An insane curiosity, social media, the hunger to become more and the list goes on and on. All of these things help us do some of the most amazing things in life, but they can hurt us just as much in return.
None of things need to be labelled good or bad, because it all comes down to being aware of how and when we use them.
A blessing and a curse, a double edged sword, A boon and bane (yeah I never heard of this either) however we put it, we all understand that some things in life that we believe are a good for us can also hurt us.
Just like our strengths and weaknesses can end up having the opposite results for us if we don’t understand the situation we are trying to use them in.
If we understand this then we can be more aware of the things we do and have always done and ask ourselves, is this helping me or hurting me?
Being a blessing and a curse also relates to things that happen to us.
We have all had things happen to us where we thought it was the worst possible event in the world, but then it ended up having the complete opposite effect.
Maybe it was we had an accident and could no longer play the sport we loved but then we discovered that we had an even greater love for coaching the sport. The accident was a curse and a blessing.
There is a Taoist story that I found really helps me understand this:
There was an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbours came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically. “May be,” the farmer replied.
The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbours exclaimed. “May be,” replied the old man.
The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbours again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. “May be,” answered the farmer.
The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbours congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. “May be,” said the farmer.
The sooner we can all understand that there are many things in life that are outside of our control and not all of the things that happen to us will be good, then the sooner we will put our energy into the part we can control, which is ourselves. Our thoughts, our actions and our beliefs, and that these are the only true thing that we can control.
Once we understand this then we will start to look at every situation in a different light.
The hard part of all of this is understanding whether we truly self-aware of our behaviours and situations.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
“By becoming self-aware, you gain ownership of reality; in becoming real, you become the master of both inner and outer life.”
– Deepak Chopra
How self-aware are you?
Stay Ready,
Kris Mac
