We hear this advice all the time: “Don’t take it personally!” What does it mean to “NOT take things personally?”
Isn’t everything personal that is related to us? Yes, in the sense that we are the receivers of information. We hear, see, smell and feel what’s happening.
A MATTER OF PERCEPTION
But the real question is, what is it that we are perceiving? What information are we receiving? After all, every bit of our life is only a matter of perception and subsequent interpretation.
If someone is pointing a finger at us in blame, do we automatically feel guilty? Or, can we feel compassion toward the one who seems to feel the need to blame? Do we feel small and take the blame, or can we find it in our hearts to forgive and honor the situation without falling into a negative vibration? Switching from receiving negative energy to remembering compassion and forgiveness is a big and worthwhile step.
FORGIVE TO HEAL
Forgiveness is an amazing healer. One of my favorite stories was one a client related recently. Her Mom, who had been sexually abused by her husband’s brother, daily tended her brother-in-law as he was dying of liver cancer years later. Without any expectation, she heard apologies from him before he passed. He freed himself of his guilt by asking for forgiveness. She had forgiven him long ago.
COURAGEOUS TRANSFORMATIONS
There are many stories of Auschwitz survivors who were able to unburden their hearts from horrific experiences. Here’s a heartwarming story of Eva Kor, who, at the age of 10, was taken to Auschwitz to be experimented on by Dr. Mengele. Fifty years later she returned to Auschwitz to forgive her tormentor. She shares, “Forgiveness is a seed for peace.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxqQbXoDtIc. As both cases indicate, it’s never too late!
When I facilitate the Empowerment Process, I often encounter courageous transformations. It does take courage to move out of old habits that seem to have served us in the past.
TRANSFORMING REACTIONS TO NON-PERSONAL EVENTS
Here are a couple of examples where clients felt things personally even when the event did not directly involve them. In reaction to larger scale disasters such as the 9/11 falling of the Twin Towers, or the 2004 monstrous, Indonesian Tsunami flood, some people felt an emotional and even physical response that continued to plague them. When they were able to shift their personal energy constriction, they could truly feel the healing influence for themselves as well as to those directly affected, those left behind.
Some people project and take on a feeling that they’ve determined others must be going through – grief, sadness, anxiety. The inability to stop thinking and feeling about their friend’s response to a tragedy, which may or may not be true, becomes a compulsion.
When people come for help to relieve their own discomfort, the healing is not only a self-healing experience, but then provides a much better opportunity to support someone else. Compassion and love go a longer way when we don’t need to deal with our own pain.
RELEASING ENERGY CONSTRICTIONS WITH EP
With Empowerment Process facilitations, permanent shifts in the energetic system create a new reality. Beliefs and feelings that caused inner strife are transformed to a new, strengthening perspective. By releasing physically-held energy constrictions, one can rest easy, in mind, body and soul.
It is important to remove the “need” to take things personally, as well as habits of defending ourselves. As we let go of the ego’s attachment to our responses, we are uplifted. We take care of ourselves first, and then we are automatically better able to assist others in their journey. We want to share positive feelings and light energy just through our presence.
ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY TO CHANGE
Whenever we take offense, feel angry, defensive, blaming, or negative in any way, we are preventing our own evolution for positive change. Recognizing, accepting and taking responsibility for our inner reactions will automatically change our behavior. What a gift we give to ourselves. “The goal of healing is nothing but picking up your negative trash by the positive vibration of a completely benevolent thought.”
My goal in teaching the Empowerment Process workshops is to help people discover opportunities for positive transformation that promote inner and outer well-being. Personal evolution is a powerful means to support Universal, positive change. Eckert Tolle says, “When you realize it’s not personal, there’s no reason to act as if it were.”