Oddly, before I read the assignment this week, I put the four statements of Universal Loving-Kindness on a 3 x 5 index card and fastened it to my bulletin board right in front of my desk. Although I believed previously that I was a kind person, I fall down a lot with my criticisms of the general public. I believe for the most part I have the biological aspects of my life down pretty well; I exercise 6 days a week, eat clean, and can resist things that are not good for me. The other 3 aspects need some work.
Within the Interpersonal, the level of development in my family life is not necessarily the urgency. Community efforts, attention, and attitude needs improvement. All realms of Worldly need improvements and kind of goes along with Community. I am often annoyed or put-off by behaviors of our society and sometimes vocalize them inappropriately.
If I gave a concerted effort to work on my Psychospiritual, I believe the rest would fall into place, or would greatly improve. Mindful practice, such as meditation, is something that I am committed to developing even after bouts like last week where I could not quiet my mind.
Carol
Carol,
ReplyDeleteYou are not alone in having difficulty dealing with some of the inappropriate things that one has to put up with when dealing with the public. I seems to me like the older I get the lazier the younger people are or is the government just trying to make us all unthinking, unquestioning robots? Some days it seems like I spend a lot of time beating my head against a wall because of something a patient has said or done or questioning my ability to communicate in English because the patient did not follow the instructions and they are not difficult instructions but inevitably they get it wrong. I agree with you that the psychospiritual will help deal with these and similar situations because after you become more comfortable with the mindful practice you will come to realize that the bad behaviors of some people are for the most part just ignorance and laziness on that person's part.
Carol, I like to think myself as a generally nice person too, and then I go shopping! I can get irritated faster in a grocery store, or Wal-Mart. It seems people are not very thoughtful of others.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest area that needs work is my social area. I have never been a fan of crowds, and I know this is an area I need to work hard to improve.
Carol,
ReplyDeleteI am very similar- I do consider myself a nice person, but can be judgmental, too, even when I don’t mean to be. Sometimes I think it happens because we get older, but sometimes I think it happens when there is an educational difference between myself and the other person. Obviously I am not a rocket scientist, and I don’t think of myself as a genius, but there are times when I have to deal with someone and think, ‘wow, you are dumb’. When I find myself doing that, I try to take a mental step back and think about it from the other person’s perspective. Maybe they are having a bad day (haven’t we all had “blonde moments” where we did something completely ridiculous without realizing it until after the fact) or maybe their life circumstances prohibited them from furthering their education. Maybe they had to take care of a sick parent from a very young age. You said that you “believed previously that I WAS a kind person”, I am sure you ARE a kind person. As you participate in your mindful practices like meditation, apply that when you find yourself criticizing the general public. The fact that you’ve acknowledged it and plan to work on it is much more than some other unkind people will ever acknowledge!