Spiritual Work: Change Your Perspective II

Take the Perspective of Others by Considering the Context

Consider this -
Maybe the last person who was rude to you did not upset you because they are a mean person.

Too often in our daily interactions with people, particularly if they were unpleasant, we attribute fault to the person themselves:  “They forgot my order because they are dumb/bad at their job/don’t like me,” etc.

Did you know we also tend to attribute our own mistakes not as  faults but arising out of the situation?  For instance: "I wouldn’t have made that mistake if it wasn’t for the fact that X happened."

The tendency to attribute the behaviour of others to personality and our own to a situation is known in psychology as attribution bias. Attribution bias occurs through peripheral processing, or unconscious automatic processing.  This is a type of information processing our brains do to make sense of the extensive amount of information coming in through our senses all the time.  Instead of analyzing every bit consciously, overtime our brains take our past experiences and create short cuts that help us understand a situation or individual very quickly.  Because the situation that lead to an individual's behaviour is often hidden to us, many people have taught themselves to understand motives as inherent to the person.

There are, however, those that tend to give others the benefit of the doubt more often than not.  Although this route of processing takes more effort, it has been shown that people that make this tiny extra effort tend to be happier overall and are generally more psychologically healthy. 

You may not be able to imagine the context to everyone’s behaviour, many peoples actions seem completely unwarranted to us. However, remember that just like you, they have a context. That may not excuse their behaviour, but it is good for conscientiousness to know and be aware that people are not “good” “bad” “stupid” “ignorant” “mean” people just because you saw them act that way. Some of us have lost sight of our light, but there really is no “better” or “worse” only perspective.

The Challenge

Next time you have an unpleasant interaction, a disagreement or argument, take the other person’s perspective.  I know you’ve heard it a thousand times, imagine if you were the other person, how would you feel. But its really works! Especially in a moment when things are heated and the last thing you want to do is see things from the other person’s view because 1. they appear not to give a damn how you feel 2. you are too busy trying to show them how they made you feel/hurt your feelings. But, this is when taking the other person’s view is the most important. I have experienced the greatest amount of growth in my relationships when I perform this at the height of least feeling like it.

The result:  Anger melts and you are solution oriented almost instantaneously.  This allows you to learn from the interaction, which is the purpose of interactions in the first place. 

What are your thoughts?  Do you find putting yourself in the other person's shoes is good for consciousness? 

Spiritual Work: Change your Perspective I

Take a moment to consider how everything and everyone is connected

We all have those moments -

• When others are rude or inconsiderate
• When you witness extreme disparities of wealth in those around you
• In a conversation where cultural differences, differences in opinion or understanding leads you to question whether you are on the same wavelength as your conversation partners

Do you find yourself, in moments like these, questioning how we can all be one?

Spiritual teachings emphasize everything and everyone is connected. The unified field theory, M-Theory and the view the universe is a hologram provide a scientific basis for a connectedness of all things. Thus, we can come to know intellectually we are all one. But how can we feel like this?

Well, the next time you have a moment like the ones above, where you feel isolated, different, or unconnected, challenge yourself to see everyone as one.

Oneness Visualizations

 

Light Body/Soul Connection

Try it while commuting to work in the morning, for instance.  Everyone is on their separate missions to their various jobs, (no one minds their own business and is as isolated as when in their morning commute mode).
Here I might picture us all as part of the body of the source field. I try to visualize the energy that connects all our light bodies/souls together. I find after doing this, I am more engaged with others. I smile more, find the time to hold the door for others a little longer, am just a little more patient in the line up at the coffee shop.

See the System

You can also picture yourself and the people around you as a system, an ecosystem that provides and supports consciousness or the subtle energy connection to spirit. To enhance this system you might consider your individual impact, how you can choose to enhance or degrade the level of consciousness that all energy flows to and from?

For instance, take an ordinary decision you make during your day, maybe its what to have for lunch or where to get your coffee. Maybe it matters to you where your coffee came from, whether it is fair trade, or maybe it doesn’t.  Maybe it matters to you whether you are eating a lunch made with organic ingredients or sustainably produced products, maybe it doesn’t.  I would argue the very act of making these considerations, just thinking about where that burger meat came from, will help you become more aware and awake in this life.

If you are interested in raising worldwide consciousness, doing this kind of work is a great start as it increases the level and connectedness you have to your own decision making power and the impact that has to the greater consciousness field.

So, the next time you want to purchase an item of clothing, consider whether you know how the fabric was produced, think of the plants, animals and people involved in putting the material in your hands.

Do you feel okay about the process?
Do you wish something was different, what would you change?
Is there an alternative that fits your values better, is it worth pursuing that instead?

Our products and services do not just land in our laps, there is a huge process that brings these into our hands. By becoming more in-tuned with the vary notion that there was a process, and not taking it for granted, I believe you will naturally move more in synch with your own core values. The more inline with your values and beliefs you become, the more aligned you are with your connection to the spirit and source of all. This strengthening of connections leads to higher consciousness as consciousness is the awareness of these connections.

What are your thoughts? How do you preform spiritual work?