Tag Archive | compassion

Making Mistakes: How to Embrace Them! Part 1 of 5 Series

How many of us have made a mistake in our lives?

Every one of us! One of the most comforting things I have learned from studying literature that spans centuries is that I have come to understand one invaluable lesson: whatever error or mistake we make; someone, somewhere in history has already made it already!

As part of the human race we share a number of important things:

1. We are made of blood, muscle and bones.

2. We feel sadness, anger, love, jealousy, joy and many other emotions.

3. We are mortal.

4. We are all connected.

5. We ALL make mistakes.

Avril Lavigne sings in her song, Complicated, “Chill out, what you yellin’ for?
Lay back, it’s all been done before,” so we can comfort ourselves in the fact that whatever we do to err in this life; it’s already been done at least once – probably millions of times!

How do we deal with the fact that we are not perfect and that we do make mistakes?

1. We need to embrace our darkness – that part of ourselves that is quite capable – if not expert – at making mistakes.

2. We need to own up to our mistakes the best we can and be determined to learn from them; so that we do not repeat them and we are able to approach the same situation in a much better and clearer perspective next time.

3. We need to remember that what our mistakes teach us most of all is this: To not judge others when they make mistakes and to demonstrate compassion to others in their mistakes.

4. We need to learn to demonstrate that same compassion for ourselves – that is the ONLY way to be more compassionate to our fellow human.

5. We need to learn to forgive ourselves when we make a mistake and not ruminate about it – thinking about our error will indefinitely lead to more mistakes as we will not be focused on improving, but on our fear of faltering again, and therefore, we will re-create more mistakes.

Next Post: Our Ugly Side – How to Embrace It!

Related Articles:

Making Mistakes to Enhance Self-Esteem and Improve Performance http://www.excelatlife.com/articles/mistakes.htm

How to Bounce back from a Mistake: http://99u.com/tips/7089/How-To-Bounce-Back-From-A-Big-Mistake

Try Again by Aaliyah: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjnbozivsEo

L.O.V.E – lights, camera, action! – Part 1 of Top 5 Ways to Change the World

Jan3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-U0pMpYFJY (A wonderful link to watch and listen to after reading the blog – to remind and encourage you that you can be sure whatever you do in action for someone; the Universe will see to it that it will be contagious! Trust in that!)

In my blog # 18, I mentioned that love is not a feeling, but an action. You may have heard this before, but many of us have a difficult time getting our mind around this idea because often we are convinced we feel “love” somewhere in our bodies.

We certainly feel in our bodies, a response to a thought about love. For example, imagine in this moment something or someone to which you feel love. What is the feeling? Where in your body do you feel it?

It is often a feeling of excitement like butterflies in our stomachs or a warm feeling in our hearts or maybe if it is romantic love, it is a longing to touch or be touched or kissed by that person. These are physiological responses to thoughts, which is wonderful as it means that we can not only train our minds to think about love; we can also help our bodies to simulate these feelings whenever we choose.

Sometimes when I simply gaze at a picture of an ocean or look down at my beautiful aqua-blue ring that reminds me of the ocean, I feel a warm sense in my chest and an uplifting feeling. I do not necessarily have to be standing on a beach in Cuba to feel this type of “loving” feeling – our minds are wonderful entities in that even when we imagine a person, event, or situation that we associate with happiness, our bodies react as if these experiences are real.

Herein lies the key to acting in love and thus, creating more love in our lives and consequently, attracting more of it too. There is a very simple action that we can take in order to lift our frequencies from that Frustration Station of 97.5 to the L.O.V.E. Station of 101.5. It is the action of doing a kind deed.

Almost every time in my life when I have found myself in a low or depressed state, something will happen either by coincidence or something that I do by choice for someone else and lo and behold I am uplifted out of this lower vibrational state into a higher, more loving state. An example of this is that I am often the first person on the scene of accidents and I am confronted with an opportunity to act or react in a manner that causes me to completely forget about my own life, worries or situation and to be entirely focused on helping another human being.

My homework is not of course for any of us to go find the scene of an accident (but perhaps be open to whatever situation the Universe brings to help us out of our own funk) but to consciously choose to do something kind for someone else today. You may buy the coffee for the person behind you in line (or the drive-thru) or you may not even decide what you’re going to do – part of what helps make each day more exciting is to start my day off with this simple prayer: God/Universe, please put in front of me anyone (or anything including an animal) that may need a helping hand today.

Instead of hoping for a guardian angel, ask God/Universe to allow you to be one for someone else. How cool would it be to know that when you leave your home during the day that you could be on a mission for a higher power – imagine for one day what it would be like to know that God has chosen you to be his helper on this earth. You might be amazed at how willing God and the Universe is to use you to “love” another human being! One thing I know from experience is that when you put love into action and help another human being feel loved; the blessing will be returned to you exponentially. One cannot out give the Universe; nor can one out love God!

Please try this experiment for one week with me. Feel free to write to me at tcooperauthor@yahoo.ca or leave a comment about any of your experiences. I would love to hear about anything that you do or have done that has helped you to tune into a higher vibrational frequency!