This is a new mantra of mine. It took awhile (31 years) to finally feel natural to say/think/feel but now that I’ve got it, boy howdy, am I keeping it alive!
I’ve got a co-worker – we’ve all got coworkers – who seems to enjoy spending his energy in proving other people wrong. Things usually turn out the way they should (sometimes even the way I want them to) but it just takes a little longer because we must all give this man space to do his thing and argue every step of the way. I find this waste of time to be quite frustrating and often let it/him be a bee in my bonnet which upsets my serenity. My sparkle, if you will.
I was told something years ago by a dear friend who is an expert at the line of work I had just begrudgingly entered, “You control your sparkle, Rachel.” That was the last thing I wanted to hear at the time but 3 years later here I sit: sparkling up a storm.
Now, I catch myself wanting to get involved when the opportunity presents itself. Just now, in fact, I consciously stopped myself from responding to something that was better to leave alone. The growth, friends, is that I did leave it alone. He is welcome to spend his energy checking and double-checking and asking for things that are either impossible or incorrect. I have no choice when it comes to how his energy is spent. Where I do have a choice is where my energy goes.
I went to a lovely Kirtan and meditation this week and, since then, have found myself much more able to let things drop. In my meditations of late I have had two dominating visualizations: The first is a body of water with a lotus flower and a flame. I am the flower, the flame is my spiritual condition, and the water is the world around me. One can be upset and cause another to flicker but each can also remain still in spite of the activity of the others. The world can be in motion yet my flower and flame can remain steady. At work, I find my flame on the edge of flickering (especially during and after interactions with this particular person) but what I have gained through meditation is the choice of how much I am affected. My flame can remain still on an active body of water. I have a choice in how my energy is spent.
The other imagery that has come to me is that we are all one. Not that we’re all similar but that we are actually all one. At an atomic level I am made of the same stuff as the stars – the same awesome and beautiful power and energy that brightens the universe is alive in each cell of my body. And in the chair upon which I sit. And in that man at my job.
Further, I submit that there is no space between me and another object, only molecules I can’t see. When I look at it that way, with no space between me and something else, I am merely an extension of something else, and others are an extension of me. I am no different from this man; I am part of him and he of me. As much as I sometimes wish he weren’t, he is. He is in my consciousness and a part of my spiritual condition and therefore a part of me. And so I love him the way I love myself. I remember being scared that I was going to make a mistake and how intolerable that made me. I didn’t get thrown away and neither shall he.
Realizing that I do not have to engage in every whim of another has also allowed me to stop engaging in all of my own silly whims. If I get stuck in a train of thought that isn’t doing me any good, I can simply let it go. I don’t always, but I can. This hands-off approach has afforded me the energy to do the things that bring me more joy. I think it’s working. I think I’ll try to keep it up…
Namasté
I’ve got a co-worker – we’ve all got coworkers – who seems to enjoy spending his energy in proving other people wrong. Things usually turn out the way they should (sometimes even the way I want them to) but it just takes a little longer because we must all give this man space to do his thing and argue every step of the way. I find this waste of time to be quite frustrating and often let it/him be a bee in my bonnet which upsets my serenity. My sparkle, if you will.
I was told something years ago by a dear friend who is an expert at the line of work I had just begrudgingly entered, “You control your sparkle, Rachel.” That was the last thing I wanted to hear at the time but 3 years later here I sit: sparkling up a storm.
Now, I catch myself wanting to get involved when the opportunity presents itself. Just now, in fact, I consciously stopped myself from responding to something that was better to leave alone. The growth, friends, is that I did leave it alone. He is welcome to spend his energy checking and double-checking and asking for things that are either impossible or incorrect. I have no choice when it comes to how his energy is spent. Where I do have a choice is where my energy goes.
I went to a lovely Kirtan and meditation this week and, since then, have found myself much more able to let things drop. In my meditations of late I have had two dominating visualizations: The first is a body of water with a lotus flower and a flame. I am the flower, the flame is my spiritual condition, and the water is the world around me. One can be upset and cause another to flicker but each can also remain still in spite of the activity of the others. The world can be in motion yet my flower and flame can remain steady. At work, I find my flame on the edge of flickering (especially during and after interactions with this particular person) but what I have gained through meditation is the choice of how much I am affected. My flame can remain still on an active body of water. I have a choice in how my energy is spent.
The other imagery that has come to me is that we are all one. Not that we’re all similar but that we are actually all one. At an atomic level I am made of the same stuff as the stars – the same awesome and beautiful power and energy that brightens the universe is alive in each cell of my body. And in the chair upon which I sit. And in that man at my job.
Further, I submit that there is no space between me and another object, only molecules I can’t see. When I look at it that way, with no space between me and something else, I am merely an extension of something else, and others are an extension of me. I am no different from this man; I am part of him and he of me. As much as I sometimes wish he weren’t, he is. He is in my consciousness and a part of my spiritual condition and therefore a part of me. And so I love him the way I love myself. I remember being scared that I was going to make a mistake and how intolerable that made me. I didn’t get thrown away and neither shall he.
Realizing that I do not have to engage in every whim of another has also allowed me to stop engaging in all of my own silly whims. If I get stuck in a train of thought that isn’t doing me any good, I can simply let it go. I don’t always, but I can. This hands-off approach has afforded me the energy to do the things that bring me more joy. I think it’s working. I think I’ll try to keep it up…
Namasté
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