.  If your purpose is soul-searching or venting, blogging can be an effective, emotional outlet. Yet, if your main purpose is something else, like, to inform, to increase your traffic, build a client base or, to promote particular services, then you can see how reflecting and focusing your motives would help you immensely.  Brainstorming is a fantastic starting point.   

3) How does a blog teach you about yourself?  How you choose to contribute or present blog info reflects your priorities and offers a glimpse into your personality. Are you goal-oriented? Ambitious? Confused? In-transition? Does the spirit of a teacher emerge in your soul? Do you have a particular audience or community's interests in mind? Its not only what you instinctively write that reveals things about you, but also the kinds of readers your energy invites into your life.  As your blog intentions become clearer, readers are more likely to gravitate and benefit.  People readily reconnect when drawn to a threads of interest (or other appealing things on offer).  As you sense blogs are a means of raising self-awareness, you gain your own momentum.  

4) Who are your readers?  Although blog visitors don't always leave comments, you can progressively gain insight about the kinds of people who visit and revisit your blog.  Consider systems that help you compile statistics.  You can determine details like which sites link your blog, which key words and articles are most popular, you can obtain geographic information abut your visitors and subscribers.  You can offer questionnaires and suggestion boxes to generate feedback.  It all depends on what you want.

So, the more you discern through blogging, the clearer you grasp what you want.  To get what you want, structure your blog to help others get what they want.  Simplicity means getting to know yourself in ways that become mutually-beneficial.  Now, run with it.