2nd Hand Advice

Why do we allow certian thoughts and behaviors to exist in our lives? Why do we give them value. Seems like the things that really matter come so infrequently, hardly given any reflection, any time. There are so many good things, noble pursuits, admirable ways, altrustic goals and objectives, yet sometimes we invest more time in, say, what’s on TV, the trivial.

We give too much value to the trivial. That probably is why the bible tells us to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added. All THOSE things are secondary to the things of God. We’re also admonished to focus our minds on things that are beautiful, lovely, noble, admirable, holy/pure, of good report, on the things above not on the things below.

How do we get there when we’ve spent a half century gravitating toward the trivial. How do you make the shift, find a new paradigm, a new way of thinking? How do you move away from the trivial, and toward the meaningful?

You do it through awareness…..awareness of how your past thinking has impacted your life. The more awareness, the more potential exists for your perspective to shift. You must learn to identify and reconstruct automatic thinking patterns and patterns of thought. You have to understand how those auto thoughts got shaped. Where they came from.

A pattern is something observed by you, that you pick up. When you pick it up, you repeat the pattern and it becomes you. If its a bad pattern, it may be holding you back or having a negative impact on your life. For example, you observed Dad express his displeasure with people talking at the commencement. He got up turned around and confronted. That is a pattern of behavior for him. I and my sister probably have been exposed to that pattern and have accepted that pattern as acceptable behavior. Therefore, that may explain why Deb and I can be short tempered or if pushed to a certian point, can get very emotional. At the same time, my passivenes could have come from observing my mother’s reaction to circumstances, which is quiet, humble, but can appear to be passive.

All that we are, are patterns of behavior that we have observed, absorbed and practiced. You will keep practicing those those patterns until you seek awareness, identify the patterns that are not you, that make you uncomfortable, then strive to change until you are free enough to define your world according to your views and your thoughts, and then to stand by them. At that point, you start being you.

You get to be comfortable with yourself when you no longer fear being challenged, rejected, when you no longer fear at all. You have to be comfortable with yourself. You have to be your own advocate. You must stand for something and for yourself. No matter what others think or whether your accepted or not, no matter the criticsim, you must stand by your convictions, and stick up for you.

This entry was posted on May 27, 2009 at 6:25 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.