Don't Take Anything Personally

Yesterday I began talking about the Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz. The second agreement seems difficult for us to understand and put into practice, yet I feel it holds an important key to happiness and peace. Do Not Take Anything Personally. Maybe we've believed something about ourselves all our lives because a person in authority told us, when we were very young, that it was so. I remember a teacher chastising me in 2nd grade about using the colors purple and pink together in a drawing. I thought I had no sense of style for years because of that. It wasn't about me at all, but about her. Perhaps someone laughed at you when you said or did something, and you still cringe when you say or do it. Maybe you were told you weren't athletic because you couldn't perform some feat in childhood, and so now you don't try to dance or bowl. I'm pretty certain each and every one reading this can think of something they have been told which has stuck with them, which they may have come to believe about themselves, some limiting belief they wish they didn't have. Good news! You CAN let it go! As my good friend, Jim Young, says: It's none of my business what anyone thinks of me. So whether you think you don't look good in green, or any other thing, just remember that when someone throws words at you, they probably feel that way themselves. And as the Four Agreements reminds us, "It's not your problem, it's theirs!" Keep on looking up, dear Friends...

"Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization. The mental fermentation has begun, and will continue until all errors of belief yield to understanding. Belief is changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless."